BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I'm hoping @480sparky will chime in here, but I'm looking for some recommendations on older glass. But wait!!! Please don't answer until you've read why.
My D800 was recently converted to 720nm infrared by KolariVision, so it's fair to say I've gone at IR photography full bore. I've been shooting with it for a month and I'm noticing that the modern lenses really don't work well for IR. My brother's been doing it for almost 10 years on Canon equipment and I spent some time last week shooting with him and talking about it. He's got a converter that will let him use Nikon lenses on his 5D, and when he borrowed my 70-200mm for one shot he said, "See how much warmer this lens is? It cuts out all the blues. All the new glass does this." The conversation went on and the gist of it is, in his experience, that most of the new lenses are low dispersion glass (the "ED" designation on your Nikkor), which "minimizes the effects of the secondary spectrum", in Nikon's own words. But filtering goes back to even before the ED lenses were introduced, so simply looking for a non-ED lens isn't enough. As an example, my 28-80mm f3.3-5.5G plastic lens produces better color than the 24-120mm f4, though it lacks something in the sharpness category on that camera. And an old Vivitar Series 1 35-85mm f2.8 that I used with my FM produces great color, but I'm totally on my own with focus and metering.
OK, so what I'm asking you all for are recommendations on old lenses that will still allow me to meter and hopefully focus on the D800. I'd love to not have to focus manually with my aging eyes, but if I need to learn patience and use a tripod so I can focus in Live View then for the right piece of AI glass I will.
I'm not looking to recreate a kit. I'm looking for some really solid lenses that I can get for not too much money, test out and turn without worrying about losing too much. Sharpness is key here, particularly if it's not AF. I'm hunting down places that I can rent some of those that might be worth it but will cost a little more money before buying.
And if anyone knows of a real repository of Nikkor lens reviews with respect to how they work for IR please point me to them. The ones on Kolari and LifePixel are cursory at best.
My D800 was recently converted to 720nm infrared by KolariVision, so it's fair to say I've gone at IR photography full bore. I've been shooting with it for a month and I'm noticing that the modern lenses really don't work well for IR. My brother's been doing it for almost 10 years on Canon equipment and I spent some time last week shooting with him and talking about it. He's got a converter that will let him use Nikon lenses on his 5D, and when he borrowed my 70-200mm for one shot he said, "See how much warmer this lens is? It cuts out all the blues. All the new glass does this." The conversation went on and the gist of it is, in his experience, that most of the new lenses are low dispersion glass (the "ED" designation on your Nikkor), which "minimizes the effects of the secondary spectrum", in Nikon's own words. But filtering goes back to even before the ED lenses were introduced, so simply looking for a non-ED lens isn't enough. As an example, my 28-80mm f3.3-5.5G plastic lens produces better color than the 24-120mm f4, though it lacks something in the sharpness category on that camera. And an old Vivitar Series 1 35-85mm f2.8 that I used with my FM produces great color, but I'm totally on my own with focus and metering.
OK, so what I'm asking you all for are recommendations on old lenses that will still allow me to meter and hopefully focus on the D800. I'd love to not have to focus manually with my aging eyes, but if I need to learn patience and use a tripod so I can focus in Live View then for the right piece of AI glass I will.
I'm not looking to recreate a kit. I'm looking for some really solid lenses that I can get for not too much money, test out and turn without worrying about losing too much. Sharpness is key here, particularly if it's not AF. I'm hunting down places that I can rent some of those that might be worth it but will cost a little more money before buying.
And if anyone knows of a real repository of Nikkor lens reviews with respect to how they work for IR please point me to them. The ones on Kolari and LifePixel are cursory at best.
