Ai-S Telephotos meet DSLRs :)

crycocyon

Senior Member
It was like Christmas as yesterday I picked up at the post office both the 180mm f/2.8 Ai-S and the 100-300 f/5.6 Ai-S lenses that arrived coincidentally, and took some photos of them on my D7000 and D800. I'll be doing some test images but the initial ones seemed very promising (I'll post some when I do more systematic testing on a tripod because today I was just doing hand-held). Both the 180mm f/2.8 Ai-S and the 100-300 f/5.6 Ai-S lens could be successfully programmed into the D7000 and D800 and I had metering, focus assist in the viewfinder, and the cameras recognized the apertures and manual changing of f-stop. The 100-300 was a bit difficult to compose rapidly and focus at the same time (something that was easier with my old 100-300 Minolta zoom), but I was still quite pleased with the initial performance of the two lenses on these DSLRs. It is interesting to see the difference in magnification factor with the DX (D7000) vs FX (D800) cameras. Since I enjoy seeing photos of different combinations of lenses and cameras, I thought some of you here might enjoy seeing a few as well.

D800w100to300a.jpgD7000w100to300ais1.jpgD800w18028ais1.jpgD800w18028ais2.jpgD800w18028ais3.jpgD800w18028ais4.jpgD7000w18028ais1.jpg
 

STM

Senior Member
Congrats! You are going to love that 180mm f/2.8. The lens is very sharp and contrasty and the depth of field at f/2.8 sufficiently shallow that focusing should be pretty easy on those screens you have in your cameras!
 

Eye-level

Banned
Here is what I was told long ago buy a man who owns many many Nikon cameras and over a 100 Nikkors. "The 105/1.8 is great fantastic lens but get the 105/2.5 instead. It is the one that has the magic."
 

Eye-level

Banned
I'm going to do something here I am not sure about doing but I think it will be okay...Google "Brian Sweeney + Sonnar" and just lurk through some of the threads and you will learn a little bit about said man...Brian is a very special photography person...You know the reason him and I had got onto that subject concerning the 105's was because I was asking him about speed namely the 85/1.5 and the 105/1.8...he educated me right away about the 105/2.5...what he said ^ and the fact that there are two versions of the venerable lens the first earlier ones being a 5 elements in 3 groups Sonnar version...I'm getting one one of these days because I'm a people photographer...and the later Gauss planar I think version...he told me to save my money on the 85/1.4 and get a 1.8 or 2.0...wish I would have got the 1.8 when he told me that because they have tripled in price since then...Brian's a neat guy...like I said go look at some of those threads...
 

STM

Senior Member
Here is what I was told long ago buy a man who owns many many Nikon cameras and over a 100 Nikkors. "The 105/1.8 is great fantastic lens but get the 105/2.5 instead. It is the one that has the magic."

I have had both and honestly the two are about even in every respect except bokeh and I honestly thinke the f/1.8 is a little better in that regards. The thing I like about the f/1.8 is I can drop it to f/2.8, a stop and a third down, and throw throw the background into very soft focus. You can't do that with the f/2.5 because although it is a fine lens, wide open it is not that all that fantastic and at f/4, the depth of field starts getting somewhat sharp.
 

crycocyon

Senior Member
So where are the damn 180 photos sir??? :)

So I did a lot of test shooting on the weekend and had to come up with a standardized way of shooting so I can compare across cameras and lenses so I decided to use the "Angel of Resolution". ;) Easy model to shoot because she doesn't move. Images taken raw, no post-processing.

First showing effect of aperture...entire shots (with D800, I did this also with the D7000)...

DSC_1134w180atf32s1b.jpg

Now at 100% crop.

DSC_1134w180atf32s.jpg

It holds up pretty well to f/16. A bit soft wide open, not surprisingly since this is not the ED lens.

A different comparison, this time between the D800 and D7000 using the 50 mm 1.4 G (I think at f/5.6)

D800LD7000Rw50f14g.jpg
 

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SkvLTD

Senior Member
Kinda wanna ask a newbie question about old zoom glass- so aperture is dialed in manually as is zoom and focus. On the current CPU lenses, maximum aperture per level of zoom is set automatically by the body.

I know there are lines that suggest appropriate maximums, but nothing forces you to adhere to that. So what would happen if you say, left it at 2.8 throughout the whole zoom range on an older lens?
 

Eye-level

Banned
I think that with the ancient lenses on a modern camera you are going to discover that they are all a bit soft wide open...that is my theory at least and I am sticking to it and that is partly why I don't shoot wide open! lol

SkvLTD...that is a darn good question I would like to know that myself.
 

STM

Senior Member
Kinda wanna ask a newbie question about old zoom glass- so aperture is dialed in manually as is zoom and focus. On the current CPU lenses, maximum aperture per level of zoom is set automatically by the body.

I know there are lines that suggest appropriate maximums, but nothing forces you to adhere to that. So what would happen if you say, left it at 2.8 throughout the whole zoom range on an older lens?

There are two types of zooms; one where maximum aperture remains constant regardless of focal length and those whose maximum aperture varies with focal length. Ones were the maximum aperture remains constant are most complex and therefore more expensive. With the old AI and AIS Nikkors, you simply set the aperture (of if you had an AIS, you could it to the smallest aperture in the shutter speed automation mode), and adjusted focus and focal length manually.
 

crycocyon

Senior Member
Here are sample images from the zoom taken at near closest focus (not macro) for 100, around 135, and 300 mm...shot at f/5.6 and had to bump up the ISO to 3200 on the D7000. Shot handheld with the built-in camera flash. The only postprocessing is a bit of lightening up of the images, otherwise they are as shot.

HelloK100mm.jpgHelloK135mm.jpgHelloK300mm.jpg

Ya, I know, I don't get out much. Just need to find the time. Plus I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit and for some green to appear. They say it has been much colder this time of year than last March. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I'll be honest with you all and say that I won't stick with these lenses as I need to focus (pun) on getting a couple of G lenses. But I do really enjoy the build quality and the type of images these Ai-S lenses render. And I am also waiting on an order of yet another Ai-S lens that essentially replaces the 100-300 zoom, so these two lenses help to offset the cost of that lens by a little bit. ;)

And yes, even our Hello Kitties use Nikons :p
 
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