What are your favorite old lens?

[unpopular]

Another great lens is the Bronica S Nikor 75. I don't have any examples from that era of my life, but man, what an awesome lens.

 

[gryffinwings]

Hmmmm... maybe I should add, can we keep it to F mount lens, some of these lens I have no idea if they can be mounted to my f-mount cameras.

 

[unpopular]

^^f-mount is pretty limited. You can mount any of these lenses, but many will need an adapter with corrective glass. These generally decrease quality significantly.

 

[Patriot]

Hmmmm... maybe I should add, can we keep it to F mount lens, some of these lens I have no idea if they can be mounted to my f-mount cameras.

Many older lens will attach to the Nikon f-mount. Nikon decided to keep that mount around for some time so lens makers made a lot that will fit it. There too many other great lens out there that's not f-mount but will need an adapter.

 

[gryffinwings]

Hmmmm... maybe I should add, can we keep it to F mount lens, some of these lens I have no idea if they can be mounted to my f-mount cameras.

Many older lens will attach to the Nikon f-mount. Nikon decided to keep that mount around for some time so lens makers made a lot that will fit it. There too many other great lens out there that's not f-mount but will need an adapter.

This may be true, but then that would give me way too many choices to work with, personally think I should just stick with F-mount lens.

 

[Patriot]

I'm trying to get my hands on the Nikkor 55mm f2.8 AIS, but they run for a lot on ebay.

 

[gryffinwings]

I'm trying to get my hands on the Nikkor 55mm f2.8 AIS, but they run for a lot on ebay.

Is this the lens you are referring to?

Nikon Micro Nikkor 55mm F 2 8 Lens AI s SN 409698 0018208014422 | eBay

 

[Derrel]

I'm trying to get my hands on the Nikkor 55mm f2.8 AIS, but they run for a lot on ebay.

Is this the lens you are referring to?

Nikon Micro Nikkor 55mm F 2 8 Lens AI s SN 409698 0018208014422 | eBay

That is a 55mm f/2.8 Ai-S....and the one for sale for $99 is a real P.O.S. sample. "There is some heavy fungus throughout the lens however that will have an affect on image quality. Functionally the lens is in decent working order. The aperture blades snap cleanly but display some heavy signs of friction and stiffness when turning the aperture ring. The lens focuses smoothly but also displays some heavy signs of friction and very heavy signs of stiffness when turning the focus ring"

UGGGLY!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[unpopular]

That buy it now price is serious wishful thinking, even for this lens. I'd pay $30, maybe $40.

But $100 for a $250-400 lens in need of substantial repair to even get it to a useable condition? You HAVE to be kidding.

 

[gryffinwings]

That buy it now price is serious wishful thinking, even for this lens. I'd pay $30, maybe $40.

But $100 for a $250-400 lens in need of substantial repair to even get it to a useable condition? You HAVE to be kidding.

Of course, it was just something to reference.

 

[Derrel]

The 55mm f/3.5 Micro~Nikkor, the older one, the one that is now called "Pre-Ai", is often available VERY affordably. I have had two over the years, both quite decent. In fact, I still have em both. I got one for a ridiculously low price of $69 in MINT shape, probably 13,14 years ago now I guess. For a guy who has a Baby Nikon, meaning the D40 sereies, D60, and D3000-series and D5000-series cameras, those old "Pre-AI" Nikkor lenses will mount and shoot, and will NOT DAMAGE the camera!!!! Anyway, the 55mm f/3.5 Micro~NIKKOR is not the 55/2.8, but it is a decent alternative lens, often available CHEAP!!!!

The Baby Nikon bodies do not have either the Ai-coupling follower, at 1 o'clock, NOR do they have that small,plastic minimum aperture sensing pin, located at 7 o'clock. Many of the really "old" pre-AI lenses have a very FAT APERTURE RING, and that fat, large-diameter aperture control ring can damage the AI coupler, or even worse, clip off the minimum aperture sensing pin...

The minimum aperture sensing pin is important....you know how when a lens with an aperture ring is NOT set to f/16 or f/22, how the camera gives that nifty error signal and will not fire???? Yeah...

 

[fmw]

I'm not sure what an old lens is but here is a list of my favorite Nikkors, all available prior to the emergence of the digital SLR, so they are for 35mm format:

18mm f 2.8 - wonderfully rectilinear and super wide
16mm f2.8 - Nikon's famous full frame fisheye
24mm f2 - A great wide angle you could find in most pro camera bags
50mm f1.2 - perfect for low available light
60mm f2.8 - A late model macro lens that replaced the famous 55
85mm f1.8 - A fantastic short tele when shallow dof is the goal
105mm f2.5 - Probably the sharpest Nikkor ever made, small, light, fast, simple and sharp as a tack
200mm f2 - Another super low light tele but bulky. It rode in the car in case I needed it.
300mm f2.8 - Hated carrying it but it was capable of some truly spectacular tele shots
500mm f4 - My sports shooter

Although I use zoom lenses today, I didn't when I shot for money. I just kept a tiny old 43-86 f3.5 that I used only for timed slow zoom shots. It was not one of Nikon's great ones but wasn't any bigger than a 50 and its performance was always hidden by the zoom blur. Honorable mention goes to the 20mm f3.5 which was tiny and, light and very popular with Nikon shooters. I carried one all the time until I got the spectacular 18. The 14mm f2.8 was released in the 90's I think. It was heavier, longer (and wider) than the 18 but not as rectilinear. I rarely used it, favoring the 18 almost every time. I loved the 35mm shift lens. It came in handy many times and should be on the honorable mention list.

Now that I'm an amateur shooter I use the 10.5mm fisheye, the 12-24 f4, 24-85 f-variable for the DX Nikon and the ever popular 80-200 f2.8 regular format zoom. I still use the 60mm f2.8 micro Nikkor for closeups but's more like tele micro on the DX format.

There you go. I'm sure every photographers favorite list is different.