Old School Nikon Primes

[David H. Hartman]

The various multi-coated 28/2.0 versions have extremely low flare and ghost.

Dave

[Frank Fremerey]

Here is a image of Mosquito's larva taken with 105mm f/4 micro+PN11+close-up noT3, (wrongly called as ''filter close up attachment'') and used here to get slightly bigger image without darken the shot too much.
Everything attached to my Df.
# 100 iso;
# 1/200 sec;
# f/16.
Note that I cropped the image.

Love you. We have to cook something together, with sonme serious light & cameras in the kitchen!

[Peter McLennan]

I agree with this.

Me, too.  My 28 2.8  isn't very sharp at infinity.

[tdoan]

Thank Keith, John, Dave, and Peter.  28 f/2, then 20 f/2.8, then 28 f/2.8 then

[the solitaire]

Even though the 28mm f2 has a bit more barrel shaped distortion then the 28 f2,8 Ai-S (do pick up the Ai-S rather then the Ai version. Worlds of difference between the two!) I personally preferred the distorted view of my 28mm f2 Nikkor-NC over that of the 28mm f2,8 in most cases. The extra stop of background seperation and the image sharpness and clarity really make the f2 version an excellent choice.

I do not quite see where the 20 f2,8 comes into the equation. It is such a different lens. With the 20's either pick up the latest or oldest. The 20mm f2,8 Ai-S has the sharpest center. The 20mm f3,5 Nikkor-UD the best overall sharpness with better corners but slightly less sharp center. Merits of the 20mm f4 and 20mm f3,5 Ai are merely small size and 52mm filter size but none optically. (ok, maybe flare resistance on the 20 f3,5 Ai)

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Not "maybe", but for with certainty. Combining the very flare resistant 20/3.5 (52 mm thread) with a K-1 has been the secret weapon for generations of nature photographers  ... It's right there at the top of the list with the 16/3.5 Fisheye-Nikkor and few others.

An old scan, but one gets the idea.

[John Koerner]

Yosemite National Park
The Tunnel View
Nikon D810 | Nikkor 15mm f/3.5 AI-S

[Bill De Jager]

Very nice composition, John, of a view that's normally presented in a very limited and stereotyped set of compositions.  I love the subtle variations in colors, textures, and lighting.

For those in other parts of the world, the brown pine trees visible throughout the photo have died due to bark beetle infestations triggered by the drought of the last 5 years in California.  Near-normal precipitation in the local area the past rainy season has not overcome the accumulated precipitation deficit, and trees badly infested with bark beetles continue to march inexorably towards their death.

[JJChan]

Thanks Bill - these insights are what makes NG!

Great photo John

JJ

[hety]

hi, dusted off the d50, bought a 20mm f4 a few months ago and here's the first wide angle pic.  found out that "shade" as white balance is saturated but way, way too warm so I had nudged it towards neutral and upped the saturation to get some color back. 

Also the picture is soft. Could be me not focusing properly. Been a long time since i did any artsy photography and spent more time blocking cars and houses with the big red tree.

overall, i'm happy with my first wide angle lens and the picture during lunch break.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The 20/4 Nikkor should be fairly sharp, but of correct focusing is helpful With a medium-resolution camera like the D50, some output sharpening might be required to bring back 'snap' in the image.

Most Nikons do well on Auto white balance. If one shoots in RAW format, certainly easier not to fiddle with the W/B settings and let the camera do the job, if necessary a "click-white" operation in the RAW conversion program later will put things on the right track anyway. a good practice

Your image has excessive pixel dimensions and is stored with massive jpg compression to bring down its size. This is not a recommended approach here at NG, not at all. A smaller dimensioned file allows much better image quality to be enjoyed.

I took the liberty of downloading your photo, rescaled it and added some sharpening to it. Seems pretty acceptable now and certainly not "soft".

[David H. Hartman]

Some nasty artificial light really benefits from a custom WB but since the my D300s and now with my D800 I seldom use anything but auto WB. I shoot NEF so I can touch up the WB if needed.

I dabble in video and that's where I'm most likely to use a custom or preset WB. Here is an example, a rather extreme one, of a cheap fluorescent twisty in a slightly amber colored hall lamp (auto v. custom)...

Dave

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The Auto w/b certainly is not infallible, and artificial lights are its Achilles heel. Consider in these situations there is hardly any blue present, though. Thus Custom w/b here really boosts the blue channel far beyond reasonable limits to give a facsimile of 'white', but there will be the inevitable rise in noise.

[Wannabebetter]

OK, thanks for the additional details.

I would have tried putting a close-up lens on the host lens before reversing it. Conjugate relationships would be better maintained. Also do note that without a narrow lens hood on the exposed rear end of the lens, the setup becomes very sensitive to stray light and potential loss of contrast. This of course due to the fact that a lot of the light entering the rear of the lens no longer can form an image.

The humble 36-72/3.5 Nikon SE is excellent for reversal using this principle. The added advantage is that one can fine-trim the composition by a little zooming in or out.

Conjugate; adj.; in mathematics (of an element) so related to a second element of a group that there exists a third element of the group that, multiplying one element on the right and the other element on the left, results in equal elements.

Now it, uh, adds-up?! Although I've been employing this methodology for many years since first reading of it, I never quite understood exactly how the 1+1=3 ethereal aesthetic outcome was attained.

[rosko]

Your image has excessive pixel dimensions and is stored with massive jpg compression to bring down its size. This is not a recommended approach here at NG, not at all. A smaller dimensioned file allows much better image quality to be enjoyed.

I took the liberty of downloading your photo, rescaled it and added some sharpening to it. Seems pretty acceptable now and certainly not "soft".

This is a masterful demo !