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What Are Your Must Have Nikon Mount Lenses?

Peter Moretti

Peter Moretti

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I've been picking up Nikon mount glass and open to suggestions about which lenses to look at.

The lens that I've really liked so far for its character has been the 105mm f2.5 AIS. It also has a small size and believe it or not for a telephoto, 55mm filter size! [Edited I had mistakenly written 135mm f2.8 AIS... guess I had that lens on my brain, LOL!]

Suggest away my friends.
 
Are you looking at building an AIS set?
I'm very happy with my 105/1.8, 85/1.4 and 50/1.2. The 50/1.2 is pretty soft wide open, but performs well and has a unique character stopped down. The 35/1.4 is very soft and milky wide open with a lot of coma distortion, but I like how it looks from f/2 on down. I've had two copies of the 24/2.0 and both of them were pretty soft, even stopped down - I'd avoid that one in favor of other wide angles.

The Tokina/Vivitar Series 1 90/2.5 macro is another great manual lens available in Nikon mount that's worth looking at. There's a thread about it here:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?94596-I-found-a-monster
 
Zeiss 21/2.8 Distagon - Great technical performance. The "moustache" (complex barrel) distortion is not as bad as forum doomsayers will tell you, but this lens probably isn't for architectural photographers. Really great character/rendering, feels very special and unique.

28/2.8 AI-s - Really sharp and well-corrected. Tiny and very light (maybe 1/3 of the Zeiss 21/2.8). Very cheap; an underappreciated gem.

Voightlander 40/2 SL - [A copy is en route to me now. I'm optimistic and will update]

50/1.2 AI-s - Patrick nailed this one. An only-pretty-good technical performer with tons of character. My samples have been a bit better than Alan's "pretty soft wide open" ones.

Zeiss 50/2 Macro-Planar - Much better technical performer than the 50/1.2 AI-s. Not as much character as the 50/1.2 but certainly not clinical - has very nice rendering, in particular the famous T* "3D pop."

85/1.4 AI-s - Extremely good technical performer, in my opinion better than the Zeiss 85/1.4 Z*.

105/1.8 AI-s - Very good technical performer. Not as well corrected as the Zeiss 100/2 - but way cheaper.

135/2 AI-s - Very good technical performer, and very nice rendering/character. I haven't used the 135/2.8 you love, so I can't say whether the 135/2 is worth the significant increase in size and weight.

Voightlander 180/4 SL - Quite good technical performer, and nice warm rendering/character. Pretty close focus (1.2m / 1:4.4). Extremely small and light for the focal length. Barrel telescopes (lots) but focus ring does not, so follow focus can be used but matte boxes are tough.

Leica 180/2 APO-Summicron-R - Not available in Nikon mount, per se, very easy to non-destructively/non-permanently convert with a Leitax mount. Absolute rock star; crazy sharp and fast. Huge, heavy, rare, and expensive, but unrivaled. My go-to / carry-around lens (I'm getting buff haha).

200/4 Macro AI-s - Very good technical performer. Fairly long, but oddly skinny. Has a decent-but-not-great removeable tripod foot. Unlike many macro lenses focus ring does not telescope, so follow focus can be used.
 
Alan Peterson said:
Are you looking at building an AIS set?
...
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Meaning that I'd be oaky with having to use a mount for G style lenses which have no manual aperture ring, if the optical performance is worth it and the focus throw isn't crazy short.
 
I think the 8mm Rokinon is a must have lens if you want to shoot overcranked at 1kws or 2khd. You need something super wide to combat the punching in making all your lenses telephoto. So sure the 8mm isn't fast, or name brand, and people might mock it, but when I am overcranking its the only thing that can get me the shots I need without backing up a mile from subject..
 
My favourites I think are the 55mm 3.5 (for macro), 85mm 1.4, 105mm 1.8 Ai, 135mm f2 Ai and the 180mm 2.8 ED. The last has a very distinctive low contrast kind of look - very creamy. For zooms the 28 - 70mm is terrific. Oh and the Tokina 11 - 16.
 
Hmmm....

G Series:
14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm 2.8 AF-S (VR2)
24mm 1.4, 35mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4, 105mm 2.8 AFS Macro VR
300mm 2.8 AFS-VR2
TC-17EII

AF-D series:
105mm F2 AF-DC
135mm F2 AF-DC

AI/AI-S series
20mm 2.8
28mm 2
35mm 2
50mm 1.2
85mm 1.4
105mm (1.8, 2.5 or 2.8 macro)
180mm 2.8 ED
200mm f2 ED
400mm f3.5ED
 
Evin, I know you've commented somewhere before that you weren't a fan of the 35/1.4, can you expand on that? And have you worked with the 35/2.8?

I've read that the 28/2.8, which I use, is the best of the 28's. Any experience with how the 28/2 compares?
 
Wasn't happy with my 28mm f2.0. Traded up to a 28mm f/1.4D and never looked back. Although mechanically tighter than a G lens making it more suited for cinema, for about the same price you could also get a 24mm f/1.4G which is compatable with Epic/Scarlett focus control and is argueably some of the best glass Nikon has made to date. The 28mm f/1.4D was discontinued a number of years ago and can only be found as pre-owned, but is also a fantastic lens wide open.
 
Note on the G-Series zooms... my 24-70 has about 6 pixels of image shift when focusing ccw to cw and vice-versa - the other two are fine (though the 70-200 is a heavy breather). Not sure if it's common to that design or an issue with my particular lens.
 
Lee Saxon said:
Evin, I know you've commented somewhere before that you weren't a fan of the 35/1.4, can you expand on that? And have you worked with the 35/2.8?

I've read that the 28/2.8, which I use, is the best of the 28's. Any experience with how the 28/2 compares?
Click to expand...

The AI 35mm 1.4 is pretty old design and doesn't really hold up until f4. The new 35mm 1.4 G is stellar though, as is the 28mm 1.8 and the 28mm 1.4 before it. I find the 28mm f2 just as good as the 2.8 @ 2.8 and good enough at f2 to justify it over the slower lens.
 
I must have a very good copy of the 35mm f/1.4 AIS, then - mine is usable at f/2 and reasonably sharp at f/2.8. Flaring and CA is still a bit more pronounced than the other AIS lenses I've used, though.
 
Evin Grant said:
The AI 35mm 1.4 is pretty old design and doesn't really hold up until f4.
Click to expand...

Alan Peterson said:
I must have a very good copy of the 35mm f/1.4 AIS, then - mine is usable at f/2 and reasonably sharp at f/2.8. Flaring and CA is still a bit more pronounced than the other AIS lenses I've used, though.
Click to expand...

According to http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html#35 / http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/specs.html#35, unless Nikon updated the design without changing the number of elements/groups, the 35/2 is actually even older than the 35/1.4. That plus Alan's comment, I wonder if Evin just got a bad one. They're available pretty affordably on eBay; I may investigate this.
 
The 35mm f/2 also performs pretty well. I had a non-AI version (the original one with the amber coating) that I ended up selling because it wasn't color-matched with my AIS set, and was pretty happy with it aside from the lack of multi-coating.
 
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