Minolta girl goes Nikon....

[mystique]

I got a deal on a Nikon N90s. OK. Nikon virgin here. I need the rundown on all the lens variations. Making me insane! Which fits and why? Rear curtin sync? WHAAAA?????

Thanks!!!!!
Lori

 

[Prime]

I have an N90s. I'd suggest getting the Magic Lantern guide for it. I've got one, and it's like a user's manual that's written in everyday English for real people. I think that it costs about $20.00 U.S. Border's or Barnes & Noble should have it or be able to order it.

 

[mystique]

Muchas gracias senor.....~

 

[bmac]

Welcome to the dark side! hee hee. I would start with the AF-D lenses... They have the built in suppord for distance info for the matrix fill flash. The standard 50mm 1.8 is an awesome lens (no D info) Tack sharp and under 100 bux too boot!

 

[Skip]

The Magic Lantern guides are decent, but if it were me, I'd trade it in on Maxxum 7. Better overall value, and not such a pig. I waffled between the 90 and a Minolta 800Si. Bought the 800Si and glad I did (Pre-Maxxum 7 days). But then I'm biased - I have had and used Minolta since the 60s, currently running 4 bodies. I have 2 pieces of big ticket Nikon gear, one camera, one scanner, and there won't be any more. If I change 35mm systems or go SLR digital it'll be to Canon.

 

[balint]

I don't want to start a Nikon vs Minolta conversation, just want to tell my experience. I moved from Minolta to Nikon about two years ago.

Before buying my F90x I had the opportunity to play around with the Minolta 7 (Maxuum 7) which is a fine camera, packed with very attractive features, but it has two weak points where F90x is superior, in my opinion.

I owned previously Minolta gear, and I had build quality problems with nearly all of the lenses. All of them had a real bad play (the inner barel, which moves when focusing). Than the rotatitn filter thread, no way to mount the lens reversed, as it lacks of aperture ring.
I knew that Nikon lenses are really good, and backward compatible, so there was no contest on this front.

The other was the Minolta 7 build quality. If the camera wasn't made out of plastic I was about to buy it, even if the Nikon lenses were better. But it was plastic, no rubber covering, no metal shell. The F90x is rubberized plastic on a metal shell, and feels much better.

 

[VEDearduff]

Lori,

My advice on lenses for this body is to avoid the G series, they lack an aperture ring and you will not be able to use Aperture Priority or Manual mode with one. The various Program and Shutter Priority modes will work with G lenses.

Since the N90s lacks the five AF sensors of the later bodies, you will not be able to make use of VR (Vibration Reduction). The 80-400mm AF-D VR will work on your body but the VR features of the lens will not be available. The new 70-200mm AF-S G VR will work only in Shutter Priority and Program modes since it will not have the aperture ring.

The N90s works fine with AI and AIS manual focus lenses. With these lenses, you will loose matrix metering and the various Program modes. There are a few manual focus lenses that will provide full metering, the 45mm f/2.8 AIP s one of them. There are companies that can add the chip to most of the AI and AIS lenses for around $80.00 US each. The early non-AI lenses can be AI'd. Mounting a non AI lens that has not been AI'd can damage the body and/or the lens.

The D series of lenses provide information on the focus distance, this information is used by the flash system and can improve the exposure in some situations. Most (if not all) of the current AF lenses are D lenses, even the G series lenses have the D feature. The older, non-D, versions usually sell for less that the D version on the used market and can be a good buy if flash photography is not your main intent.

Nikon has updated the AF 50mm f/1.8 to include the D chip.

Rear Curtain Sync is where the flash is synchronized with the rear shutter curtain.

To see the effects of this, try an experiment. Have your subject walk through a scene and shoot both with and without rear curtain sync. The shot with rear curtain sync will have trailing blur streaks and the apparent direction of motion will be that he/she is moving forwards. With out it, the subject will appear to be moving backwards due to the leading blur streaks. This is because the flash freezes the action at the beginning of the exposure without Rear Curtain Sync and at the end of the exposure with it.

I hope this helps.

Vernon

 

[ann]

Great advice on the above post. I have the 90s and the F100. Using the 90 90% of the time. Love it. As I am "old fashion" use both only in manual mode, but the auto focus is great for "old eyes".
Have fun and enjoy. Everyone alwasys has a favorite.

 

[mystique]

Thanks all for the time and energy. Finally the curtin sync makes sense! WHOO HOO!!!! there is much to learn here, but what fun!

 

[Minniesmum]

Hi Im a Minolta girl too but have recently bought a Nikon F80 and loving it. I have a 28-70 mm D f3.5-4.5 and a new 50 mm f1.8. As I have so much Minolta gear which I also love ( incl. a Dynax 5)I wont be investing in a lot of Nikon lenses but its cool to have a few-Congrats !
ps Im also in the UK and new here.

 

[Steve Smith]

I can't really add anything of any value here other than to say that I am a Nikon boy who went to Minolta!


Steve.

 

[markbarendt]

Here's a great source of Nikon info. http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/models/htmls/slr9294.htm

Rear curtin sync? WHAAAA?????

Thanks!!!!!
Lori

This is cool stuff!

Long shutter speed and flash.

Front curtain (shutter) opens, subject moves and blurs, flash fires just before the rear curtain (shutter) closes; blur trail is now behind subject. Looks cool.

Normal sync puts blur in front of subject. Looks, well, weird.

 

[SMBooth]

PM your email and I will send you a PDF of the manual if you wish.

 

[shotgun1a]

Any of you folks going from Minolta to Nikon have any manual focus Minolta lenses that are in your way? I'll be glad to relieve you of the burden

 

[JohnArs]

I switch after the MD to AF from Minolta to Nikon and look never back.

Cheers Armin

 

[glockman99]

A good, inexpensive lens that goes well with the N90s is the Nikkor (Nikon) 35-70mm AF lens. Another great lens to take a look at is the Nikkor 24-120mm lens. I have both, and use them on my old Nikon F4s and N8008s cameras. Also, don't overlook the standard 50mm f/1.8 AF lens.

Also, you might want to look into mating your N90s with a Nikon MB10 Verticle Power Grip as that will greatly improve the handling of the camera.

 

[tkamiya]

I have NOT noticed any difference in presence or absence of the "D" chip when looking at results. The D chip lens sends distance information to the camera body that presumably get used for computing exposure in flash and matrix mode. I use center metering only. (never matrix mode and rarely spot)

Given a choice of lens with D and non-D in equal price and condition, I'd pick the former but I do not hesitate to buy non-D for my use.

 

[2F/2F]

I will be interested to read the responses to the thread. Nikon lens variations are.....numerous to say the least. I know the difference between F (original lenses for the F system), AI, and AI-S, possibly Series E (they say Series E on them, right )and that is it.....when it comes to auto focus lenses, I am totally lost.

What I do know is that you should not use any original F mount lenses on your camera, or on any camera that has any of the rotating parts on the camera body near the lens mount (AI tab). They simply will not mount without breaking that tab.

 

[Colin Corneau]

I also am not interested in a "this versus that" war. Pointless.

But - I bought an F90x (in the US, N90s) when it first came out. I work at a daily paper, and over the 15 years I've had this camera put literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of rolls of film through it. Never once had a problem, and in fact it continues to work perfectly to this day.

The metering is fantastic, even on old manual focus lenses (which confine you to centre weighted metering, not much of a 'confinement' since the metering is still excellent). One can still get spot metering with older lenses.

I can only say good things about this camera. It's solid.

 

[tkamiya]

By the way, here's an excellent summary of Nikon lens variations:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htm

Ken Rockwell is a controversial figure to say the least but this particular page is highly regarded by some. It is clearly written, well researched (I have not found any errors personally), and best of all, quite useful when selecting/dreaming about new lens in used market.

 

[2F/2F]

Ken Rockwell is a controversial figure...

I have heard this claim several times on the Internet...and I still do not know what the hell it means.

 

[tkamiya]

I like him but many do not... 2F/2F, I sent you a PM.

 

[John Koehrer]

Rockwell, from what little I've read seems to be pretty opinionated & sometimes his tend to disagree with the popular.

 

[jd callow]

I can't really add anything of any value here other than to say that I am a Nikon boy who went to Minolta!


Steve.

Like steve I have nothing to add, but that never stopped me before...

I'm a Minolta boy who wishes he'd have stuck with it, but there was 10 years between the two and in that time the newer Minoltas seemed a step down from my old XE. I think the (MD) lenses were every bit as good as the nikkor (AI/AIS), but there is so much more selection with a nikon and the new Micro 60 and 105 are the absolute shiznit.

 

[jd callow]

Ken Rockwell is a great resource.