Old lenses, need some info

Polygon · Nov 4, 2005

Hi,

I have the chance to get 3 lenses from my grandpa who traded his film-SLR for a normal digicam. Those would be:
Zeiss Sonar 135mm f/3.5 (or 4.0, getting different results on the web for this one)
Pentacon auto 28mm f/2.8
Pentacon auto 50mm f/1.8

The last one sounds especially good for portrait reasons, for the others I don't know. The 28mm would be covered by my 18-55mm AF Nikkor, but it has a bigger aperture (the Nikkor does f4.0-f4.2 in that range, but how much does that matter really, I have no clue). For the telephoto lens I was planning to get some 55-200mm some time in the future, but I guess that the one I can afford won't reach that aperture either.
So has anyone experience with those lenses and would tell me if they are a good thing to get, maybe a note about quality and the like.
I plan to use them on a Nikon D50, so I guess I need to get an adapter.

jstuedle · Nov 5, 2005

I am not sure if you can get an adapter to convert these to Nikon mount and still focus to infinity. You also would need to meter manually with a handheld meter as the D50,D70,D100 bodies need lenses with "D" chipps to talk to the cameras meter and tell it your aperture settings. I doubt you would get much use from these great lenses due to there limitations.

Polygon · Nov 5, 2005

Will that mean I'll loose the light meter completely or that I will be "only" forced to manually set aperture (on the lens) and shutter speed and look at the meter for the results (the meter must take the incoming light in account somehow, for what does it need to know the aperture settings)?
I suspect the first what would be very bad. Is this limitation only for the "cheaper" D50-D100 bodies or "general standard" in the DSLR world (or at least Nikon DSLRs)?

If so what lenses will fit on my cam and give me light metering, only those specially made for Nikon DSLR? I guess everything I'd need an adapter for won't work then?

2. Is taking a "preview"-picture a passable way for getting "metering" (at least for stills, landscapes or portraits where speed doesn't matter too much)?

jstuedle · Nov 5, 2005

You can use "stop down" metering. The meter would read correctly at wide open aperture, but if you stop down any, the meter would still think the lens was going to shoot wide open. On some camera bodies you can work around this by using the "DOF preview" button. I don't think your camera has that capability though. The D1 and D2 series cameras have a mechanical coupling in addition to the electronic aperture coupling, so their meter works in aperture priority and manual modes. The other digital bodies need the chip in the lens to meter in any mode. As a side note, older MF Nikon lenses can have a chip retrofitted, but I have never seen it done with lenses using an adapter ring. The infinity focus issue would be the first thing to overcome.