Vignetting with manual lenses

[earthmanbuck]

I upgraded to a used Nikon D800 a couple weeks ago. I haven't used it much yet due to the weather being garbage here, but I've been going through the manual and familiarizing myself with it a little. I rarely shoot digital, so it's a relatively new world to me still.

Right now I am just using my old manual F mount lenses (Nikkor 43-86, Vivitar 28, Vivitar 80-200), as the camera didn't come with a lens. While I do plan on picking one up in the near future, I've noticed my current lenses are vignetting, sometimes quite a lot. I've done a bit of reading and I understand this is normal, but I still don't totally understand why—these are lenses that don't noticeably vignette on my 35mm cameras, and the sensor in the D800 is the same size. Can anyone explain this to me like the optics dummy I am?

I also would like to know how I can avoid or fix this in-camera, if there is a way. I don't like spending a lot of time in photo editing software in general, and don't want to be cropping out vignetting in every shot I take.

And one last question—are there any AF lenses that would have less of this issue, so I know what to keep an eye out for? I'm probably only going to buy one, either an ~80 prime or a ~28-80 zoom.

 

[webestang64]

Try this..... https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/eu/BV_article?articleNo=000006357&lang=en_GB

 

[Derrel]

That is a really good short article that webestang64 linked us to.

 

[Derrel]

Speaking of a 28 to 80 mm Zoom, I have had surprising success using just such an inexpensive lens on a D800, as well as on other Nikon digital single-lens reflex models. I am speaking of the Nikon AF-D 28 to 80 Zoom from the 1990s which is available for around $35 now. Here are three D800 pictures made from the same exposure... pretty good I think for a $35 lens that is now 30 years old. The 28-80 D was sold as a kit zoom lens with some of the early in the inexpensive autofocus film single lens reflex cameras of the 1990s

 

[Derrel]

I will take a shot at explaining why your full frame digital has been giving you corner vignetting , but you do not get the same thing when using a film camera. Okay, pixel Wells are like "buckets".... the light rays that leave the rear element used to hit film which was microscopic particles of silver suspended in an emulsion. Film can take light rays that glance in at an angle, but pixel arrays work better when the light comes in at a fairly straight angle.

With a digital sensor we have millions of teeny tiny "buckets", so to speak, and light rays that strike the sensor surface at an oblique angle do not fully enter the pixel wells. In the corners of the sensor, the light rays graze across the wells and hit with something like 65 to 80% efficiency , and that's giving you what some people call corner shading.

 

[Dave442]

I picked up a used D800 last year to replace my old DX body. A couple days later I grabbed an AF 35-70 for $45 that was gathering dust at a local camera shop, while it's not a pretty as that 43-86 manual zoom it seems to work great on the D800 (my grandfather had the 43-86 and always told me it was not a very good lens - but there were some situations when a zoom was the best option).

I always run my images through LightRoom - that can automatically take care of vignetting for any lenses that are already in the database (my cheap AF35-70 is not in the database).

Shooting in JPEG the D800 has an option to turn on vignette correction and can set for different levels. Just checked - third page of the Shooting Menu; Second item - three options: Off, Low, Normal, High (mine is set to Off).

My go-to lenses tend to be a 24mm f/2.8 AF-D and the 85mm f/1.4 AF-D. I just did some high school graduation shots today with the 85 and it's an excellent combo with the D800. My 60mm micro lens is my go-to lens when I want minimum distortion and vignette and is another a fun lens to use on the D800.