Why Not a Blog 4

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stmv

Senior Member
The lens desease is terminal, once you get thinking about a lens, it just gets a hold of you, you can run, but the lens will find you.

Once you have searched for it on the larger retailer, or perhaps the auction site, they will know, and pop ups galore will remind you of your desire.

you turn away,, days go by, and then the moment returns, oh,, 1.2,,, or deslective control of dof, the tilt of a lens
element,,,

you cringe inside, as your mind races of that perfect photo,,

the perfect photo with just that lens, why yes,, of course

must be, must be the one addition,, maybe the final one..

hahah,, you hit the button,, confirmation number

and then you wait
 
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stmv

Senior Member
Tonight, I pack for a major hike in the presidentials, so,, its the tradeoff of weight and flexibility. I am thinking of shooting mostly with primes. So, easy to pack 20, 35, 50, 105, 200. all fairly light weight, and at least the 20,35,50 are very small, I could switch the 105 with the series E 100 which is tiny for a 100 mm.

Actually, a shoutout to the 100mm series E,, just blows me away to have a lens just a bit longer then current 50mm, be a 2.8, 52 mm filter, and sharp images. Best of all, fairly cheap on the used market, ok ok, I just talked myself into swapping the 100 with the 105 for additional weight savings.

For cameras, I'll carry the D800 instead of the D7000 to pick up the maximum in detail for what are broad landscapes. In this case, I want every pixel possible, even though the D7000 would be so much lighter.

I'll strap on the manafrotta tripod, it is heavier than my lightweight, but with the wind, and rough rocks, I want a more stable tripod then some flimsy one, having a tripod tumble down those sharp rocks, better to be safe and carry the extra weight.
 
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Dave9072

Senior Member
Tell me about it. I ordered a AF-S 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED DX this morning and a AF-S 50mm f/1.4G this afternoon. My credit card is smoking!
 
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stmv

Senior Member
I packed my bag for the major hike, and when you have to carry lots of water, the weight become a factor, so,, change of plans, switched to the D7000 which is small enough, and light enough to wear on a belt bag,

yes, would love to take the D800, but it was too cumbersome for my day bag with all that water and spare clothes/emergency gear.

no problem, D7000 takes wonderful pictures. and you can always overlay them for higher pixel count.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
bravo to Nikon for still making this lens, what a beauty, fully manual, and the pleasure of the brightness of the viewfinder with this lens on, really a joy to use,

The focus is so smooth, focus ring plenty large, with the right viscuous feel. I shot at 1.2 and got a nice sharp image with that fade away one would expect.

Yes, you can get the latest G lens, and have AF, but throw a couple of this generation of manaual lens into the mix, you might be surprised how much you enjoy taking pictures with these manual AIS lens.

I have been comparing some of the older lens also, today tried out the 105 2.5 gausian design lens, and wow, on the D800, this lens shines.

back on the 1.2, one of the amazing things of this lens is that even though 1.2,,, it is still 52 mm! love that, I tend to carry Hoya polarizer, and some neutral density filters and so nice that one small packet of filters covers my whole range from 20mm to 200 mm! Nice that a lot of the old D series auto focus still ownered that cover that range, the exception being the 20 mm afsD.

yup, you can tell I love the manual glass. sure, af love that too, but when I am out just having fun, I almost always use the old glass manual focus primes over my newer autofocus version, just seems more natural. compose/focus, aperture, exposure, (iso adjust if needed), focus adjust if needed, shoot..

recompose, repeat.

manual focus AIS -> D200,D300,D1,D2,D3,Detc, D7000, D700,D800, and others have fun.

on 40,40,80,90,3x,5X,, Nikon cannot meter,, so you can still use, but you have to use your historygram on test shots, a real pain, so,, best to pass the old school glass.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
so wet and windy on my hike, that the shots were limited. at 25 mph winds and heavy rains, only so many times did I want to use the camera. I did squeze a few shots before I put the camera into its dry bag.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
the fall colors are peak,, got to do some organizing/cleaning today,, and with the rain, a bit less motivated to get outside,

on the otherhand, rain and fall colors can look realy nice.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
darn,, my 100 mm lens got misted inside....from the rainy hike, had it in a ziploc, but must not have been sealed good enough,

I tried the oven, but pretty bad, I'll give it a week, might have to drop it off at the camera store for a cleaning/wipe out.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
I was hiking in pouring rain, and even though I had the lens in a baggy, and a pouch, all the movement, and such, must have open the plastic bag, and moisture got into my 100 mm 2.8.

I carried this lens because worse case, its fairly cheap to replace (around 80 dollars), I did the oven dry, and such, and the moisture is gone, but do see that leftover water stain, darn.

I know I can have it repaired/cleaned, but in the meantime, I managed to find a never used (brand NEW!) one for 120 dollars. That just blows my mind that you can still find left over stock, or lens that are in the original packaging, unused.

I'll drop the other off to my repair shop for an estimate, if the cost is more 60 dollars, hard choice, but it is an amazing lens.

yes, the 100 mm is sharp, super small, and ultra smooth, and this was considered a low quality cheap lens at one time, but one of my favorite hiking lens because it is so small with no distortion, and sharp sharp sharp.

Read more: http://nikonites.com/prime/8231-nikon-series-e-100-2-8-a.html#ixzz283GGMqbd
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stmv

Senior Member
The desease bit again,, I had a visa award built up, and so easy to have it transfer as Amazon credit, so,, took the plunge, and got the Nikkor 105 2.0 DC.

Why, because my gut says that Nikon will only make this classis so long, it has that heavy crinkled metal look, of what I think was a golden age of Nikon lens.

the DC is cool because it allows the lens to be designed for sharpness, and then the dof controlled to mimic a really shallow dof that one would get with a 1.4 or 1.2, without sacrificing center sharpness.

Rumours says it renders light really nicely, with an amazing look. Time will tell if I can get similar results, but I so look forward to it. This is exactly the fun that I love in a lens,
 
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stmv

Senior Member
The wait begins,, 105 has been shipped, should have it before the weekend, so interested in a session with it,, I picture the vivid fall tree, with the fade out using the Deselective Controls. I figure its cheaper then renting, try it out for a few months, worse case, sell it,, for the delta between the rental and the cost.

I like now how the software on e commerce is trying to out game the buyer. I must have put the 105 into my cart like 3 times in the last month.

then the software notices,, that I am almost serious, but keeps backing down,, next thing, a special offer comes, why 150 dollars off! sweet,, buy.

So,, I got the 105 for 1025 dollars,,, not bad. so,, sometimes its good to hesitate and see what offers pops into your mail folder. They call this targeted selling.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
ughh,, I hate when you have to sign for a package,, with FedEx,, they leave a message, oh,, it might come sometime between 9 AM and 7 PM,, thanks a lot.. now I have to hang around waiting for the lens to show up,

on the other hand, it will be here tomorrow,, fall colors hear I come with the 105 2.0 DC..

I hear that only the rear defocus really makes sense, and that you can't tell until you get home.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
the primary issue with posting anything to the web, that the reduction of image size is the great camera equalizer. In reality, a D70 picture can post just as nice as a D800 for the image size required for the computer graphics.

When you calculate the pixel reduction ratio from the D800 to the web image, almost mind numbing how much data is just thrown away.

So, lots of the real world Print differences just even out.

So,, the web posts are more a true test of composition, exposure/dof control, and post editing skills. which for critique sites a very good thing, since you are not really knocking anyone for owning say a D70 versus the latest generation SLR, and great for flikr, facebook etc, but not great for showing the true value of the best FX SLR in the world (ok,, that is my opinion).​
 
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stmv

Senior Member
lens received! just as decribed,,

Highlights
perfect balance with the D800, bit heavy for the D7000
build quality super, perhaps the height of Nikon build quality
built in shade,, love those, wish all lens had these
very fast focus, quiet,
nice and sharp

The DC is easy to use, just takes a minute to learn, you cannot see the results in the view finder, so it is an after you return to see the real effects, but I could if I zoomed in.

It will be interesting if Nikon will update this lens soon with modern material, VR, etc, perhaps, but Nikon tends to keep a winner low volume lens going for a long time.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
It rained quite a bit, and company all weekend, so, only got one quick 2 hour session with fall colors at peak.

The 105 performed very well. had to be super careful with the D800 to get maximum sharpness, but when you get it rights, its a wow.

I get a kick that when you read the manual, the compatible cameras listed are the F3, F4,, FA, so, really really old lens, digital was a still way in the future, funny, how they don't even update the directions after close to 20 years.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
soon,, the leaves will be gone,, and snow will be coming, but not for a bit,, so enjoy the days before the North wind blows.
 
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stmv

Senior Member
so,, I hiked with my D800 with just my old glass primes. Mostly, because I get tired of weight, and these lens are almost tiny in scale.

I was comparing the shots after, and was pleased on the look of the old 35 2.8 lens, not a famous lens, but it rendered the image nicely in the light. Lens to lens, the light is effected, and I can see why some photographers get drawn to some lens for certain images.

Always a pleasure dialing in the focus. Interesting how one slides right back to the old mode of changing apererature and focus on the lens, and of course focus. Essentially, only use the camera for shutter speed with these old glass.

Just for chuckles, you can go to say BH and see that these fully manual Nikons are mostly still Made Brand new. I think Nikon keeps them around to compete against Zeiss. In US, the factories would have scrapped the old machines years ago.
 
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