Nikkor Lenses From The Past

This morning I read a nice post on Bill Fortney's blog, about him finding some pages from a 1970 Nikkor catalog, complete with pricing that he hand wrote after getting quotes from the local camera store.

 

 

Image Source: http://billfortney.com/?p=9521#comment-16639

 

Bill has used many of these older lenses, including AI-equipped manual focus lenses on the digital D700 and D800 bodies with great effect. One of his favorites is the 80-200mm f4.5. I have its cousin, the AIS 80-200 f4, which I recently picked up for $100. That's actually kind of a high price for this lens, but I'm glad I got mine; it's a beautiful example. Here's a shot I made with that lens on the D700:

 

Enthusiastic Young Soccer Fan, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, AIS 80-200mm f4 Manual Focus Lens

 

Bill also fondly mentions a lens I've never seen or tried - the 25-50mm f4. I'll have to keep my eye open for that one.

 

I'm also still enjoying my pre-AI lenses on the F2 film body. More images from that coming soon.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Skeletons From The Closet - Nikomat FTn and 80-200 f4 AIS Lens

 

Growing Up, by Reed A. George

Nikomat FTn, Nikkor AIS 80-200mm f4 Lens

Kodak TMax 400 Film

 

I shot this with my Nikomat FTn, September's SFTC camera.

 

(Click Here) to read about the camera.

 

Shooting the Nikomat got me once again interested in older Nikons and lenses. As luck would have it, I met someone who had a nice Nikon F2 and 80-200mm f4 AIS lens for sale. These cameras are incredibly inexpensive these days, selling at ~10% of what they cost new. In any case, I thought I would not be interested in the zoom, until I saw it. The fixed f4 aperture is quite nice. This is one heavy, well-built piece of optics.

 

(Click Here) to read a comparison of several versions of Nikkor zooms in this focal range on JSV Foto, including the 80-200 f4 AIS. The old manual lens did pretty well against its younger cousins.

 

As you can see from the shot above, it's plenty sharp for this type of application. Older zooms were notoriously unsharp compared to primes, but the 80-400 AIS was a premium lens in its day. I think it renders perfectly for people shots like this.

 

So now I'll have to spend some time with the F2 body as well. My first brief experiences with it remind me of when I was a kid, and got to shadow a photojournalist for a day. They were shooting Nikon Fs and F2s. Lots of fun.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com