Shooting with Older Lenses

ippoic

Does anybody shoot regularly with older Nikon lenses that do not meter or AF? What are your experiences?

Currently I use my old E series 50 mm Nikon lens along with my 18-200 VR and I used to shoot 35 mm, so I'm comfortable with metering and adjusting everything manually. Anyway, I've been looking at picking up a bunch of older lenses for less money than splurging on one or two newer lenses. I know that I'd need to pick up a light meter, too.

Thanks guys (and gals)!

ziggy53

ippoic wrote:

Does anybody shoot regularly with older Nikon lenses that do not meter or AF? What are your experiences?

Currently I use my old E series 50 mm Nikon lens along with my 18-200 VR and I used to shoot 35 mm, so I'm comfortable with metering and adjusting everything manually. Anyway, I've been looking at picking up a bunch of older lenses for less money than splurging on one or two newer lenses. I know that I'd need to pick up a light meter, too.

Thanks guys (and gals)!

Ippoic, welcome to the Digital Grin.

I'm not a Nikon shooter so I'll gave to defer to others' experiences, but hopefully you won't wait too long.

It would help to know the camera body(ies) you are using.

KA0TVO

I use my older Nikon F lenses on my EOS 20 D. Works well. For the 5D you will have to check out the compatability for each lens. I use an M 42 adaptor Nikon to EOS. In addition you can pick up some nice Russian glass as well.
Here is a link that may help.

http://forum.mflenses.com/index.php?sid=d98b1b2f389f0c76eba9a844ef5bc3a0

Link for 5D M42 compatability.
http://www.panoramaplanet.de/comp/index.html

gowiththeflow

I have the same 50mm Series E lens. I figured it was cheap enough, and it could be fun to play with setting exposure totally manually, without the aid of metering. That, and it's just plain tiny- front and rear caps practically double its size, and it's cheaper than a UV filter.

But that got kind of old fast, so I decided to switch to the 50mm 1.8 AF-D... I can always lose metering by changing the aperture with the ring, or focus manually with the flip of a switch, but still have AF and metering when I want it. And it's still cheap and small too.

skysailor

I'm using an older 28-105 Vivitar Series 1, with my D200. Put it on aperture and I just dial in the aperture for the speed I want. Or, select the aperture for the desired DOF and I'm off to the races. It'll meter with a Series E as well. I have an older 135 f3.5 Nikkor that works the same way. I'm told you need a D200/300 series camera for this to work though? Even the little (you're in focus, stop screwing with it) light in the view finder works.

jthomas

I have two and use them often on my D90: 55/3.5 micro AI and 105/2.5 AIS. They both yield sterling images and using them on the D90 (entirely manual) is excellent discipline. I have the PK-17 extension tube which allows the 55/3.5 to do 1:1 macro images. I paid $150 for the 105 and $125 for the 55+extension tube.