Digital BW, The Print

I am looking at one of the mirrorless cameras I have about a dozen old Nikkor Lenses and know that with an adapter these will fit and can be used in manual mode. Knowing that the "Kit" lenses are usually a bit poor at the edges and corners I wondered if anyone had any experience with these full format lenses when used with a 3/4 sized sensor. At first thought it seems that these lenses would have the center of their usable image area over the sensor so sharpness should be better in this respect but with no experience and no equipment to measure these I do not know if this is a reasonable expectation. I am mostly considering using my 20 24 and 35 mm lenses I have 3 Nikkor zooms but they are really heavy and might not be all that better than the Kit Lens. Time and technology may have made this less of an option compared to newer lenses these older at the time high quality lenses may not compare well to newer lenses. It just seems the lense options for these cameras are rather limited and if I could use something I already owned it would be a positive for this choice.

Appreciate any thoughts on this topic.

Bill Lewis

They should work fine assuming you can get an adapter. People shoot DX bodies on FX lenses all the time.. 

jimbo

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: billdlewis 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, November 23, 2012 8:21 AM
  Subject: [Digital BW] old lens for new camera


    
  I am looking at one of the mirrorless cameras I have about a dozen old Nikkor Lenses and know that with an adapter these will fit and can be used in manual mode. Knowing that the "Kit" lenses are usually a bit poor at the edges and corners I wondered if anyone had any experience with these full format lenses when used with a 3/4 sized sensor. At first thought it seems that these lenses would have the center of their usable image area over the sensor so sharpness should be better in this respect but with no experience and no equipment to measure these I do not know if this is a reasonable expectation. I am mostly considering using my 20 24 and 35 mm lenses I have 3 Nikkor zooms but they are really heavy and might not be all that better than the Kit Lens. Time and technology may have made this less of an option compared to newer lenses these older at the time high quality lenses may not compare well to newer lenses. It just seems the lense options for these cameras are rather limited and if I could use something I already owned it would be a positive for this choice.

  Appreciate any thoughts on this topic.

  Bill Lewis



  
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On 11/23/2012 04:21 PM, billdlewis wrote:
> I am looking at one of the mirrorless cameras I have about a dozen
> old Nikkor Lenses and know that with an adapter these will fit and
> can be used in manual mode. Knowing that the "Kit" lenses are
> usually a bit poor at the edges and corners I wondered if anyone had
> any experience with these full format lenses when used with a 3/4
> sized sensor. At first thought it seems that these lenses would have
> the center of their usable image area over the sensor so sharpness
> should be better in this respect but with no experience and no
> equipment to measure these I do not know if this is a reasonable
> expectation. I am mostly considering using my 20 24 and 35 mm lenses
> I have 3 Nikkor zooms but they are really heavy and might not be all
> that better than the Kit Lens. Time and technology may have made this
> less of an option compared to newer lenses these older at the time
> high quality lenses may not compare well to newer lenses. It just
> seems the lense options for these cameras are rather limited and if I
> could use something I already owned it would be a positive for this
> choice.
>
> Appreciate any thoughts on this topic.
>
> Bill Lewis
>
>

I have several Canon FD lenses and my son's Pen PL-1 + some cheap
Chinese Fotodo adapters. Sure the best part of the lenses optical angle
is used but for little money you can get C-mount (25 thread) lenses that
cover the same 4/3 sensor with less weight and size. My 2 Schneider Xenon
50mm f/2 C-mount lenses on that small camera are optically as good in my
opinion, very nice portrait focal length. To get equal DOF on same size
prints the 4/3 lenses should be much faster though and f/0.95 C-mount
lenses are not uncommon. Wide angles going down to 10 or 12mm exist too.
Your 24 mm on a 4/3 is a normal lens in practice, a big one then.

With an APS size sensor like on the NEX models it may be more rewarding
to use full frame lenses.

just an opinion

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
450+ inkjet paper white spectral plots, November 2012:
rearranged categories, still adding Photokina paper samples.

billdlewis <bill-lewis@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> I am looking at one of the mirrorless cameras I have about a dozen old
> Nikkor Lenses and know that with an adapter these will fit and can be used
> in manual mode. ...  I am mostly considering using my 20 24 and 35 mm
> lenses ...Time and technology may have made this less of an option compared
> to newer lenses these older at the time high quality lenses may not compare
> well to newer lenses. ...
>
I think mirrorless through the lens viewing has a huge future.  From my
perspective one of the great things about it is that once the SLR mirror is
eliminated, the wide angle lenses can be made much better.  I switched to
rangefinders in my medium format days and again with digital.  I don't
think the SLR retrofocus wide angles can compete at the top level.

I've been following the Leica evolution as well as that of the other
mirrorless approaches.  One of the interesting factors with the Leica is
the importance of the microlenses over the sensor that help reduce wide
angle light falloff due to reflection off the sensor.  Retrofocus designs
also have less falloff.  So, there are some countervailing factors and
trade-offs.  Most of the newer wide angels for digital rangefinders are
somewhat retrofocus, but not as much as was needed for the SLRs.

It turns out that the microlenses over the sensor that, for example, Leica
uses, also have to be optimized for a range of focal lengths.  So, for
example, the soon to be released Leica M CMOS, with live view among other
things, is designed to use the old Leica R optics (with an adapter).  This
has required Leica to take the full range of those optics into
consideration, which is a longer range than they considered for the M9.  As
such, one has to wonder if the new CMOS M will perform as well as the old
CCD (a version of which will be kept in production, probably for some very
good reasons) with wide angle lenses.

A camera that looks very interesting to me is the Sony fixed 35mm full
frame.  If a company can tune the microlenses and entire system for a
single optic, there could be advantages.

Lots of trade-offs.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com


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