Some 35mm nikkor help here, if your looking

B

bwest

Well-known member
Well I just spent 2-days searching everything I can on 35mm lenses, for my yet to arrive adapter, and though info is scant, I did find something that might help others in their search

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html

And

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/specs.html

What’s nice about this is you can look-up lenses by serial number and judge the year a lens [on eBay] was made, also if it has the rubber focus ring, or # blades in aperture, or # elements in glass, and etc. etc. Hope this helps.

Gotta admit… Im still a little lost as far as non-ai [pre-ai], ai, and ai-s lenses go. I figure they will fit the f-mount Nikon adapter, and generally speaking, faster f-stops are better for lower light situations, but sharpness of a lens can be very lens specific, and needs a fair bit of research

Most eBay pictures include the serial number... so you can look it up with this
 
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Don't know if this helps your decision on lenses, but I just bought a Letus FE adapter and have gotten two lenses for it. One is a 50mm 1.4 nikon- the focus ring on it is very "light" and very prone to lens gitter. I just had my first shoot with it yesterday. I've tried it with a gearless follow focus and with just my hands and you can see the image move about a little when you turn it. These lenses weren't made for recording focus racking, I guess. My other lens is a Vivitar Series 1 105mm macro 2.5. This is obviously much sharper and produces a nicer image than the nikon. The focus ring turns very smoothly and I get smooth racking focus. The only problem with this one is that the focus ring moves in relation to the mount (as I believe most macros do) so it would be hard to use it with a follow focus. I'm happy I have this lens because it goes to 1:1, but I plan on still getting an 85mm that doesn't have the focus ring movement issue, and try to find a 50mm that doesn't have a cheapo focus ring, and then get a 28mm. I'm not sure if its just worth throwing down the dough for some Zeiss lenses. I had spent $100 on the nikon (ebay) and it does seem a little silly to skimp on a lens that I will use so much. Anyone know of Nikons that don't have light gittery focus rings?
Hope this helps somebody's decisions.
 
Notice they are Nikkor AI type... but I think they are brand new?

AI, which stands for "Auto Indexing" lenses which were introduced in 1976 and later updated to AIS "Auto Indexing Shutter" in 1978 although this transition took a little time.

so maybe someone else knows where these expensive AI nikkors come from?
Notice in the picture you cant see the serial numbers... hehehe
 
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The first rule of 35mm adapter's lenses it that you MUST ABSOLUTELY buy lenses with at least f/1.4 aperture or even f/1.2 if you can affort them, unless you want to use them for they special properties (very wide angle, super tele, or other special lenses)
If you don't, your 35mm adapter will be totally useless.


.
 
How about for outdoor shooting, with full or near full sun, could I get f/1.8's or f/2's?
I'm also getting 2 adapters, one spinning and the other static
 
bwest said:
How about for outdoor shooting, with full or near full sun, could I get f/1.8's or f/2's?
I'm also getting 2 adapters, one spinning and the other static
Click to expand...

For a close up, any lense can produce shallow DOF, the problem is with full bodies, cars and large subject that must stand out on a bluried background. For that everything slower than f/1.4 is useless.
 
Im not after just the shallow dof thing either. I like what i see with the lenses, as what they do with light, color, lattitude and resolution. I swear I see better detail!
 
Better detail?...
It will difficult to get better detail, maybe a nicer look, less contouring, more latitude, but not more detail. Let's say: the same detail with less video contouring.
 
watch this opening front page...dont go to "gallery" The picture will change every 15secs. Thats with my camera...wow.
I cant get that blue eyeball... 4th or 5th transition, with my bare dvxa

CLICK HERE > http://go-35.com/
 
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The post about RPS lens... he'll retool any lens for about $375 bucks... so if you already have the lens you can send them to him... and yes I'd go with faster lens also...
 
someday said:
The first rule of 35mm adapter's lenses it that you MUST ABSOLUTELY buy lenses with at least f/1.4 aperture or even f/1.2 if you can affort them, unless you want to use them for they special properties (very wide angle, super tele, or other special lenses)
If you don't, your 35mm adapter will be totally useless.


.
Click to expand...

Again, like on the other thread, I agree about fast lenses, but please stop scaring the noobies... haha. Fast lenses are better but f/2 or f/2.8 are workable if you have the light.

And the guy with 'resolution' worries has a small point. Although pixel count will be the same because of the HVX ccd, some lenses are more sharp than others. For instance it is commonly known in the Nikon slr community the F/1.2 lens is not as sharp as the nikon f/1.4. With that said, most lenses are never their sharpest at wide open. So even the f/1.4 lenses would benefit from the cinematographer lighting a higher minimum fstop and stoping down the lens.
 
GaryinCalifornia said:
and yes I'd go with faster lens also...
Click to expand...

After seeing dvx footage, with certain adapters, I decided this was the way to go... for shooting outside, and since ill be outside, specifically on sunny days vs waiting for cloudy days or shooting under shadows cast by butterfly's, I'll be able to use the f1.8's or f2's. Some adapters are faster and sharper than others, as are lenses, and Im hopeing to stay away from the hmi to even out my latitude.
I read others saying f/1.8 or 2's would be ok?
 
=Prodigy= said:
Again, like on the other thread, I agree about fast lenses, but please stop scaring the noobies... haha. Fast lenses are better but f/2 or f/2.8 are workable if you have the light.

And the guy with 'resolution' worries has a small point. Although pixel count will be the same because of the HVX ccd, some lenses are more sharp than others. For instance it is commonly known in the Nikon slr community the F/1.2 lens is not as sharp as the nikon f/1.4. With that said, most lenses are never their sharpest at wide open. So even the f/1.4 lenses would benefit from the cinematographer lighting a higher minimum fstop and stoping down the lens.
Click to expand...


Exactly...I have a few fast lenses but a lot of times I have stopped down my f1.4 lenses to shoot around F4-f5.6 to get a clearer shot. So that statement of having such slower lenses is a moot point in my opinion. Now having an adapter lose the least amount of light is more of a topic to explore than lens f stops. Not to mention gain setting in your camera and having a quality monitor to use to correctly focus the shot.
 
I agree also. I have a f1.4 lens and an f2.5 lens and much prefer the f2.5. When I shoot wide open (its 105mm) I can get DOF that kicks ass. BTW, are there even available f1.4 lenses that are as wide as 28mm (or even f1.4 tele lenses)? Wide lenses seem to be f2.0 and up, most people using f2.8 for their wides. I'd recommend going for a f1.4 for your "normal" (50mm) and trying to stay under f2.8 in general. And don't worry about staying as wide as possible (getting the shortest DOF) ALL the time. Control the DOF, don't exploit it.
 
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