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Archive 2011 · How good is Nikon 28ais

johnahill
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Close-up and wide open, I love this lens.
It makes me smile everytime i use it wide-open at mfd.

Jul 27, 2011 at 12:46 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · How good is Nikon 28ais

VERY GOOD !!!

Jul 27, 2011 at 12:47 PM

leo11877
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · How good is Nikon 28ais

I was thinking about this lens (F2.8?) on Crop for portraits. Do you have any such examples? The above shots are excellent.

Jul 27, 2011 at 01:12 PM

Gunzorro
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Jonah -- The lens has awesome MFD, very good color, and as you have found, and good bokeh in that regard. It has a floating element assembly to aid in close up photography.

I owned the 28/2 AIS, but the characteristics that are working to your benefit in this specialiazed use, were the factors that made it a poor choice for many other types of photography -- mainly severe curvature of field, as with the Nikon 35/2 and 24/2 designs that I tried. I call it an "horseshoe effect" with the focus on the sides of the frame bending severely toward the lens (the Zeiss 50MP macro seems to exhibit the opposite curvature effect). This helps render the sides of your images softer -- good for close up and portrait, bad for flat field subjects that includes most architecture and some landscapes.

I sold mine a few months ago.

But for your use, enjoy!

Jul 27, 2011 at 01:25 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Not sure about portraits, but here's an old one cropped and converted ... FF first.

flower28aisIMG_8997 by Rusty Bug, on Flickr

flower28aisppcropBWIMG_8997 by Rusty Bug, on Flickr

Jul 27, 2011 at 01:27 PM

j.liam
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Gunzorro wrote:
Jonah -- The lens has awesome MFD, very good color, and as you have found, and good bokeh in that regard. It has a floating element assembly to aid in close up photography.

I owned the 28/2 AIS, but the characteristics that are working to your benefit in this specialiazed use, were the factors that made it a poor choice for many other types of photography -- mainly severe curvature of field, as with the Nikon 35/2 and 24/2 designs that I tried. I call it an "horseshoe effect" with the focus on the sides of the frame bending severely toward...Show more →

the 28/2.8 AIS is astonishingly good close up, well demonstrated by Jonah, but really average (or worse) for objects at distance. Some even refer to it as their WA macro lens. In this regard, probably best viewed as a specialty lens rather than general purpose WA. The 28/2 does that job better.

Jul 27, 2011 at 03:25 PM

johnahill
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · How good is Nikon 28ais

I think it's usable at distance when stopped down to f8 or f11, but my copy at least is not a world beater at infinity, it's decent but not outstanding.

The review at 16:9.net suggest you need to try several copies to get a good one for infinity use.

Jul 27, 2011 at 04:10 PM

j.liam
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · How good is Nikon 28ais

For landscape and such, I'd probably opt for the Z* 2/28 or Leica R 28 Elmarit v.2

Trying to get an all-purpose anything is a bit of an exercise in futility. Optical designs are compromises at one end or the other. Few can excel at all distances, like the CV 125, Zeiss 2/100, Leica R 180 Elmarit APO or Leica R 280 Telyt APO.

Edited on Jul 27, 2011 at 05:17 PM · View previous versions

Jul 27, 2011 at 05:09 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Oly 28/3.5 or C/Y 28/2.8 ... landscape duties, although, I'd like to have the Leica as well.

Jul 27, 2011 at 05:15 PM

bluetsunami
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · How good is Nikon 28ais

leo11877 wrote:
I was thinking about this lens (F2.8?) on Crop for portraits. Do you have any such examples? The above shots are excellent.

This is actually the 28/2 AI but here's a very close portrait of my niece...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/5723124508_30fa30891c_b.jpg

And I've had a love hate relationship with my 28/2 when it comes to infinity (definitely heard similar things about the 2.8). I think its because my lens focuses past infinity by a smidge which is hard to judge on my Rebel XT's viewfinder.

Jul 27, 2011 at 05:56 PM

leo11877
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Thank You. I guess it gets sharp stopped down a notch?

Jul 27, 2011 at 08:11 PM

uhoh7
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · How good is Nikon 28ais

The 28/3.5 PC is pretty sharp at infinity, I have 28/2 AI also, I should do some comparisons.

infinity is always a beastly matter, but a lens that resolves really great at such distance is awful nice to have.

No doubt this lens is one of the great close up 28s ever.

Jul 27, 2011 at 09:36 PM

flashinm
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · How good is Nikon 28ais

I just tested a copy that was terrible at infinity. I thought something must be wrong with it, but maybe not.

Jul 27, 2011 at 09:51 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · How good is Nikon 28ais

One thing about WA's at inifinity ... if you aren't using it on the native mount, the adapter thickness, can rear its head on WA glass more so than might be noticeable on longer glass.

Jul 27, 2011 at 10:13 PM

flashinm
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · How good is Nikon 28ais

No doubt, but this was at 5.6 and focused with live view so it should have been sharp.

Jul 28, 2011 at 12:03 AM

Gunzorro
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · How good is Nikon 28ais

My 28/2 AIS was pretty good at infinity, but that wrap-around focus was strange. Some subjects in landscape were extremely well suited, and it acted similar to a tilt lens, for bringing close and far things into focus at fairly wide aperture like 5.6.

For overall sharpness, I found both 35/2 copies (AI and AIS) I owned to be quite a bit superior to the 28/2.

But not trying to rain on your parade -- I have or have had several special use lenses. Nothing wrong with that. Great pictures for what they are good at.

Jul 28, 2011 at 12:23 AM

johnahill
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Just to add to what's been said above, I've also got other 28's that I use for more regular landscape work - Leica 28v2 and ZF25.

I just like the impressionistic vibe of the 28/2.8 ais at close-focus and wide open

It's great value too.

Jul 28, 2011 at 01:21 AM

Krosavcheg
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · How good is Nikon 28ais

John, is it 28/2 or 28/2.8? Love the shots, especially the 2nd flower shot!

Jul 28, 2011 at 02:34 AM

johnahill
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · How good is Nikon 28ais

Sorry for any confusion, it's the 2.8 ais that i've got, it's the one with mfd of 0.2meters.

I'm on my second Ais lens now (excluding Zf

) as I've got the 105/2.5 too, and love the build of these old ais lenses, the focus is precise and smooth but also quite lightly dampened compared some some others.

Anyone recommend any other specially gifted ais lenses to try out? I'm on a roll with this old nikon glass

Jul 28, 2011 at 04:23 AM

LightShow
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · How good is Nikon 28ais

I'll have to see how my 28/3.5 does at mfd.

Jul 28, 2011 at 06:57 AM

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