Author Topic: IR Mania with old Nikkors  (Read 17325 times)

Bjørn Rørslett

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IR Mania with old Nikkors
« on: June 01, 2017, 11:15:30 »
Some of the hidden virtues of the old Nikkors are their often surprisingly good performance for infrared (IR) photography. Most of my IR work thus is conducted with various venerable manual-focus Nikkors. Even the "dog" Nikkor, the 43-86 mm f/3.5 Zoom-Nikkor, turns in a healthy result with IR.

For true IR photography, a camera suitable for IR must of course be employed. Fortunately, many of the older or newer Nikons can do well once they have been modified for this purpose. It is a great way to "recirculate" old cameras no longer deemed useful for mainstream photography. Most of my IR cameras have had the internal filter pack (ICF) replaced by an IR long-pass filter, such as the popular R72-class with 50% transmittance at 720 nm, thus into the near IR. I have a suspicion that the CCD-typ sensor holds a slight upper edge against the current CMOs technology; however, the pixel numbers of the newer CMOS models surpass those of the CCD generation. So if sheer resolution potential is desirable, modifying a newer camera might be the preferred option in the end.

I used earlier Nikon D200 and d40X for Ir and still keep these cameras as a backup for my current IR main camera, which is a D5300. I landed on the D5300 as the first choice because it had good resolution (24 MPix), built-in GPS (very important to me), and fast-working LiveView. As virtually all of my manual-focus lenses are CPU-modified, lens compatibility was not an issue as far as camera selection was concerned.

I plan on showing results obtained in IR with old Nikkors in this thread. Contributions from other members are most welcome, but keep in mind the topic is the use of Nikkors, preferably the older ones.

Below is my current main IR camera, the D5300, with a true oldie attached to it. The lens is the Nikkor-T 105 mm f/4, a lens briefly produced in the late '60s as a spin-off from a similar design for the Nikon S rangefinders. In fact, the rangefinder 105T is identical except for the flared rear mounting part which obviously contained an S mount instead of the F mount shown here.


Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2017, 11:18:55 »
Some IR examples with D5300 and the 105/4 T Nikkor combination. All of these shot a few days ago in the Hvaler Archipelago, southeast Norway.


Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2017, 11:21:01 »
The 105T lens delivers nice and crisp IR images, despite its simple triplet optics.

Here is an example, with 100% crop presented.

bobfriedman

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2017, 11:25:11 »
an 8mm Fisheye-Nikkor from the past should qualify


Nikon D800E RG830,Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 Fisheye Ai-S
1/160s f/8.0 at 8.0mm iso200



the same scene 6 years earlier. . with a Nikkor-QD.C 15mm f/5.6 modified to hold a fuji TAC filter at the rear

Nikon D300S ,Nikkor-QD.C 15mm f/5.6, IR-84 TAC Filter
1/60s f/8.0 at 15.0mm iso200


and at 8 years earlier with a D200 UV-VIS-IR IR 920nm filter and a 20mm f/3.5 Ai-S

Nikon D200 ,Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 Ai-S
1/25s f/5.6 at 20.0mm iso250
Robert L Friedman, Massachusetts, USA
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bobfriedman

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2017, 11:36:11 »
a Nikkor 16mm f/3.5 AI Fisheye and a Fuji TAC IR 90 at the rear

Nikon D200 UV-VIS-IR ,Nikkor 16mm f/3.5 AI Fisheye
1/30s f/8.0 at 16.0mm iso160



and a Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 Nikkor-UD Auto with an RG1000 filter

Nikon D200 UV-VIS-IR,Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 Nikkor-UD Auto
1/13s f/8.0 at 20.0mm iso160
Robert L Friedman, Massachusetts, USA
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bobfriedman

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2017, 11:41:34 »
if anyone is interested i did a filter comparison of similar scenes with the Nikon D200 UV-VIS-IR and Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 Nikkor-UD Auto

found here http://www.pbase.com/bobfriedman/filter_comparison_mtauburn  make sure you select "original" under the image for best resolution
Robert L Friedman, Massachusetts, USA
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Fons Baerken

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2017, 17:06:47 »


Ir D5300, 20mm f/3.5ud

Fons Baerken

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2017, 22:08:22 »

Fons Baerken

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2017, 10:50:19 »

Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2017, 11:20:20 »
Nice IR examples, Fons. Care to share the technicalities such as lens and camera?

Fons Baerken

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2017, 12:19:04 »
Same as the first one D5300, 720nm, Nikkor-UD Auto 20mm f/3.5,
glad you like them.

Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2017, 12:23:41 »
Interesting we use the same IR camera. The 20/3.5 UD is one of my favourites for IR as well :D

Fons Baerken

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2017, 12:34:27 »
I see i made an error the first is actually the 85mm f/1.4 ais the other two are indeed the 20mm f/3.5, excuses for that.
There is another example in the weekly blog from this month.
D5300 was converted by a shop here in NL he offers a number of different cameras and filter options.

Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #13 on: June 02, 2017, 12:50:00 »
You are forgiven :D Without chipped lenses, it's all too easy to forget the settings of the non-CPU menu.

I have used the 85/1.4 AIS Nikkor for IR too, and it in fact can do UV in a passable fashion as well.

Bjørn Rørslett

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Re: IR Mania with old Nikkors
« Reply #14 on: June 02, 2017, 12:53:26 »
Here is D200 IR with the 20/3.5 UD Nikkor. I like the different impression it makes for IR work, but of course the graininess can be a bit on the strong side sometimes.

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