40 year old glass- the 'Afghan Girl' lens

[Peeb]

Nikon 105mm f/2.5. Picked it up on ebay for 80.00. What do you think?

1. Missie
Test shot- vintage lens by Peeb OK, on Flickr

2. Riley
Shot 2- testing 40 year old lens by Peeb OK, on Flickr

 

[zulu42]

Those eyes!

Looks good. Real nice

 

[Derrel]

The 105 mm f / 2.5 Ai-s was the very first ever brand-new Nikon lens I ever bought. It was in 1982, in my first full year of College. I paid $169.95. This lens uses Nikons close range correction CRC system, and is quite possibly the best focusing manual focus telephoto ever made by Nikon. Even today this lens is useful on digital cameras, whether they be aps-c or full frame models.

At one point I sold a second copy I had bought of this lens to a TPF member. He drove down here from the Seattle area and we drove out to the Columbia Gorge National Scenic area, where he gave the lens a test drive on his Nikon D 7100. I would highly recommend this lens to anyone who needs a solid medium telephoto lens.

It looks like you are already putting the lens to good use. I think it will continue to grow on you.

 

[JBPhotog]

I bought my copy of the venerable 105mm f2.5 AIS in 1978 and only sold it a few years ago replacing it with the 105mm f1.4 E. It really is a magical focal length that often gets overlooked.

The Gauss design over the Sonar in 1972 was the first major advancement and by the late 1970’s the NIC coatings were controlling flare and ghosting to the point of nonexistent. It’s deadly sharp and contrasty and if you come across a good copy there really is no downside to picking one up.

 

[Jeff15]

Good shots the lens appears to be working fine......

 

[jcdeboever]

Great lens. Super image definition, color saturation, it is a great portrait lens. I didn't use it much and a guy wanted it and had something for trade. My copy was pristine.

Regrettably, I traded mine (Gauss version) for a well used but clean 35 1.4 AIS. The guy had 3 copies. This 35 is really hard to master, my most frustrating lens to date. I will pick the 105 2.5 ais up again at some point. Heck, I could probably sell the 35 1.4 and buy 3 copies. I just don't think to use that 105 focal length much.

 

[Jeff G]

Excellent shots, ya done good!

 

[RVT1K]

What I think is that picking up a most excellent lens for 80 bucks was a great score for you.

 

[Derrel]

I used to use my 105 a lot for what we called mugshots, small headshots that we would run to illustrate newspaper stories, and I was always impressed with how beautifully the 105 / 2.5 did compared against the Nikon 85mm... it might not seem like much of a difference,but the additional length really gave a much better rendition of a person when photographed from close range.

 

[Designer]

What do you think?

Superb color and depth. Good price, too! Well done!

 

[JBPhotog]

Back when this lens made its debut, 1000 ASA(ISO) was considered golf ball territory. If only that 40 year old lens knew it was sending photons to a sensor set to 28,800 ISO, LOL.

BTW, you may be able to set non-cpu lens ID's in your Z6, I can in my Nikon DSLR's. This would enable your EXIF to correctly display focal length and f-stop.

 

[Derrel]

Good focal length for portraiture, with a fairly comprehensive set of focus distances which give you a tight headshot,a head-and-shoulders, a bust framing,a half-body framing, a 3/4 body framing, and a full-length framing,as well as three distances for groups from three people to 25. The Marked Focus distances are designed to be used with a full-fame camera obviously, and are from the old way of working in which you first set the focus distance and then posed your people. Used at f4 it gives a nice defocused background but also shows the environment somewhat.

2001, dx sensor, 2.7mp Nikon D1

2012, D3x. FF sensor at f/4

2014, D3x FF sensor f/5

 

[Derrel]

The idea of selecting a framing that corresponds with a specific focus distance is something many people are unfamiliar with. 6 feet, 2 meters, 6.5 feet 7 feet, 8 feet,10 feet, 3 meters... all of these distances were carefully arrived at. The Ai-s version has a built-in sliding lens hood; the Ai and earlier versions use a separate lens hood. The Ai-s version has a "lighter touch"focusing action than do earlier versions.

 

[JBPhotog]

The idea of selecting a framing that corresponds with a specific focus distance is something many people are unfamiliar with. 6 feet, 2 meters, 6.5 feet 7 feet, 8 feet,10 feet, 3 meters... all of these distances were carefully arrived at. The Ai-s version has a built-in sliding lens hood; the Ai and earlier versions use a separate lens hood. The Ai-s version has a "lighter touch"focusing action than do earlier versions.

Memory is a odd duck, I will have to correct myself, I owned the AI version. It had a 170 degree focus rack, super useful for precise focusing, hands down my favourite lens of that era.

 

[Derrel]

Pretty similar. The AI and the AI-S, except for the built-in lens shade, thr minimum aperture in orange, and the secondary aperture scale, and the number of degrees of turn in the focusing ring oh, and the lesser amount of pressure needed to move the focus ring ring in the AIS version.

The AIS lenses also had a linear diaphragm actuator mechanism. Many AI lenses when used on a modern camera, make a slight clunking noise when the diaphragm stops down--- AIS lenses sound and feel subtly different.


I have owned the Ai and the AIS versions and/or "pre-Ai" versions of several popular Nikon lenses. I don't think there is any real performance ( I mean Optical performance) difference between the AI and the AIS with the 105mm/2.5. The main difference that people will notice right away is that in the AIS series The Cosmetics were redesigned and in general the focusing ring turns much more easily and turnes in fewer degrees... on some lenses this is quite noticeable such as on the 135mm f/ 2.8 and on the 200 mm f/4.