2 replies to this topic

[Jonas]

This christmas I went through the Nikon drawer at my parents place. I tried an old Nikon 35 mm F/1.4 lens. This was "very expensive" when it was bought in Japan in the 70's. So I took some pictures of a christmas tree in semi-dark indoor light, thinking that it would make use of the F/1.4. I used my D3300, and compared to one darker and one brighter exposure with AF-S 35/1.8. These are crops, picture taken at about 4 m distance.

The conclusions, please tell me if I'm wrong:

* This old lens, in its current condition, is completely useless (at least when there are bright lights or candles in frame)

* The difference between F/1.4 and F/1.8 is quite small

* White balance should be fixed for these comparisons, why is that so hard to remember?

 

Maybe it needs some cleaning, or are these old lenses behaving like this? Or is there a too cheap UV filter in play?

[Merco_61]

First of all, get rid of any protective filter on a 35/1.4 as you will get even worse coma than with the naked lens.

 

Make sure you have a HN-3 mounted on the lens. If you will use it on a DX body, a HS-9, HS-7 or HS-12 will shield even better without vignetting.

 

Exactly how old is it? There were basically three versions of this lens, each with their set of quirks.

The first version had the old-style scalloped focus ring and at least one radio-active glass element that turns yellow and loses contrast when the lens isn't used. However, UV-light will clear the yellowing.

The second version is the K or Ai version. They are multicoated, but with the first version of the coatings.

The third version is the Ai-S version. It has modern coatings, but the short focus throw makes it difficult to focus precisely compared to the earlier versions.

 

They are notoriously temperamental wide open, but the way they draw when you get things right make them worth all the misses on the way. If you close the aperture down to ~f/2.2 or so, you will get a superb transition from sharp to blurry that neither 35/1.8 can get even close to.

[Jonas]

Wow, lots of knowledge here. My experience on these old lenses is very limited, I will try to check the age later (if 70's is not accurate enough...). I know that it has a "fork" that connects to a pin on the camera, if that helps?

 

I also found a micro Nikkor 55mm with a spacer ring "M2", a Nikkor 135 mm, a Tokina 250mm and a flash that I think is a Starblitz 3200BT-TWIN-S. Neither of the lenses seemed meaningful to me, since I already have a macro lens and both 135 and 250 is within the range of my tele zoom. For the flash I think that I should be better off with a modern cheap unit.