Tag: manual focus

Review: Nikon 300mm f/4,5 Ai IF ED

Posted on by Gianluca Bevacqua

If you are a sport or action shooter move on.

But if you are a landscape photographer and want a light, quite sharp, and handy lens consider this one, even if you aren’t on a budget.

At full aperture this lens is already a very good performer, and going down just by one stop is enough to achieve the best quality.

To take advantage of the lens resolution the best thing is to use, when available, the Live View feature, with lens and camera mounted on a rock-solid tripod and using a remote shutter release.

Rating: ★★★★½

Review: Nikon 85mm f/2 Ai

Posted on by Gianluca Bevacqua

Picture by arne.list from Flickr

A very useful focal lenght, maybe a bit on the long side on the DX format.

The 85 Ai performs very very good, but apart for the ugly plastic covered barrell of the AF sibling you don’t have a reason to buy the Ai model.

nikon 85mm f/2 ai
Only in two cases you could be interested in this version:

a) you own an FM2, an F3 or another classic manual focus camera, and you don’t like the look of the AF model (but it’s not the look that takes photos); or

b) you find one of this in pristine conditions and dirty cheap. Otherwise go for the AF.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review: Nikon 35mm f/2 Ai

Posted on by Gianluca Bevacqua

Picture from Nikon.com

A splendid performer for low light photography.

It is compact, sharp in the center closed one stop, and sharp in the extreme corners by f/5,6.

For low-light, however, even f/2 is safely usable, perhaps with a little help from a light contrast mask in Photoshop.

At least my sample was much better than his AF (non D) sibling, even if for reportage work the convenience of the af is pretty obvious.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review: Nikon 18mm f/3,5 Ai

Posted on by Gianluca Bevacqua

Picture from Nikon.com

Tested on film only.

A very compact design, that performs in a charming way.

My sample, at least, had a very particular way of rendering the highlights, whit a smooth pleasing graduation of luminance values.

It is quite sharp, too. Even the borders, but well stopped down, to f/5,6 or f/8, are quite sharp.

In short, a nice little ultra-wide, that will fit into your pocket.

Rating: ★★★★☆ on film

Review: Nikon 55mm f/3,5 Micro Non-Ai

Posted on by Gianluca Bevacqua

A very useful lens.

On the DX format it will perform like a short macro tele.

In both cases, FX or DX, the quality level of the lens is undoubtedly superb, super sharp and with a pretty cool color cast (but you may color balance easily if you wish to a warmer tone).
nikon 55 micro ai

In IR it perform in the same fashion, but sometimes I may observe some ghosts and, only rarely, a light hot spot if I’m shooting under certain conditions (high contrast light and high reflective subjects, like sea or lakes).

And did I mention that it may cost only 30 euro?

Rating: ★★★★★ visible light

Rating: ★★★★½ infrared