I sold most of my Nikon gear when I moved to Leica, but now that's gone I'm back with Nikon. I love how easy it is to re-acquire these amazing Nikkors, both financially and availability. It was fun trying out other gear, but I'm glad to be back home.
Remember that Nikon Df tagline? "It's in my hands again.."
BTW, I got a Z6II.. I love it!! The focus peaking is a real game changer with MFNG's. I can also use the record button to magnify the image on the VF while I slowly turn the focus ring. I love this combination!
What is everyone's favorite 20mm? I used to have a 20mm 3.5 Nikkor-UD and it was great, except for its propensity to flare. I'm looking at the 20 f/4 and 20 3.5 AIS, which one should I choose? I'm more concerned with central sharpness and colors, corners are not priority.
saph wrote:
Hi George, no, just not used for a little while. One of the last ones I did with that Bessa was in the pre-pandemic era (Jan last year), and funnily enough, also related to speeding - a UPS truck trying to make it through a railway crossing just in time.
Joseph, congrats, and welcome back home! I like the 20 UD, haven't tried the others.
I really like the finder on the Z6. I still miss the green dot from the Nikon DSLRs though. Focus peaking is okay, but in some situations, it can be hard to rely on solely. The image magnification does help.
Joseph. wrote:
What is everyone's favorite 20mm? I used to have a 20mm 3.5 Nikkor-UD and it was great, except for its propensity to flare. I'm looking at the 20 f/4 and 20 3.5 AIS, which one should I choose? I'm more concerned with central sharpness and colors, corners are not priority.
thanks
Hi Joseph, welcome back!
I have had both the 20 UD and the 20 f3.5 Ais. My copy of the UD always seemed to impart a yellowish cast to the images that required correction in Lightroom. Of the two I preferred the 20 f3.5 Ais for landscape work. The central sharpness was OK and flare resistance shooting into the sun was great. It was soft at the perimeter at distances though even stopped down. Could have been just my copies. Now I use the 24 f2 Ai for my landscapes. I am satisfied with it stopped down for that type of work. I have been tempted to see what the 20 f4 would be like for landscape work.
Scott
Scott & Samy - thank you for the feedback on the 20. I really liked my 20 UD as well but I need something more compact. I think I will try the 20 f/4..
No pretty flowers, vivid landscape or action street photos in this post.
Just good old hardware!
I am planning on primarily using Nikon S mount lenses adapted to my Z fc. But since they were designed for use on the Nikon S rangefinders with the additional helicoid on the camera, the focus throw on the lens itself was a little too loose for my liking adapted to the Z fc.
So I decided to put thicker grease on the lens helicoids. While I had them apart I decided to give it a good CLA.
Thought you may like to see the internals of one of these old classics.
The one disassembled is the 3.5cm f/2.5. The one mounted on the Z fc is the 2.8cm f/3.5. CLA already finished on that one.
Dust free, clear optics and focus as smooth as butter. They will definitely outlast me
GeorgeBo wrote:
No pretty flowers, vivid landscape or action street photos in this post.
Just good old hardware!
I am planning on primarily using Nikon S mount lenses adapted to my Z fc. But since they were designed for use on the Nikon S rangefinders with the additional helicoid on the camera, the focus throw on the lens itself was a little too loose for my liking adapted to the Z fc.
So I decided to put thicker grease on the lens helicoids. While I had them apart I decided to give it a good CLA.
Thought you may like to see the internals of one of these old classics.
The one disassembled is the 3.5cm f/2.5. The one mounted on the Z fc is the 2.8cm f/3.5. CLA already finished on that one.
Dust free, clear optics and focus as smooth as butter. They will definitely outlast me
Joseph. wrote:
What is everyone's favorite 20mm? I used to have a 20mm 3.5 Nikkor-UD and it was great, except for its propensity to flare. I'm looking at the 20 f/4 and 20 3.5 AIS, which one should I choose? I'm more concerned with central sharpness and colors, corners are not priority.
thanks
I used the 20mm f/3.5 AI for a long time. Soft at near infinity focus but great up close. All the sharper f-stops (f5.6 and f8) come with lots of vignetting, but the lens takes small 52mm filters, is lightweight and indestructible. It was my go-to ultrawide for hiking in the backcountry until I bought the 20mm f/1.8G. I haven't touched the manual lens since.
Before I got the AF lens I was researching other manual 20mm lenses and even though there may be sharper models out there than the one I have, all these lenses won't have the sharpness and contrast the modern lens has. If you like to shoot manual and you're not too picky about getting the most out of your sensor, almost any 20mm Nikon has ever made will do.
9 vertical frame stitch, good overlap, f/8 1/125s ISO 100 on tripod taken with the D600 back in 2014
GeorgeBo wrote:
No pretty flowers, vivid landscape or action street photos in this post.
Just good old hardware!
I am planning on primarily using Nikon S mount lenses adapted to my Z fc. But since they were designed for use on the Nikon S rangefinders with the additional helicoid on the camera, the focus throw on the lens itself was a little too loose for my liking adapted to the Z fc.
So I decided to put thicker grease on the lens helicoids. While I had them apart I decided to give it a good CLA.
Thought you may like to see the internals of one of these old classics.
The one disassembled is the 3.5cm f/2.5. The one mounted on the Z fc is the 2.8cm f/3.5. CLA already finished on that one.
Dust free, clear optics and focus as smooth as butter. They will definitely outlast me
What are you using to adapt S-mount lenses to Z-mount? Can you mount the internal mount lenses, or just external mount? I have a couple of S-mounts that I would like to try on my Z5, both internal and external mount.
