I've got a bunch of old Nikon glass, and some of it is no surprise. The 105/2.5 and the old 85/1.8 are good, but I expected them to be. The 50/2AI is as good as ever. But a couple of things have been, and one of my most recent Nikkors was the 1962 or so version of the 200/F4Q. This is a somewhat clumsy looking lens, with a close focus distance of ten feet, and this particular example, bought for $5.00, had a missing hood detent, a loose barrel, stiff focusing, and commensurately rough appearance. The old type with screw-on flange that Nikon counts as non convertible to AI had been hacked into AI compliance with some tool that most would not keep in the same room as a lens. But the glass was OK. The surprise, of course, is that the thing is magically good. It's sharp, the out of focus rendition is juicy, the colors lush, it has no objection to long stacks of extension tubes, and it's fairly easy to focus even on a D3200's cheesy little viewfinder. I would never have thought of this as a great bug chasing lens, but it is.
Another one, which I've had for a long time, was the 28/3.5. This is also the very old sort with a non-removable rear flange, and not converted to AI. But it works fine on the D3200. On a full frame film camera, this was a ho hum lens of middling quality that I rarely bothered to use. But it's a late bloomer. On DX digital, it lights up. I haven't bothered to hack this one up to fit on the D7100, because I suspect that when the D3200 gets IR converted, as I intend soon, it will find a new life. I'm sure that will come as no surprise to Bjorn, who has reported on it. I had forgotten it on some back shelf until his account reminded me to try it.
