Search the Community

Vintage gear seems to be getting a bit of attention at the moment and I've been having a play with some old stuff from the back of my cupboard too. I picked up a roll of film and loaded up my old Nikon F70. I bought it around 1997 and it was my main camera for nearly a decade before going digital with a Nikon D50. I've had a few different lenses with it, some I still have, others were traded for some Fuji gear. One of the interesting things about the F70 is that it was one of the early menu driven cameras. It didn't have any functions that weren't available on other cameras of that era, the only difference was accessing those functions. The other cameras relied on a lot of different buttons to drive all the features - you'd press a button for say "mode" and then spin the command dial. On the F70, you controlled most things with one of two buttons and the command dial. The menu on the F70 wasn't the long lines of text that we have in the digital era, it was more graphical and built into the top LCD. There were 8 main subject areas, which were selected by pressing the 'Function' button on the top left of the camera and spinning the command dial. Once the subject, such as mode or focus area had been selected, pressing the 'select' button and spinning the command dial allowed selection of the particular value. For Mode, that is would be the P,S,A,M that we are used to today. There were a few extra buttons. For some reason focus area setting got it's own button next to the power switch. Next to the focus area button was the 'Ps' button that allowed selection of various scene pre-sets within the P mode. It also had the ability to save some settings in quick recall mode, accessed using the 'In' and 'out' buttons next to the 'Function' button. This control system was certainly polarising at the time, but compared to current menus, it was quite simple and straightforward. I'm sure that most people nowadays would get the hang of it quite quickly. In my current shooting, I haven't felt the need to play with the settings too deeply - I do just occasionally double check that I haven't inadvertently set something that is going to make me waste a roll of film. Shooting with it, it is pretty much what you would expect from a SLR/DSLR experience. It is perhaps a bit lighter than a digital equivalent, but that will be due to the smaller batteries and circuit boards, etc. Compared to the Fuji X-E3 that is my current main camera, there are only two things that are catching me out - the lens mounts in the opposite direction and the half press on the shutter release of the F70 is rather sensitive - there have been a few premature shots. There are still a couple of frames left on the film, so the results of my experiments will have to wait a week or two. Oh, and the lens on there - it's an 18-55 zoom. This lens is about 10 years younger than the camera. The full description is AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 G. The F70 can handle both the AF-S focusing (it has the old screw driver focus drive too) and the G, although the absence of an aperture ring means problems with the A and M modes. The other thing is that it is a DX lens. I like it and am using it because it is small and light compared to the other Nikon lenses I still have lying around. Obviously at 18mm, the lens barrel is visible in the corners. By about 24mm, the barrel isn't visible in the viewfinder and I'll have to wait until I finish the film and get the negatives back to see if there is any darkening in the corners - my guess is that it is probably only good from about 28mm. Well, the sun is out. I should head out and finish the film!

Faces in Glass: Nikon Z6, 85mm f1.0 Repo-Nikkor. 1/25th sec f8 ISO 100 Natural light.

In my seemingly never ending quest for smaller and lighter gear for my street photography, I recently acquired a slightly used Nikon Coolpix A compact camera. I had previously been shooting with M4/3 gear, specifically Panasonic cameras. The A was introduced in June 2013. It features an APS-C DX 16.2 megapixel sensor in a very small, compact package. It comes with a fixed 28mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.8 lens. The camera has a shutter speed range of 30 seconds to 1/2000 and the ISO can be set from 100 to 6400, with two extensions available- 12,800 and 25,600. While I rarely shoot anything beyond 3200, I have tried the 12,800 setting and the results were really astonishing- very clean and usable images. My settings for the camera are the same ones I have used on all film and digital cameras I have used in the past- I shoot in aperture priority with center-weighted metering. I set the lens to autofocus about 50% of the time. The rest of the time I switch the lens to manual focus, set the lens to f/11, and zone focus by manually focusing the lens on an object about 6 feet away- anything from about 4 feet away and beyond is in focus. The biggest adjustment I had to make when I first got the camera was learning to use a screen to compose the shots with instead of some sort of viewfinder. In the past I had always used some type of viewfinder, whether it be optical or electronic. Plus, in very bright sunlight, the screen on the back of the camera can be difficult to use, so I promptly purchased an Xpro Viewfinder III for the camera. This is an extremely well-made optical bright-line viewfinder with markings for 28, 35, and 45mm lenses. This viewfinder is a real bargain compared to the Nikon viewfinder, which can cost as much as $300.00. The XPro viewfinder is approximately $75.00. I also added a Nikon lens hood which snaps into a ring that surrounds the lens. Using the camera on the streets has truly been a liberating experience. The fixed 28mm lens is just about perfect for street photography. I tend to compose the shots a bit differently than I had previously and the small, compact size of the camera means that I virtually take it with me everywhere I go. A lot of times, I do not carry any type of bag or pouch for the camera- I simply hang the camera around my neck (something I never did previously), stuff an extra battery and memory card in my pocket, and then I am off to explore and see what I can find. In the next few weeks I will be publishing an article about another type of camera I will be experimenting with- street photography using a large format 8x10 pinhole film camera. I will be scanning the 8x10 black-and-white contact prints using an Epson flat-bed scanner. I do not know what the results are going to be using such a large and slow camera for street photography, but I do know one thing- it should be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for the results. Pacific Street - Dallas, Texas Elm Street - Dallas, Texas Animas Street - Trinidad, Colorado The Eye - Commerce Street - Dallas, Texas Houston Street - Dallas, Texas El Dorado Motel - Fort Worth, Texas NW 4th Street - Fort Worth, Texas Main Street - Dallas, Texas Pegasus Plaza - Dallas, Texas View full article

I thought all the big events were over and done with but there has been a barrage of new products in the last few days - all mirrorless ! first a new Nikon Z Lens; a new Canon R body plus a slew of R mount lenses previewed and a new body and lens from Fuji. There was also a Panasonic announcement a week or two earlier.

So Nikon has announced they will bring in the new professional mirrorless camera with a new mount and adaptability to F mount lenses. I don't think they had any choice in the matter, to be honest. I think we will see a couple of new mirrorless bodies. There will probably be a flagship and a prosumer grade body. I reckon the flagship will most likely have the designation of DM-1 and the prosumer most likely a DM-300 or something along those lines. Hopefully they will have designed something that inspires the competition to up their game too, but based on recent pricing of models such as the D5, I reckon we can expect a wince when the prices are announced, which will leave ample room for the competitors like MFT, Sony and Fuji to compete well.

The Printing Nikkors: Images and Range The Nikon industrial Printing Nikkors are exemplary and highly corrected lenses, but for whom? Who wants to use them because, for the most part, they are restricted to a particular narrow field of view. There not only is no infinity available, but in general they are highly restricted as far as view. Worse (much worse) is that the higher the f/stop, the less sharpness and resolution. So, we can’t just dial up the f/stop to f/11 or f/16 and expect spectacular results. The Printing Nikkors are optimized wide open or close to it.. They may be better than ordinary lenses, but the sharpness and resolution are confined to the lens either wide-open or nearly so. And that is a very thin depth of field. Who uses that? And so, there is no sweet spot for standard photography unless... and here it comes, we stack focus. That’s where these lenses come into their own and earn their high prices, at least in my book. Using focus stacking, we can paint on focus just where we want it, a razor-thin layer at a time. Yet, even for focus stackers, the reproduction rate for most is very limited in range. It’s a kind of “take it or leave it” proposition, i.e. use this limited field of view or forget about it. Most Printing Nikkors only come alive on a bellows system, some work only well on a focus rail and none work well on the camera itself without a rail or a small helicoid. There is no native helicoid or way to focus other than the rail, which as focus stackers know, is the least preferred way to stack focus. Why do I bother with these lenses and invest hard-earned cash in finding them? That’s a good question, but the answer is: I like the quality in these lenses and I only wish that kind of correction was the standard in lenses. The closest I come are the Zeiss Otus lenses, (and the Zeiss 135mm) which I consider an Otus. With the above in mind, let’s look at the main Printing Nikkors (95mm, 105mm, and 150mm) and see what their field of view IS like. Forget about macro range and above. These lenses can go there, but I don’t. Someone else can check that out. The 95mm PN standard magnification range is listed as 1/3x~1/1.5x, while the 105mm PN standard magnification range is listed as 1/1.5x~1.5x, and the 150 PN standard magnification range is listed as 1/x. Other than there, we are going outside their optimum qualities at our own risk IQ-wise. Since I don’t usually do macro, but rather close-up photography, that tells me that the PC 95 is going to be the most useful (all around) for me. It does not mean that the others (or the 95mm) don’t go higher in f/stops, but that they don’t go higher at their sharpest. What’s the point of having a $3K lens if I am not going to be able to shoot at the range I want to shoot at and get top IQ? Unless I want to stack focus, I am kind of limited to “arty” photos, ones with just a hint of field depth. It’s nice, but for only once in a while. The 95mm PN can be used mounted directly to my Nikon D850, provided that camera is mounted on a focus fail. I could also add a very small helicoid to the lens, but the moment I do that I immediately lose some of what I most need, range. This lens is designed for something like 1:2 magnification. I find the 95mm very sharp, easy to use, and probably gives me the best bang for the buck, so to speak. The PN 95mm has 45mm outer threads. The lens mount M45 x 0.75 and there are 12 blades. The 105mm PN pretty much has to be on a bellows or view camera and, even then, the range is limited to about one view and (for my work) that is not even at its sharpest. The PN 105mm has 43mm filter threads and the lens mount is M45 x 0.75. There are 12 blades. There are two PN 150s (actually three), but the one not mentioned here follows the lead of the PN 150, 2nd version, and I don’t have it. The 150mm PNs are advertised for 1X magnification range, but it will work wider, but of course at a loss in IQ I would imagine. The PN 150mm (first version) has front and rear threads of 62mm. I’m not an expert, but this earlier version of the 150mm has an additional ring that compensates for the magnification, insuring sharper images over a wider range of magnification. This is perhaps what makes this version the most useful to me. It actually works and is kind of amazing to watch. You just dial it in and it is sharper. And the PN 150 (version 2) has a filter thread of 58mm and 12 blades. It can’t go much above f/4.5 and not lose quality. It does not have the extra ring to compensate for magnification. As far as mounting the Printing Nikkors to the Nikon-F mount, it is not difficult, but you do have to match up adapters. I have enough laying around here to mix and match until they all are ready to go. I post here two stacked photos for each of the four Printing Nikkors I have. These photos give you a rough idea of the kind of reproduction-ratio that I can get with these lenses. I am sure if you want to go 1:1 and above, you would with some get better results. However, I do the best I can with what I have. Below are shown two sets of four images, the first four are simple stacks of 2 layers, one each focused around the center of each flower. This lets you see each lens with little stacking. However, these are at f/11, which is the opposite end of where the lens is sharp. It still is pretty good. The second four images are all stacked liberally. They will show you what a stacked image looks like with each lens. I’m not sure what you will get out of these, but you can take a look. Meanwhile, I continue checking out these interesting (to me) lenses, the Printing Nikkors. I will have to post the other four images in a second post. Won't fit.

On my seemingly-eternal search for interesting lenses for close-up work I could not help but come across the Schneider Kreuznach Macro Varon 85mm f/4.5 CAS lens, if only because Schneider promotes the Macro Varon all over the place. And that’s a lot of promotion for a lens most photographers have never heard of. Well, I heard about the Macro Varon and searched it down to its price tag of $4500 and that set me back on my heels a bit. I don’t need a new lens THAT much. Well, perhaps a Zeiss Otus or two would be alright. I did make some calls, sent out some email requests and finally found that the Macro Varon could be had for somewhere in the mid $3K range brand-new. Well, of course that just sent me to Ebay looking for used copies. However, while it has happened, the Macro Varon does not show up used on Ebay very often, in fact hardly ever. Well, that limited my searching. I did find out that one sold on Ebay some time ago. Again, I spoke with Schneider reps about the Makro Varon on the phone and finally just let it go. It’s not that I don’t have other lenses that I might buy. LOL. And for those of you foolish so think I’m rich, guess again. I sell old equipment to buy new equipment as I go along. I just do it methodically. To make a long story short, recently a good friend sent me a message that there was a Makro Varon actually on Ebay for $1500. Well, that turned the corner for me and I bought it in about 15 seconds from receiving the message. It came from China, was used, but looked in decent condition. When the lens finally showed up at my door it was obviously brand new or in mint condition. However, it came in a strange industrial lens-mount which held the lens captive with three very tiny screws. I exhausted my collection of tiny screwdrivers, flat, Phillips, and torx (star). Then I called the local optician and gear-heads and no one had a tool that small. Well, that was disappointing, since I had no way to mount the lens without removing this big clucky adapter that gripped it first. Then I went salvaging through dozens of boxes of camera-related stuff and finally found a set of tiny torx drivers, but none of them was small enough to work. But, there was one (tiny) hole where a missing torx wrench should be. Where was it? And sure enough, in the bottom of my box of Cambo Actus parts was the tiny torx screwdriver and to my surprise, it worked! I had the lens mounted in a few minutes and was good to go. Now, I wanted to find out if this lens is best mounted directly to the camera and the camera placed on a focus rail, or should the lens be mounted directly on the camera with a small helicoid to focus with. The lens itself has no way to focus. It has six aperture blades (I wish there were more) and It has f/stops from f.4.5 through and including f/8. It does have something special, however. The Macro Varon has an additional ring on the barrel that allows me to adjust the floating lens parts in the lens to fit a particular magnification ratio 0.5x to 2.0x. This compensates and suppresses aberration depending on the magnification ratio. The only other lens that I have that has such a ring is the first edition of the Nikon Printing Nikkor 150mm APO f/2.8. These rings actually work. Another rather unique feature of the Macro Varon is that on each individual lens, during final adjustment, a tiny drop of red paint is placed on the rim of the barrel that allows (when the M42 adapter is screwed on tight) us to orient the particular lens to the camera sensor orthogonally, at right-angles. This is red dot calculated and optimized for each individual lens. Anyway, I soon figured out that (at least for now) I get the most play out of mounting the lens on the Cambo Actus Mini View Camera. Next, I had to decide what kind of hood would be best, since my first shots (made without a hood) lacked a bit of contrast. I tried both flared and narrow-tube hoods and finally fashioned one from the Nikon K-Ring set, one K5 plus two K3s all screwed together. They made a nice tubular hood that seems fine so far. Mounted on the Cambo Actus Mini, I soon found out that rather than the large (special order) cambo bellows I normally use that prevented me from getting as much field of view as I wanted with this lens, so I substituted a short bellows, which is fine because I do not need as much room with the Macro Varon anyway. That helped a bunch. I could also look into using a tiny extension/helicoid mounted directly on the camera, but I doubt that I would gain much, and moving the rear-standard on a view camera is better for stacking than using a helicoid. Anyway, I am up and running. Here is a quick photo of my setup, the Nikon D850 on the Cambo Actus Mini. On that is the Schneider Macro Varon 85mm f/4.5 lens adapted to Nikon mount, with a hood made of several K-rings. So far, so good. And I include a couple of early shots taken with the Makro Varon to give you an idea of what this lens can produce. This setup is not hiking-material, but certainly can go outside to the fields and meadows, at least if there is easy access so that the gear does not have to be carried far. The lens itself would be easy to carry for hikes, but would have to include some form of helicoid to focus or be happy with a DOF at F/8 and fixed focus. Anyway, I’m checking out the Schneider Macro Varon 85mm and would be interested in any other user’s experience. A fine review of the Scheider Macro Varon is this one by Robert O’Toole: https://www.closeuphotography.com/macro-varon/schneider-macro-varon-lens View full article

I’m sure this will interest few, but any is better than none. If we are looking into apochromatic (APO) lenses, then the Printing Nikkors can’t be avoided as candidates because they were designed to copy motion-picture film at the highest resolutions. To do this, they had to be highly corrected or our movies would all be fringe-tainted. We can’t have that. These are largish, somewhat heavy (the 150mm), lenses that require special mounts, which are not too hard to find. Yes, these lenses are a pain in many ways, but they produce great photos, some of the best if you are looking for lenses that have really been corrected. The term APO is not a standard and has been used to label lenses that are hardly apochromatic, but the Printing Nikkors are highly corrected and they are expensive too! One problem with obtaining the Printing Nikkors is their prices, which have been coming down as film companies abandon them in favor of all-digital projection. Still, they are said to have originally cost something like $12,000 apiece, so I have been told. Today, they sell on Ebay for much less, but still enough for my pocketbook. Anyway, we might want to know which of the Printing Nikkors (there are at least five varieties) does the most for us, so to speak, if we only buy one. Thanks to the website CoinImaging.com, the coin-photo folks have been kind enough to compare some of these lenses and graph out the results. What I present here are some of those graphs and results, for which I thank them very much! I failed to find the name of whoever is doing all this testing, but I thank him or her. This site uses IMATEST to test out lenses, which gives us a base. I am not going to spend time here on the history of the Printing Nikkors or their resale value, etc. You can find that on the web, if you look hard. The point of this article is to drill down on which of these lenses does what and the enclosed graphs will very much help with that. If you don’t like reading graphs, here is a shortcut to the best of the points, but you really have to study the graphs. This is just the tip of the top, so to speak, a generalization. Compared here are: Printing Nikkor 95mm f/2.8 Printing Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Printing Nikkor 150mm f/2.8 (150-1) Printing Nikkor 150mm f/2.8 (150-2) [later] [There is a 75mm Printing Nikkor, but I have never seen one, even for sale. And there is a 3rd version of the Printing Nikkor 150mm, but I don’t have one, but it is a later version and I am told is similar to the later version of the 150mm, titled here “150mm-2.” QUICK RESULTS Chromatic Aberration vs. Aperture Note: All good, minimal, aberration, but the 95mm PN is best. Chromatic Aberration vs. Magnification Note: 95mm best at 0.5, 105mm best at 0.75-1.50 150-1 not so good. Corner Resolution vs. Aperture Note: All very good, but 95mm is outstanding. Corner Resolution vs. Magnification All fairly good, but the 95mm is outstanding at about 0.50 Corner Sharpness vs. Aperture Note: All very good, but the 105 is best. Corner Sharpness vs. Magnification Note: The 95mm best at 0.50, but the 105mm best at around 1.0 to 1.25. Resolving Power vs. Magnification Note: The 150-2 mm is way better than the rest at 0.50. Resolution vs. Aperture Note: All good, but the 95mm is best. Resolution vs. Effective Aperture Note: The 150-1 is the best at f/5 to f/8. Rest also very good, with the 150-2mm only good at around f/5.6. Resolution vs. Magnification Note: All pretty good, but the 150-1mm is the best of the lot from 0.50 to beyond 1.5. Sharpness vs. Aperture Note: The 95mm is hands-down the best. All pretty good, with the 105mm the worst. Sharpness vs. Effective Aperture Note: All good within a particular range, with the 150-1mm the best of the lot from f/5 to f/8. Sharpness vs. Magnification Note: All good within their best range, but the 150-1mm the best of the lot from 0.50 through 1.25. Working Distance and Magnification Note: The 150.1 is the best of the lot. TOTALS of “Bests” 095mm = 7 150-1mm = 5 105mm = 3 150-2= 1 What this says is the 95mm is the best as an “all-around” lens, followed by the 150-1mm. Of course, this could depend on what you are doing. For example, the 150-1mm is best for close-up work, but the 150-2 is best for macro, etc. I hope this interests at least one other person! LOL.

I discovered a feature of the software I didn't know existed before and have implemented it in the page footer of all posts where tags are in use. So, for example, having tagged this post with Nikon and Olympus, readers should see shortcut links to several posts with the same tags in the footer. Enjoy!

This post is kind of a mixed bag, it's about the quality of images with a cheap kit lens and about the shooting experience. It's a tradition for me to visit and photograph the annual Christmas Market at our local garden centre. In the past I took my Nikon Df and Olympus E-M10 cameras with fast lenses, useful because the event is indoor and quite dark. This time I took my D5500 with the El Cheapo (only € 69 for a white box version in Holland) variable/slow aperture Nikon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AF-P lens. I also planned to use the Jpeg images and apply minimal post processing. The end result imo is quite ok but the shooting experience was less of a pleasure. The D5500 has a tiny dark viewfinder, viewing the focus point was very difficult if not impossible and after a while I had a headache from tunnel vision. I also had to correct exposure quite a lot (due to Jpeg + minimal post processing) and I dearly missed the live view of the exposure in the EVF of a mirrorless camera. For some shots I switched to live view on the D5500 but the camera then is more prone to camera shake so this was not ideal. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

So over a month ago I vowed to "post more" from my mountain trip....one fixed keyboard later and a new CPU, here I am. Enjoy.

I've dabbled a little with adapted lenses on my mirrorless cameras. Those lenses have always been of the modern type. Bumbling into one of the local camera shops here in town, I started looking through the old Nikon lenses (AI/AIS). With Nikon Df and adapted PEN-F in hand...I walked out of there with a Nikon 105/2.5 The lens is just so much fun and easy to use on either camera. That same day, even with the weather being as "meh" as it was, I got some good results and can see a lot more use of it for me. Perhaps some additional dedicated manual focus lenses are in my future. Here is the lens. Well worn on the outside, but the glass is in very good shape considering. Focus ring is very smooth and aperture ring is tight and clicks nicely. A few samples from a walk around my neighborhood. These are from a Fotodiox adapted PEN-F.

Covered this today for my VisualOhio news blog. I'd only ever watched a dog show on TV, never been to one in person. It was just like the big Westminster one but instead of one large ring, there were 156 smaller ones. I love dogs so this was a fun assignment. The people were great too! Enjoy!

This was a short video I put together comparing the Nkon D500 and D810 plus first out of the box impressions of the D500. I have since taken the D500 to Costa Rica and had much local time with it. All in all I believe it is a Fantastic body and probably the best DX DSLR body out there, at this time.

Nikon Df Nikkor 35-135/3.5-4.5 Pokeman Go for those who do not know what it is 1 2 3 4 5

I just found a Nikon AiS 1200mm Nikkor IF-ED for sale on Ebay... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-rare-Nikon-Ai-S-1200mm-Nikkor-F-11-IF-ED-lens-n-MINT-Condition-/152149892133?hash=item236cd71c25:g:gawAAOSwgY9XdSCO

Image © NikonUSA My Nikon kit has recently been running one prime and 2 pro grade zoom lenses. Those pro lenses do not lend themselves to the casual stroll and smaller lenses are desirable. I'm not so much concerned about the weight as I am being able to fit everything into my recently acquired Lowepro Transit 250 AW sling pack. Went to a local camera store and was looking about for a nice, small-ish do-it-all street zoom. After looking at the various options available, I decided to give the Nikon 24-120mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens a try. The f/4 version would have been bigger than we wanted to go at this point and is quite the budget jump. Testing was done on a Nikon Df. Click images for larger view. 32mm | 1/30 | f/8 | ISO 400 IQ First and foremost, a lens must perform to my standards. It needs to be sharp and provide a good base image. Sadly, the majority of the internet reviews I read about this lens are very accurate. I was hoping it would not be as bad as the buzz stated, so I gave it a try for myself. This is not a good lens, and dare I say, that this might be the worst lens I've every used on any system. Why? It is not sharp at any focal length or any aperture. I tried auto focus fine tuning on the Nikon Df and D700....no go. I even tried shooting in live view with contrast detect AF to see if that improved things....no joy there either. On that point alone, the lens fails. Which is a shame because it is a decent focal range and the contrast seemed very nice. It's hard to tell where the IQ breaks down on web size images, and I'm not a pixel peeper. Trust me, the images are soft, in the center and it only gets worse at the edges. 120mm | 1/320 | f/5.6 | ISO 200 Handling I'm not a fan of the "reversed" focus/zoom rings that Nikon went to with the AF-S lenses. I tend to accidentally bump the ring by accident when supporting the lens with my left hand.. To be honest, I thought that might have been an issue with the image sharpness being so bad. I made sure that I took that out of the equation during the tests and verified that I was not moving that focus ring by accident. On the positives, the zoom throw from 24 to 120 is relatively short so going from one end of the focal range to the other can be a quick trip. It can also be a little less accurate because it is so close together. It is not an internal zoom lens, so there is telescoping, but it is not that far, to be honest. This is a G lens, so no aperture ring. 120mm | 1/640 | f/8 | ISO 200 Weight/Size For our desires, this lens was a good size and weight for the purpose it was going to be used for. No real complaints there. It balanced well on the Nikon Df, even better on the D700. 120mm | 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 320 VR active Auto Focus Auto focus was decent for this lens. Not slow, but not pro grade lens fast. It would be fine for the majority of my use situations. This is an AF-S lens with the full time manual focus override. 120mm | 1/125 | f/8 | ISO 1250 | VR active Conclusion I REALLY wanted this lens to work out, I did. It was a good size, had a useful focal range and was a quick, quiet focuser. Too bad that the IQ in the sharpness range was a total deal breaker. After many tests and trying to work with the lens over a 3 day weekend...there was just no salvaging it. It was returned and the money was used to purchase other lenses that might fit the everyday walk around lens scenario. To get the provided sample images to look even half way decent, I had to process these images more than normal. B&W with a lot of grain helped tighten things up a bit. Wider angles were better, but still not great. 38mm | 1/40 | f/8 | ISO 250 | VR active 32mm | 1/40 | f/8 | ISO 200 | VR active 110mm | 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 1800 | VR active 120mm | 1/125 | f/8 | ISO 3600 : VR active

Another option to having a more compact Nikon kit would be a 2 lens option. I already have a very good copy of the Nikon 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5, but it lacks in the longer end. Doing research brought me to the conclusion that I needed to check out the 70-210mm f/4-5.6 Reviews everywhere give it rave reviews in IQ and AF capability(although it is claimed that the "D" version focus' faster than the non-D). Can it live up to what others have said about it? Let's find out!! Testing was done on a Nikon Df. 210mm | 1/500 | f/8 : ISO 900 IQ Initial testing of the 70-210mm f/4-5.6...is a little mixed at the moment. I think I need more time with it and some analytical testing. By that I mean I need to run it through some very controlled tests. There were times that images taken were blurry, then another shot with he exact same exposure and focal length settings would yield an in focus shot. It very well could be that my hand holding technique is off. More testing will be done to determine the cause. It is possible that there are focusing issues, so testing will be done on the D700 and D300. 116mm | 1/500 | f/5.6 | ISO 320 Handling Another push-pull zoom and same experience as we found with the 35-135 we reviewed earlier. Again, I kind of like it. On the Df, I use the lens aperture ring to change the value instead of the control dial. There is no VR on this lens, so when shooting at the longer focal lengths, you'll want to make sure you keep your shutter speeds in the realm of the hand holding rule. 70mm | 1/1250 | f/4 | ISO 200 Weight/Size While a bit on the heavy side(it is an all metal constructed lens) it balanced well on the Nikon Df. It fits nicely into the side pocket of the Lowepro Transit 250 AW attached to the Df. 210mm | 1/250 | f/8 | ISO 320 Auto Focus Auto focus was acceptable for this lens. On the slower side, but I expected as much for a lens of this age and design. It focus' accurately and the slower AF is better than no AF at all. I'm not going to complain about it! 110mm | 1/320 | f/8 | ISO 200 Conclusion This is a dandy of an old lens and for the sub $100 price tag, it will be able to perform its job admirably and to our needs. I envision this being used when I want to run with the Df and only take one lens. 210mm | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 250 210mm | 1/250 | f/11 | ISO 1250 210mm | 1/250 | f/11 | ISO 1100 210mm | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 450

Image © mir.com After my failed attempt to bond with the Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6VR, next lens into the testing queue is an oldie....the Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 Again, the desire is to find a lens that can be an everyday walk about and useful focal length. 35mm may not seem wide enough for a lot of people, I find that I crave a longer focal length and a narrower field of view than I do wide. There was not a lot of information out there on this lens, but for the price, it was worth the gamble. Majority of the testing was done on a Nikon Df. 135mm | 1/640 | f/4.5 : ISO 200 IQ Initial testing of the 35-135mm was definitely more favorable than the 24-120/3.5-5.6VR we tested. Contrast on the lens is very good and the sharpness is there. No, it is not as good as the newest lenses out today, but it is not far behind. I was honestly surprised. I probably should not have been as we have similar performance with the older Nikon 28-85/3.5-4.5. 135mm | 1/640 | f/4.5 | ISO 200 Handling This is where I thought I would hate this lens, but turns out, the push-pull zoom is not that hard to get used to. In a way, I kind of like it. On the Df, I use the lens aperture ring to change the value instead of the control dial. 70mm | 1/400 | f/5.6 | ISO 200 There is even a macro mode at 35mm. Press the silver button on the side of the lens and twist to put it into macro mode. In this mode, it is manual focus only. There is no VR on this lens, so when shooting at the longer focal lengths, you'll want to make sure you keep your focal lengths in the realm of the hand holding rule. 85mm | 1/800 | f/4.2 | ISO 200 Weight/Size While a bit on the heavy side(it is an all metal constructed lens) it balanced well on the Nikon Df. It fits nicely into the side pocket of the Lowepro Transit 250 AW attached to the Df. 135mm | 1/200 | f/4.5 | ISO 200 Auto Focus Auto focus was acceptable for this lens. On the slower side, but I expected as much for a lens of this age and design. It focus' accurately and the slower AF is better than no AF at all. I'm not going to complain about it! 98mm | 1/100 | f/5.6 | ISO 280 Conclusion This is a dandy of an old lens and for the sub $100 price tag, it will be able to perform its job admirably and to our needs. I envision this being used when I want to run with the Df and only take one lens. 135mm | 1/200 | f/8 | ISO 200 135mm | 1/400 | f/8 | ISO 200