Odd Lenses on Nikon

[Michael Carter]

I use a smorgasbord of lenses. I guess the oddest one I use is a Hasselblad 80mm 2.8 (made by Zeiss). Some old Nikon AI/AIS lenses really hold their own, has anyone compared sharpness and other optical factors of medium format glass with old Nikon glass, or is it even apparent in 1080P? Also, has anyone somehow adapted view camera lenses to a DSLR (I don't mean adapting a DSLR to a view camera).

Many MF lenses can work on an SLR, though some of them are huge. The 645 sized lenses are probably a better bet, and MF is really handy for making a DIY tilt lens since their image circle is so large, you can go pretty extreme and still hit the sensor.

Some MF glass (like the Mamiya 67 stuff) and all large format glass presents a different problem. They focus by changing the distance between the lens and the film plane, using a bellows. This would be really problematic for an SLR setup. Large format lenses and several MF versions also have shutters in the lens assembly. You can lock them open, but it's more weight and parts to deal with.