Why are Nikkor lenses popular?

F

Fahad

Veteran
is it because their cheap? good? cheap and good?

curious to what the informed have to say.

if they are good, i could get a basic 3 or 4-lens setup for peanuts
 
mcgeedigital said:
Great glass, plentiful and therefore good prices, manual apertures.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, the Nikon "F" mount lens is the most popular lens series ever made, with millions of them having been produced since 1959. They are not "Cheap" lenses, but are inexpensive because of their availability. I am finding them to be the perfect lenses for my foray into the video DSLR world. I am picking up older manual focus Nikkor lenses not only for the cost, but that they also produce images that compatible with my aesthetic preferences. I also like that they were designed for full 35mm still frame coverage, and should be compatible with most of the digital cinema camera sensor sizes that we may see in the near future.
 
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It's because Canon DSLR's are popular - with a $30 adaptor you can stick virtually any manual Nikon lens onto a Canon DSLR, including non-AI lenses (see my site for a review of one).

Vintage Nikon lenses are just as useful for video as a brand new, fully electro-matic Canon lens, sometimes moreso; for example many old Nikon's have silky smooth manual focus. The electronics are useless for video.

Also, they're fun, and cheap. :)
 
good to hear. very cool.

is there anything in particular i should be looking for when searching for nikkors?

(e.g. i read someone not being happy with a 50mm 1.4 because it wasn't "AI" and therefore not multi-coated, so the "AI" version is better)
 
You can look at the video on the thread in this section (7D-lenses) for the Nikon-S auto 50mm 1.4 - that lens is non-AI, and judge the video for yourself. It just depends on what you're shooting. I've got night shots, into light shots, into sun shots and regular indoor and daylight shots.

But generally, the AI version would be better, because the optics are the same, but it's multicoated. Unless you like the look of having flares and reflections :)

J Davis has a sticky link above of lenses he recommends. I'm buying and reviewing lenses for fun as well, and posting lots of video of each test.
 
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