D600 and Ai Ais lenses?

Eye-level

Banned
What do you think? How do they perform? Show us the snaps please! Does the sensor exceed the capabilities of the old lens formulas? What about video? Can you spin the aperture ring while you are shooting video?

G lens users need not apply... :)
 

STM

Senior Member
If you want to see what the AI/AIS Nikkors can do on a digital body, then look at any of my images. All of my lenses are AI/AIS Nikkors, either on film (scanned for here) or my D700. Don't let their vintage dissuade you, the are still some of the finest glass around and unlike so many of Nikon's latest lenses, they are built to a standard you unfortunately no longer from Nikon. Many of the "latest" Nikkors are nothing but the AIS Nikkor optical formulas in an AF lens barrel.

As for video, I can't comment since the D700 does not have video.
 

pedroj

Senior Member
What do you think? How do they perform? Show us the snaps please! Does the sensor exceed the capabilities of the old lens formulas? What about video? Can you spin the aperture ring while you are shooting video?

G lens users need not apply... :)

Whats happening here Jeff, D600?????
 

Eye-level

Banned
My premise is that it (D600) is intended to take on Canon's "hegemony" over the video folks...despite this "no changing aperture flaw" it doesn't matter because most hard core video folks use MF lenses anyways...will the D600 mounted with a Ais lens be able to change apertures? I bet so... ;)
 
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Eye-level

Banned
Yes Scott I know the D700 shoots the old lenses excellently...so does the D4 I bet...and I bet they suck on the D800 because of it's intense high MP resolution...

What do you all think?

​Specifically what I would like to know though is what about the D600?

BTW that is what I love most about the D700...it doesn't have no damn video... :)

I Am A Purist

Also sir... :)

There is not a AF lens in my household except for some camera phones, an I pad, and a couple of laptops...no AF Nikkors for sure...not that I wouldn't mind having a few..
 
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STM

Senior Member
Yes Scott I know the D700 shoots the old lenses excellently...so does the D4 I bet...and I bet they suck on the D800 because of it's intense high MP resolution...

What do you all think?

​Specifically what I would like to know though is what about the D600?

BTW that is what I love most about the D700...it doesn't have no damn video... :)

I Am A Purist

Also sir... :)

There is not a AF lens in my household except for some camera phones, an I pad, and a couple of laptops...no AF Nikkors for sure...not that I wouldn't mind having a few..

I honestly don't know where the oft-held misconception comes from that the AIS lenses are somehow optically inferior to the "latest" Nikkors. Many of the "new" Nikkors are simply AIS optical formulas carried over into autofocus. Why reinvent the wheel if the wheel is already perfectly round? And with the microprism screen I have in my D700, my eye's ability to accurately focus the lens is just as good as any autofocus system and a whole lot better and faster in lower light levels. And I never have to worry about the camera focusing on something other than what I wanted it to focus on, which can be especially critical in a lot of the portraiture work I do where I like to work only 1 stop down on fast lenses like my 180mm f/2.8 so as to throw the background completely out of focus. "New" does not always translate into "better". Any of you "old school" musicians out there will probably agree that many of the older tube-type amplifiers like the Marshall, Fender or Peavey's, are far better in a lot of respects than the newer solid state ones. They put out more power and if a tube blows, you simply replace it and it is a whole lot cheaper than replacing a circuit board or other solid state "guts".
 
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STM

Senior Member
It is a wonderful tactile experience to focus an AI/AIS Nikkor

I disagree with good ol' Kenny Rockwell on a lot of things, but when it comes to the "feel" of an AI/AIS Nikkor compared to a lot of the Nikkors today, we are in total lockstep. The ability to focus a lens, even one as long and heavy as the 180 f/2.8 with the standard "whole barrel" helical focusing with one finger only (my thumb in the case of that lens) is something that no other camera manufacturer, including Canon or Zeiss, ever achieved, though they certainly tried.
 
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