I own a bunch of different Nikkor 50 1.4 and there are big rendering differences between my multicoated Nikkor S.C pre AI and the AI-S The pre-AI has massive flare at 1.4 even if fine details are there. I use it for glowy dreamy scenes, strongly backlit scene I want creamy The AI-S has quite no more flare at 1.4 with finer details, a fabulous lens for it's age My 50 1.4 AFD is even a bit sharper than my AI-S, it's my best vintage Nikkor 50 1.4 The AFD is even better than the newer AF-S G I've sold Clearly at 5.6 or 8 all are very good
The older less sharp and contrasty lenses are nice and take great portraits. While your nieces are young and blessed with the smooth clear skin most women and some men would rather have the softer rendering of the older lenses as apposed to the sharp show every pore and imperfection that newer lenses will render.
You are correct. However, given the choice I would usually want to shoot with the newer sharper lenses, since I can always soften the image in Photoshop. As always Sophie, I appreciate your comments.
I don’t know if the lens formula is the same, but I love my 50mm af-d f/1.4. At f/2 is beautiful. Rendering is unique both on Full frame and APS-C. Thank you for the detail analysis and usage. Keep the great videos.
I bought that 1.4 fifty while stationed in Germany in 1968 . The Canadian BX sold me that lens for $61 and a new Nikon FTN . For ..$144 . I thought they was a fortune as a GI living on $300 a month :) long long ago
I like the rendering that that lens does. At 1.4 it does a very nice job, but you can see that depth of field is extremely shallow. anyway, thank you for showing the qualities of this lens.
@@leod1671 I like better today than I did 50 years ago. It’s easier to focus on mirrorless than it was on my Nikkormat and the sensor on the Z8 gives me excellent results with these old lenses. Thanks for watching.
I just bought a Nikkor 200mm F1:4 Ai non converted. Large, fluted focus control. It will not mount as per-other non-Ai lenses on my Nikon D70s. It has the original metal shade. I have an adaptor for F Nikon manual lenses to my Canon DSLR's. It seems to do better set to auto aperture than manual setting on the dial. I still use my old Tamron adaptal 2 lenses on the D70s setting to "M" plus the lever switch by the lens mount to manual. Or else it will not take pictures.
@@robertsaunders5740 The 200 F4 is an excellent sharp lens. I have the newer Ai version, it’s multi coated and focuses closer. Thanks for watching and your comments
@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 Silly me, I just pulled out my FE auto body and tried it. Then seen that I was trying to mount it on my D70s with the lugs in the wrong position. Test shots of my power pole say's great. I have a 135mm and 24mm non- Ai lenses found at a thrift store, and they would need to be converted. But with the Fotodiox to Canon EF adaptor they work. My preferred lens test is to take pictures of the tops of cell phone towers for sharpness. The Osprey on the nest was a plus. But someone had to climb up there and evict it.
Thank you for all the videos and your hard work. when doing comparison videos of vintage lens are you able to take some pictures of the same thing with a modern lens just so we can compare the images? its hard to distinguish if the lens is any good because there is nothing to compare it to. thank you.
Thank you for your comments. I do compare newer lenses with older lenses from time to time. I prefer testing lenses in the way they will be used. In the real world. Many times when on vacation, or with friends and family it is difficult to shoot one lens then the other. So when I compare lenses I usually use a test setup in my house, keeping the lighting exactly the same and the camera on a tripod. That works fine for testing sharpness at a given distance but not for seeing how the lenses compare, for example, at infinity. In almost every case the latest Z mount lenses are sharper and have more contrast than the older manual focus lenses and in many cases they are even better than the F mount auto focus lenses. In the near future I will try and test a few of the Z mount lenses against some F mount manual focus lenses in the real world. Thank for watching.
Great video. I enjoy all of your videos.I loved using my old vintage lenses on my Z7 until their last update 3.70. I can no longer see non-cpu lense information only F- -. I have contacted them , but do not seem to care on fixing this issue. I am seriously re thinking Nikon mirrorless since their Quality Control did not catch this before releasing to the public
@@paulbunns947 Thank you Paul. I was unaware of this issue. I have no issues using old lenses on my Z6 and Z8 with the latest firmware. Only the maximum aperture that you put in non CPU lens data shows in the EXIF data.
@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 not sure if this is only for the Z7. My non-cpu lenses worked fine before the update from firmware version 3.60 to 3.70. I also purchased a FTZii adapter thinking my FTZ may be defective. It would be interesting if anyone else has this issue with the Z7. You can not go backwards on firmware without the chance of bricking your camera. Thank you for your response.
I own a bunch of different Nikkor 50 1.4 and there are big rendering differences between my multicoated Nikkor S.C pre AI and the AI-S
The pre-AI has massive flare at 1.4 even if fine details are there. I use it for glowy dreamy scenes, strongly backlit scene I want creamy
The AI-S has quite no more flare at 1.4 with finer details, a fabulous lens for it's age
My 50 1.4 AFD is even a bit sharper than my AI-S, it's my best vintage Nikkor 50 1.4
The AFD is even better than the newer AF-S G I've sold
Clearly at 5.6 or 8 all are very good
@@jean-claudemuller3199 I never owned the 50 1.4 AFD, I do have the 50 1.8 AFD. It’s a decent performer. Thanks for watching and your comments.
The older less sharp and contrasty lenses are nice and take great portraits. While your nieces are young and blessed with the smooth clear skin most women and some men would rather have the softer rendering of the older lenses as apposed to the sharp show every pore and imperfection that newer lenses will render.
You are correct. However, given the choice I would usually want to shoot with the newer sharper lenses, since I can always soften the image in Photoshop. As always Sophie, I appreciate your comments.
Nice review and beautiful images.
@@carbonejack Thank you for watching and your comments.
I don’t know if the lens formula is the same, but I love my 50mm af-d f/1.4. At f/2 is beautiful. Rendering is unique both on Full frame and APS-C. Thank you for the detail analysis and usage. Keep the great videos.
@@starscream25 Thanks for watching and your comments.
I bought that 1.4 fifty while stationed in Germany in 1968
. The Canadian BX sold me that lens for $61 and a new Nikon FTN . For ..$144 . I thought they was a fortune as a GI living on $300 a month :) long long ago
@@easygoingbutgoing That was a good deal. My Nikkormat FTN with the 50 1.4 was 275.00 in 1972. Thanks for watching and your comments.
I like the rendering that that lens does. At 1.4 it does a very nice job, but you can see that depth of field is extremely shallow. anyway, thank you for showing the qualities of this lens.
@@leod1671 I like better today than I did 50 years ago. It’s easier to focus on mirrorless than it was on my Nikkormat and the sensor on the Z8 gives me excellent results with these old lenses. Thanks for watching.
Nikkors Pre Ai are the best!!! 🤙👏👍🇦🇷
@@arielgajda3335 When I got started in photography there was only Pre Ai, so they have a special place in my collection. Thanks for watching.
I just bought a Nikkor 200mm F1:4 Ai non converted. Large, fluted focus control. It will not mount as per-other non-Ai lenses on my Nikon D70s. It has the original metal shade. I have an adaptor for F Nikon manual lenses to my Canon DSLR's. It seems to do better set to auto aperture than manual setting on the dial. I still use my old Tamron adaptal 2 lenses on the D70s setting to "M" plus the lever switch by the lens mount to manual. Or else it will not take pictures.
@@robertsaunders5740 The 200 F4 is an excellent sharp lens. I have the newer Ai version, it’s multi coated and focuses closer. Thanks for watching and your comments
@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 Silly me, I just pulled out my FE auto body and tried it. Then seen that I was trying to mount it on my D70s with the lugs in the wrong position. Test shots of my power pole say's great. I have a 135mm and 24mm non- Ai lenses found at a thrift store, and they would need to be converted. But with the Fotodiox to Canon EF adaptor they work. My preferred lens test is to take pictures of the tops of cell phone towers for sharpness. The Osprey on the nest was a plus. But someone had to climb up there and evict it.
I used my PILOT, silver marker pen to put a line on the barrel aligned with the white dot on the body. This may help other folks.
Thank you for all the videos and your hard work. when doing comparison videos of vintage lens are you able to take some pictures of the same thing with a modern lens just so we can compare the images? its hard to distinguish if the lens is any good because there is nothing to compare it to. thank you.
Thank you for your comments. I do compare newer lenses with older lenses from time to time. I prefer testing lenses in the way they will be used. In the real world. Many times when on vacation, or with friends and family it is difficult to shoot one lens then the other. So when I compare lenses I usually use a test setup in my house, keeping the lighting exactly the same and the camera on a tripod. That works fine for testing sharpness at a given distance but not for seeing how the lenses compare, for example, at infinity. In almost every case the latest Z mount lenses are sharper and have more contrast than the older manual focus lenses and in many cases they are even better than the F mount auto focus lenses. In the near future I will try and test a few of the Z mount lenses against some F mount manual focus lenses in the real world. Thank for watching.
Have it with the correct lens hood.
It's always nice to have the correct hood. I do for many of my manual focus lenses, but not all. Thanks for watching.
Great video. I enjoy all of your videos.I loved using my old vintage lenses on my Z7 until their last update 3.70. I can no longer see non-cpu lense information only F- -. I have contacted them , but do not seem to care on fixing this issue. I am seriously re thinking Nikon mirrorless since their Quality Control did not catch this before releasing to the public
@@paulbunns947 Thank you Paul. I was unaware of this issue. I have no issues using old lenses on my Z6 and Z8 with the latest firmware. Only the maximum aperture that you put in non CPU lens data shows in the EXIF data.
@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 not sure if this is only for the Z7. My non-cpu lenses worked fine before the update from firmware version 3.60 to 3.70. I also purchased a FTZii adapter thinking my FTZ may be defective. It would be interesting if anyone else has this issue with the Z7. You can not go backwards on firmware without the chance of bricking your camera. Thank you for your response.
@@paulbunns947 Was there a firmware update for the FTZ?
@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 Yes and was updated several firmware updates before the latest