APO (or near) Lenses in Nikon F-Mount

[Michael Erlewine]

I am intrigued by the report of Lloyd Chambers on the built-in focus stacking in the D850. He loves it. I might like to try it out, but I have very few autofocus lenses because I don't use autofocus... much.

I would appreciate hearing about ANY lenses for Nikon F-Mount (having autofocus) that are highly corrected (approximating APO-level). Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Akira]

Tamron 85mm f1.8 VC USD seems to be one of the candidates, according to Sten's comparison test with AF-S Nikkor 85/1.8:

http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,3866.0.html

Also, Tamron looks better than AF-S 105/1.4E ED in terms of LoCA correction:

https://www.lenstip.com/472.5-Lens_review-Tamron_SP_85_mm_f_1.8_Di_VC_USD_Chromatic_and_spherical_aberration.html

https://www.lenstip.com/492.5-Lens_review-Nikon_Nikkor_AF-S_105_mm_f_1.4E_ED_Chromatic_and_spherical_aberration.html

That said, I'm not sure if this third-party lens is compatible with the in-camera focus stack of D850.

[KarlMera]

Sigma 2,8 150 OS macro.

[Roland Vink]

Doesn't the AFS 300/4 PF have very low LoCA? The focal length and working distance will be on the long side, but it does get to 1:4.1, which should be enough for the sort of work Michael does (although I recall he found the 135/2 ZF too long, it gets to 1:4 same as the 300PF but has only half the focal length...)

[Frank Fremerey]

All four are not APO.

APO lenses are designated as such by focussing all three basic colors into one point (correcting for the frequency dependence of the refraction).

The effort and price for that is so high that companies will always advertize it. I only have APO lenses for Large format: AMED Nikkor 120mm (AMED = Apo Macro Extreme low Dispersion) and the Schneider APO Digitar 120mm N°48

Autofocus APO in F-Mount??? Gosh. I would sure be interested!

Apart from that I own three of the mentioned four lenses and all of them are great performers and I really love to shoot them.

For the kind of work that Michael does none is useful

[Michael Erlewine]

The ticket here is APO lenses that are in F-Mount that have a modern autofocus. Like Frank, I have a number of APO lenses, plenty of them, but they are not autofocus lenses. I did have the Sigma 180mm F/2.8 Macro (the newest version), but was not that impressed by it.

I have the Sigma f/1.4 24mm lens in F-Mount, but while it is a nice lens, it is not really an APO lens, even though that term has no standard definition. I have the Nikkor 105mm Macro VR, but that is not APO by a long shot. And so on...

There is a great need for an Otus-quality macro lens that has autofocus. In fact, we are long overdue for a really great macro lens for the Nikon mount, with or without autofocus, one that is well corrected.

My point is that if we want to try out the new focus-stacking option in the Nikon D850, we need a lens with autofocus. Getting that in an APO format seems not too probable, but you would think the lens makers would figure out that such a lens is needed. 

I corresponded with Zeiss (a lens expert) for an Otus macro lens and his response was that they would have to sell 10,000 of them to consider making one. Ouch!

[armando_m]

Sigma 2,8 150 OS macro.

+1 on it being APO and AF

but ... I never seem to get images sharp enough, either my technique is flawed or my copy is not that sharp, also the DXO measurements are not that great

I have tried a couple of times to sell it with no buyers showing interest

[KarlMera]

Nikon AF Micro 4 200mm and Sigma OS 2,8 105mm.

[John Geerts]

The Nikkor 80/2.8   

"This lens features very superior aberration correction and no major shortcomings."

http://imaging.nikon.com/history/story/0023/index.htm

[Bill Mellen]

+1 on it being APO and AF

but ... I never seem to get images sharp enough, either my technique is flawed or my copy is not that sharp, also the DXO measurements are not that great

I have tried a couple of times to sell it with no buyers showing interest

I have the pre optically stabilized version of this lens and really like the images I get from it on my D4.

[Roland Vink]

The Nikkor 80/2.8   

"This lens features very superior aberration correction and no major shortcomings."

http://imaging.nikon.com/history/story/0023/index.htm

This lens belongs to the first group of AF lenses for the F3-AF. The only other camera which will AF these lenses is the F4. With other camera models, the different arrangement of CPU pins will cause the battery to run flat - Bjorn has more experience on this.

Getting back to APO etc, if I can ask a silly question (I have no experience with focus stacking ...) we know lateral CA can easily be corrected with software, surely that should not be too much of a problem, apart from adding an extra step to the work flow. Longitudinal CA is not easily fixed with software but it shows up mainly in front and behind the focus plane, and focus stacking software is mainly using the in-focus part of the stacked images to build up a composite picture. So if lateral CA can be fixed, and longitudinal is not relevant why is it so important for the lens to be APO? Of course it helps if the source images are high quality as possible, but maybe the quest for APO is being given more importance than it really merits. If the lens is very sharp but not perfectly APO, maybe that is good enough?

As for which Nikon AF lenses are near APO, the current super-telephotos starting with the AFS 200/2 and bigger are very highly corrected. The large size of these lenses and long focal length is probably not practical for Michael's requirements. Among the shorter AF lenses, the only ones that might be close are:
- 300/4 PF - which has well controlled LoCA and focuses reasonably close (as noted earlier)
- AFS 105/1.4 - very well corrected, might come close to APO stopped down, but might not focus close enough?
- AFS 70-200FL - Very well corrected. Being a zoom, corner sharpness may not be as good as primes, but Michael's subjects are usually central with the corners in the background, so that is not an issue.
- there may be some third party lenses as already mentioned.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The 80/2.8 AF is really a good performer, but pretty awkward to focus as there is significant play in the focusing collar if focusing is conducted manually, and as we cannot use ordinary AF, manual operation is the only option.

[Frank Fremerey]

The ticket here is APO lenses that are in F-Mount that have a modern autofocus. Like Frank, I have a number of APO lenses, plenty of them, but they are not autofocus lenses. I did have the Sigma 180mm F/2.8 Macro (the newest version), but was not that impressed by it.

I have the Sigma f/1.4 24mm lens in F-Mount, but while it is a nice lens, it is not really an APO lens, even though that term has no standard definition. I have the Nikkor 105mm Macro VR, but that is not APO by a long shot. And so on...

There is a great need for an Otus-quality macro lens that has autofocus. In fact, we are long overdue for a really great macro lens for the Nikon mount, with or without autofocus, one that is well corrected.

My point is that if we want to try out the new focus-stacking option in the Nikon D850, we need a lens with autofocus. Getting that in an APO format seems not too probable, but you would think the lens makers would figure out that such a lens is needed. 

I corresponded with Zeiss (a lens expert) for an Otus macro lens and his response was that they would have to sell 10,000 of them to consider making one. Ouch!

As I told you, there IS a standard definition of Apochromat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apochromat

"Apochromatic lenses are designed to bring three wavelengths (typically red, green, and blue) into focus in the same plane."

[BW]

I have the pre optically stabilized version of this lens and really like the images I get from it on my D4.

I have the same lens and its razor sharp on any camera I have tried with. Including the D850.

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

As I told you, there IS a standard definition of Apochromat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apochromat

"Apochromatic lenses are designed to bring three wavelengths (typically red, green, and blue) into focus in the same plane."

Don't even bother Frank, people will say what they want to say, what they "feel" apochromatic is.

I know Michael and his work, but most contributors will not even look at it, to understand what his
needs are and what he really is after. Let me predict this: there is no AF APO lens which will satisfy
Michael's requirements.