I really like using those old Ai/AIs mechanical lenses. my favourite is the 105mm f1.8. I miss when most of my lenses had a 52mm filter thread. With stiff focus then I would return it. It may be lubrication or it may have been dropped. Old Nikkors are usually very reliable...
Yeah oh man was the image nice! But yes, we have a trusty vintage lens repair shop here, and they said the lubrication was old and sticking. They would've had to ship it out to someone to take the whole lens apart to CLA it. It was just too expensive on top of the lens price and it would've taken long to get it back. Very sad to see it go, but hope to find another 85 AIS in the future!
AI-S lenses have cooler coatings that are particularly optimised for black and white. I prefer the 85 f2 because it has a 52mm filter thread. The 1.4 is a bit chunky for my liking.
@@RetroRocketStudios I have never owned a Nikon digital. When Canon went EF, I was like most photographers of the time, I switched to Canon. Although, come to think of it my Kodak DCS in 1992 had a Nikon N8008 partial body hacked onto the top of it that could take my old Nikkors. Other than that, I stuck with Canon until I went mirrorless, first Panasonic, then Sony, so I can use my Zeiss ZF2 lenses and old Nikkors on both systems. Happy with both MFT and Sony, so don't see myself going back to Nikon any time soon. Consequently I have no ability to try any of the Z lenses. I do stay loyal, however to my old AI-S lenses on SLR as well as Lumix and Sony mirrorless, and shoot film on both FA and FG. That is when I am at my happiest.
I could give that 85mm 1.4 a free cla for you. I have one I bought in worse condition and refurbished it up myself. I've become very familiar with it and it's actually a pretty simple lens. I'm surprised the lens tech made it seem like such a hassle.... I know this video is old but figured I'd try! I enjoy working on these lenses and want to see them keep being used.
Thank you! We actually ended up sending it back and found one that was in much better condition! But that’s great to know they’re actually pretty simple to do on your own. Thanks for watching!
Did the YT algo put you guys on some kind of lower priority? Weird seeing only 20 views after 7 hours .. :( Or it might be just a bug. Interesting talk though, keep it up guys! As for old vintage lenses, only a Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f/3.5 is at my disposal for Nikon F, but that lens isn't particularly sharp wide open, haha! Stopped down though, it can be useful on the telephoto end. Let's hope that Z9 arrives sooner than later!
Hey Mandula! YT must've done something or people just aren't finding this video as interesting as our others 🤷♂️ But we're doing this for fun and our own enjoyment though so we're not going to get too down on the views. We're glad you're interested!! Landon actually has a Visitor 35-70mm f/3.5-4.8 variable aperture K-mount for a Pentax ME Super 35mm film camera. It's not exactly sharp wide open either. Hopefully soon too, we're eager to make some Z9 content!
It's a sign of old age when the lenses I bought for photography are described as "vintage" or "legacy." Those were the dream lenses when I started photography! I've owned the 85 f/1.4 ais lens and loved it. The first place to get an idea of the condition of an older Nikon lens is the mount. Heavily used lenses will show a lot of brassing on the chrome. Another issue is whether the aperture blades are snappy. After that, shining a flash light into the lens will reveal if there is dust in the lens. If all that is good I wouldn't worry to much about stiff focus (long as it is smooth) as it is the lubrication. An easy fix on most Nikon lenses. It should be easy to find a good repair guy for that. A Nikon tech usually charges me about $20.00. Thanks for keeping the old stuff working and producing imaging!
Lol no never! Not old age, but trailblazer!! For having them back when they were brand NEW! That's fantastic. Since this video, Landon found a really great 85ais lens that had a much much smoother focus ring movement. I (Marc) did try to take the 85mm in this video to a repair shop and they said something like it would be more expensive than initially thought because they'd have to take it apart and they'd have to check first to see if parts were available in case something broke during the process... Something along those lines. All in all I could've taken it to another shop or tried to do it myself, but I decided it wasn't worth the cost or risk so I simply returned it. Of course then Landon turned around and found a perfect one on Ebay and now he owns one instead of me, I'm not bitter. He now loans it to me once in a while to film. But my gosh it's such a beautiful lens. Great hearing from you, thanks for watching! We both appreciate it! Let us know if you're interested in any other topics we could make videos on
Let's hope the new 85mm 1.2 S will not breathe. Sadly the 85mm 1.8 S is one of the few Z lenses that actually does breathe quite a bit - most don't but it does :(
Really?? The 85 1.8S breathes? Yikes, aw man, really hoping the new 85mm doesn't. Yeah the 85 AIS was such a beautiful image, I really hated to let it go, but the focus breathing and the focus ring issues were just too drastic. It would've eventually become cumbersome in critical situations. Really hoping the new 85 S lens is going to be stunning as well though!! I can't wait for that one. Thanks for watching Baron! -- Marc
Thanks for watching! I've actually discovered that it's not ALL that bad! Nikon has released a few firmware updates that allow the lens to remain focused even when turned off then back on. Then recently I animated a stop motion commercial with SYFY and I used my focus by wire lenses. They worked great with my animation software Dragonframe. It actually allowed me to change the focus distance incrementally directly from the software. So I ended up having more precise focus pulls because of it. But I get stop motion is kind of its own realm and not many people will be using these lenses for that. -Marc
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I really like using those old Ai/AIs mechanical lenses. my favourite is the 105mm f1.8.
I miss when most of my lenses had a 52mm filter thread.
With stiff focus then I would return it. It may be lubrication or it may have been dropped.
Old Nikkors are usually very reliable...
Yeah oh man was the image nice! But yes, we have a trusty vintage lens repair shop here, and they said the lubrication was old and sticking. They would've had to ship it out to someone to take the whole lens apart to CLA it. It was just too expensive on top of the lens price and it would've taken long to get it back. Very sad to see it go, but hope to find another 85 AIS in the future!
Loved this!!!
Thanks Mike!! Share it around! We like doing these little tech videos too, thanks for watching
I love using vintage / legacy glass for photography!
Great video guys!
That's great! See we were pretty sure we couldn't be the only ones! Happy shooting, thanks for watching! We appreciate it
@@RetroRocketStudios my pleasure! I've done a few reviews on vintage lenses on my channel!
@@acecreates which is your go to vintage lens??
@@RetroRocketStudios Anything 50mm. My first was a Konica Hexanon 50mm, such a beautiful lens!
@@acecreates Ah yes Landon loves his 50mm lenses too! they definitely are fun to shoot with. Do you shoot Nikon also?
AI-S lenses have cooler coatings that are particularly optimised for black and white. I prefer the 85 f2 because it has a 52mm filter thread. The 1.4 is a bit chunky for my liking.
We haven’t got our hands on an f2 yet but everyone has their preferences. The 1.4 is a chunky softball. Have you tried the new Z 85 1.2??
@@RetroRocketStudios I have never owned a Nikon digital. When Canon went EF, I was like most photographers of the time, I switched to Canon. Although, come to think of it my Kodak DCS in 1992 had a Nikon N8008 partial body hacked onto the top of it that could take my old Nikkors. Other than that, I stuck with Canon until I went mirrorless, first Panasonic, then Sony, so I can use my Zeiss ZF2 lenses and old Nikkors on both systems. Happy with both MFT and Sony, so don't see myself going back to Nikon any time soon. Consequently I have no ability to try any of the Z lenses. I do stay loyal, however to my old AI-S lenses on SLR as well as Lumix and Sony mirrorless, and shoot film on both FA and FG. That is when I am at my happiest.
@@artistjoh Oh that sounds like a great setup! The AI-S lenses have been great on one of our Nikon F4's also
I could give that 85mm 1.4 a free cla for you. I have one I bought in worse condition and refurbished it up myself. I've become very familiar with it and it's actually a pretty simple lens. I'm surprised the lens tech made it seem like such a hassle....
I know this video is old but figured I'd try! I enjoy working on these lenses and want to see them keep being used.
Thank you! We actually ended up sending it back and found one that was in much better condition! But that’s great to know they’re actually pretty simple to do on your own.
Thanks for watching!
Did the YT algo put you guys on some kind of lower priority? Weird seeing only 20 views after 7 hours .. :( Or it might be just a bug.
Interesting talk though, keep it up guys! As for old vintage lenses, only a Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f/3.5 is at my disposal for Nikon F, but that lens isn't particularly sharp wide open, haha! Stopped down though, it can be useful on the telephoto end.
Let's hope that Z9 arrives sooner than later!
Hey Mandula! YT must've done something or people just aren't finding this video as interesting as our others 🤷♂️ But we're doing this for fun and our own enjoyment though so we're not going to get too down on the views. We're glad you're interested!! Landon actually has a Visitor 35-70mm f/3.5-4.8 variable aperture K-mount for a Pentax ME Super 35mm film camera. It's not exactly sharp wide open either. Hopefully soon too, we're eager to make some Z9 content!
It's a sign of old age when the lenses I bought for photography are described as "vintage" or "legacy." Those were the dream lenses when I started photography! I've owned the 85 f/1.4 ais lens and loved it. The first place to get an idea of the condition of an older Nikon lens is the mount. Heavily used lenses will show a lot of brassing on the chrome. Another issue is whether the aperture blades are snappy. After that, shining a flash light into the lens will reveal if there is dust in the lens. If all that is good I wouldn't worry to much about stiff focus (long as it is smooth) as it is the lubrication. An easy fix on most Nikon lenses. It should be easy to find a good repair guy for that. A Nikon tech usually charges me about $20.00.
Thanks for keeping the old stuff working and producing imaging!
Lol no never! Not old age, but trailblazer!! For having them back when they were brand NEW! That's fantastic. Since this video, Landon found a really great 85ais lens that had a much much smoother focus ring movement. I (Marc) did try to take the 85mm in this video to a repair shop and they said something like it would be more expensive than initially thought because they'd have to take it apart and they'd have to check first to see if parts were available in case something broke during the process... Something along those lines. All in all I could've taken it to another shop or tried to do it myself, but I decided it wasn't worth the cost or risk so I simply returned it.
Of course then Landon turned around and found a perfect one on Ebay and now he owns one instead of me, I'm not bitter. He now loans it to me once in a while to film. But my gosh it's such a beautiful lens.
Great hearing from you, thanks for watching! We both appreciate it! Let us know if you're interested in any other topics we could make videos on
👏🏻
Thanks for watching!
Let's hope the new 85mm 1.2 S will not breathe. Sadly the 85mm 1.8 S is one of the few Z lenses that actually does breathe quite a bit - most don't but it does :(
Really?? The 85 1.8S breathes? Yikes, aw man, really hoping the new 85mm doesn't. Yeah the 85 AIS was such a beautiful image, I really hated to let it go, but the focus breathing and the focus ring issues were just too drastic. It would've eventually become cumbersome in critical situations. Really hoping the new 85 S lens is going to be stunning as well though!! I can't wait for that one. Thanks for watching Baron! -- Marc
focus by wire is awful!
Thanks for watching! I've actually discovered that it's not ALL that bad! Nikon has released a few firmware updates that allow the lens to remain focused even when turned off then back on.
Then recently I animated a stop motion commercial with SYFY and I used my focus by wire lenses. They worked great with my animation software Dragonframe. It actually allowed me to change the focus distance incrementally directly from the software. So I ended up having more precise focus pulls because of it. But I get stop motion is kind of its own realm and not many people will be using these lenses for that.
-Marc