Nikon 75-150 series E issues

[Melvin J Bramley]

I'm having difficulty producing good images with a Nikon 75-150 series E lens.
I purchased the lens because it has a good reputation ; it's old and has excessive zoom creep.
Not only are the images not sharp , the out of focus areas look aweful , being neither in focus or out in other words terrible bokeh.
Perhaps the focus issue can be related to the zoom/focus ring slack but the bokeh would still be terrible.
I would like the lens to work for me as it has 52mm filter size so it matches my primes.
My question is, is the lens worth repairing or does this lens just have bad bokeh?

FWIW , I have a Vivitar 80-200 f 4.5 ( 58mm filters) that produces superior images and pretty good bokeh!

TB

 

[MattKing]

Did you mean to say that it was a 75-150 lens?
(now fixed)

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

Yes this one..

The Nikon Series E 75-150mm f/3.5 - The People’s Telephoto Lens

Josh reviews the Nikon Series E 75-150mm zoom lens, a low-priced lens with solid performance and serious utility.

casualphotophile.com

BTW did you see the marketplace sale of three/3 Pentax 645 with an extra lens for sale in your area for $800!!
Living on the big Island has it's downfalls.

 

[MattKing]

I'll fix the title and your first post
If you are in the market, the ferry fares would be justified - particularly with the seniors discount!

 

[Paul Howell]

I would not spend the money to service a series E lens, E is for economy, for not much more you can get a good 3rd party lens, Vivitar Series One, Soilgar CD, or a basic middle of the road Nikon. I have Vivitar close focus, 70 to 150, in Konica AR mount, made in the 80s or 90s by Kiron, it is pretty sharp, has built in lens hood, Boka is ok but not as good as Canon L glass zoom.

 

[BobD]

You might consider instead getting a 135mm prime lens. They are abundant, cheap and many of them are quite sharp. I especially like the Vivitar with serial # 37... (made by Tokina).

 

[rulnacco]

I'm having difficulty producing good images with a Nikon 75-150 series E lens.
I purchased the lens because it has a good reputation ; it's old and has excessive zoom creep.

Hmmm, not sure what to say about that. My 75-150 is very sharp--and while I'm not at all a connoisseur of bokeh, I've never noticed mine to have bad bokeh. And given that the lens became quite popular amongst contemporary fashion photographers, I'd say they--and their art directors--didn't find it egregiously lacking in that area either.

As far as fixing the zoom creep--or at least rendering it not terribly annoying--I just took a strip of one-inch gaffer tape and applied it carefully on the lens (including using good, sharp scissors to trim the ends, rather than just ripping it as usual). *Real* gaffer tape, the kind they use in movie/photo studios, *not* the crappy duct tape that some places advertise as gaffer tape. You want the good stuff, so if you ever need to pull it off, it won't leave dried-up residue that's really hard to get off. It won't 100% stop it, but it will reduce it significantly and make the lens much less annoying to use. If one strip doesn't do it, try a second and see if that does the business--but really, one should give significant improvement.

 

[blee1996]

Nikon 75-150 Series E should be very sharp and has good bokeh. My personal experience with two samples match such Internet opinion. I use mine both on film and digital mirrorless cameras. If you happen to have a digital mirrorless camera, you can mount the camera on a tripod, use focus assist (magnifier) to verify that focus is indeed correct.

Zoom creep is an easy fix, like what @rulnacco suggested.

If you can still return the lens, return it. If not, you might consider get another copy from a trusted fellow photo user or reputable dealers. KEH have a BGN one for $26.

 

[reddesert]

It should at least be sharp. Maybe it was dropped and something is out of alignment. Servicing a zoom lens is typically complicated and there are so many inexpensive examples of this lens (and manual focus telezooms in general); I would try to get another from a reliable source.

The Nikon 80-200/4.5 is another telezoom that uses 52mm filters and has a good reputation. It comes in both non-AI and AI versions so be sure to get the kind you need.

Like other people said, I've used a strip of tape along the zoom barrel to deter zoom creep. Blue painter's tape worked for me.

 

[Bob Tomaine]

I've had my 75-150 Series E for decades, using it on my F4s - then and now - and on my digital Nikons today. I've never had a problem with sharpness and in fact, it's given me a lot of full-bleed magazine covers.
While I've never tried the tape trick and I'm not quite sure of the procedure, I agree completely that creep can be a real concern. Even when I'm shooting from a tripod, I solve it by using one or two rubber bands half on the focus/zoom ring and half on the barrel to provide some resistance.
Just as important as the rubber bands in my experience is a good lens shade. Without one, flare is almost a given.

 

[GregY]

I had several and they were lightweight and sharp. For lots of work they beat carrying a heavy 180 2.8 or 80-200. They're almost a give away these days. It's likely cheaper to buy another one than try to figure out why yours isn't sharp

 

[rulnacco]

While I've never tried the tape trick and I'm not quite sure of the procedure, I agree completely that creep can be a real concern.

It's really easy. I use real gaffer tape as mentioned (it has a cloth-like texture with a bit of friction). I used 1-inch gaffer tape so it wasn't *too* noticeable. I pulled the zoom ring all the way back, and trimmed a piece of tape--using scissors, so I didn't get hanging threads at either end from ripping it--precisely to go from very near the front of the lens to right up to the front edge of the zoom ring. I put the tape on the bottom of the lens barrel at infinity, again so it's not so noticeable--but the barrel does rotate as you focus so at some point it will end up on top; no biggie.

It's not the most elegant of solutions, but it reduced the zoom creep so significantly that the lens was much more pleasantly useable. And it's extraordinarily cheap.

There is a review of the 75-150 here which shows what you *should* expect from it in terms of sharpness and bokeh. And if you want to fix the zoom creep on a more "permanent" basis (the design of the lens, with its felt pad providing the resistance, really means that at some point, the creeping zoom is going to creep back in), Richard Haw has a page describing the disassembly process and potential solutions to the creep.

 

[Bob Tomaine]

It's really easy. I use real gaffer tape as mentioned (it has a cloth-like texture with a bit of friction). I used 1-inch gaffer tape so it wasn't *too* noticeable. I pulled the zoom ring all the way back, and trimmed a piece of tape--using scissors, so I didn't get hanging threads at either end from ripping it--precisely to go from very near the front of the lens to right up to the front edge of the zoom ring. I put the tape on the bottom of the lens barrel at infinity, again so it's not so noticeable--but the barrel does rotate as you focus so at some point it will end up on top; no biggie.

It's not the most elegant of solutions, but it reduced the zoom creep so significantly that the lens was much more pleasantly useable. And it's extraordinarily cheap.

There is a review of the 75-150 here which shows what you *should* expect from it in terms of sharpness and bokeh. And if you want to fix the zoom creep on a more "permanent" basis (the design of the lens, with its felt pad providing the resistance, really means that at some point, the creeping zoom is going to creep back in), Richard Haw has a page describing the disassembly process and potential solutions to the creep.

I finally had a chance to try out the tape solution, using 3M automotive masking tape since it's easily removed and leaves no residue (and I had some), but it's thin and so I used two layers. It works, I appreciate the brief tutorial and now I like my 75-150 more than ever.

 

[KinoGrafx]

Yikes if I can offer a perspective on “real” gaffer tape- as someone who spent the last 25 years working as a dp in all manner of production- that stuff is great in the short term, but given any amount of time it absolutely dries out and leaves a horrible residue…

 

[rulnacco]

Yikes if I can offer a perspective on “real” gaffer tape- as someone who spent the last 25 years working as a dp in all manner of production- that stuff is great in the short term, but given any amount of time it absolutely dries out and leaves a horrible residue…

You *can* get it off (mostly), if it hasn't been exposed to a lot of heat (on lighting stuff). But as you're so right, it's not fun nor pleasant at all. The best--but more expensive/difficult for DIYers-- procedure is to take the lens apart and replace the felt that provides friction (not the greatest engineering solution, but hey, it's a Series E lens, so saved money I'm sure).

Tape works well enough in the short term. Sadly, because of the design, even the full repair is only a temporary fix.

 

[benveniste]

Perhaps the focus issue can be related to the zoom/focus ring slack but the bokeh would still be terrible.
I would like the lens to work for me as it has 52mm filter size so it matches my primes.
My question is, is the lens worth repairing or does this lens just have bad bokeh?

No, the lens isn't worth repairing and no, the 75-150mm does not, in my opinion, have bad bokeh. That's high praise for most zooms from that era. Remember, the term "bokeh" wasn't popularized in English until this lens had been out of production for over a decade.

Remember, the "newest" of these lenses was manufactured in 1985, and few people bothered to "baby" such an inexpensive lens. Those that got used enough to wear out the felt strip which damped the zoom also got used enough to pick up normal wear and tear. While by the standards of today's consumer lenses, the 75-150mm is well built, it's all too possible that one or more elements are decentered in your copy.

Unfortunately, the cost of fixing your lens probably exceeds what you paid for it, although you might want to check with a firm like Zacks Camera Repair, which either is or was a Photrio sponsor.

 

[benjiboy]

I'm having difficulty producing good images with a Nikon 75-150 series E lens.
I purchased the lens because it has a good reputation ; it's old and has excessive zoom creep.
Not only are the images not sharp , the out of focus areas look aweful , being neither in focus or out in other words terrible bokeh.
Perhaps the focus issue can be related to the zoom/focus ring slack but the bokeh would still be terrible.
I would like the lens to work for me as it has 52mm filter size so it matches my primes.
My question is, is the lens worth repairing or does this lens just have bad bokeh?

FWIW, I have a Vivitar 80-200 f 4.5 ( 58mm filters) that produces superior images and pretty good bokeh!

TB

The Vivitar lens you mention is a very good optic but is also very heavy.
I speak from experience I owned one for more than twenty years, but eventually couldn't lug it about any more.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have had very good service with the Nikon 28mm to 200mm AF zoom lens and the Tamron 28mm to 300mm AF zoom lens. Perhaps KEH.com in the US can re-collimate the lens for you. They did it for my Hasselblad C 500mm lens, so they have the lab equipment which most places do not seem to have any longer. I do not know who could re-collimate the lens in Canada.