Just bought 1974 F2 for wife's 40th, what lens to get?

adylee

New member
Hi all

I hope i'm in the right place, i've just joined and this is my first post.

My wife is a keen photographer and i've just found a vitally unused and pristine F2 for her 40th gift, which i think will be well received. She's mostly a digital photographer but loves the classic photo news shots and the F2 seemed to be ideal as a way to mark the occasion. The camera body i paid 275 for, which i believe to be top end of the price scale but it is absolutely mint, and she's a bit OCD!

Anyway, i want to get the other bits in order to get her shoot ready but have very little idea on Nikon. (i'm on an olympus 35SP). if I want dot spend a few hundred pounds (uo to 300?) on one s/h lens - a general purpose - photo journals type lens, please could you tell me if there is anything in particular that might fit the bill/ budget?

Thanks in advance. i've never shopped for Nikon before but i'm glad there will be a classic one in her (and occasionally my) life!
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
In my opinion the perfect match for that camera would be the Nikon 50mm 5/1.8D. A classic lens for a classic camera.

“Classic”, in what sense?

Seriously, you think this lens has any business being paired up with an F2?

Nikon_2137_Normal_AF_Nikkor_50mm_247091.jpg

It would look ridiculous on a classic F2. On a classic, 1970s vintage all-metal body, it would look like cheap plastic, totally unworthy of the camera on which it'd be mounted. This isn't to say that optically, it's not a perfectly fine lens, but really, it would look completely out of place on an F2, like some cheap, tacky, obviously-plastic accessory on a classic 1950s or 1960s-vintage automobile.

And it doesn't look like it even has the aperture-coupling shoe that would be needed to couple with the meter on any of the pre-AI (1978 or earlier) Photomic variants on the F2.

The purist in me wants to encourage @adylee to only buy period-correct non-AI lenses for this camera. Technically, early AI lenses would be fine, as long as they still have the aperture coupling shoe; but it seems to me like a classic camera like the F2 really wants and needs to be paired up with comparably-classic lenses and accessories.

The proper lens to pair with this camera is surely one that is no longer being made, and hasn't been made for decades. Here's the “standard” lens that I have for my F2 (which now, often gets used on my D3200. This is an appropriate lens to pair up with such a camera:

CSC_9340.jpgCSC_3530.jpgCSC_3529.jpg

Note the aperture-coupling shoe on the aperture ring. Any lens which does not have this (including the one that you suggested) will not couple with the meter on any pre-AI (1978 or older) Nikon camera. The solid shoe identifies this as a non-AI lens. On AI lenses that have this shoe, the shoe is of a more skeletal form; those lenses will work with a non-AI camera, but they are not period-correct for it.
 
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