Can someone reccomend some interesting Nikon lenses to buy?

Energize · 7 Jan 2013 at 17:14

I have the usual modern lenses which I use for serious photography, ie the 35mm f/1.8G, 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 and 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, but being able to mount any F mount lens on my camera, I'd like to experiment with some older cheaper lenses from the bay, to try different types of photography like wide angle, and help get me more experienced with things like manual focus and choosing the right aperture to get a large enough dof.

One I was thinking about was the E series 50mm f/1.8 because it'd be interesting to have a pancake lens.

Energize · 7 Jan 2013 at 19:11

Ksanti said:
Have fun manually focusing with a crop sensor viewfinder I'd check to make sure your body has a manual focusing viewfinder available (not sure what they're called for Nikon, my 5D has an EE-S focusing screen for manual focusing and use with fast primes. I don't know if companies still make them, but if I was serious about manual focusing then I'd absolutely want to get one for use with old lenses, with the only exception of landscape work where live view is an acceptable substitute.

The focus points on the optical viewfinder light up when a subject is correctly focused manually. Does this not happen with older lenses? Normally though I use the live view at maximum zoom.

Energize · 7 Jan 2013 at 22:49

I had no idea that you could get a Nikon f/1.2 so cheap, the Noct-Nikkor looks way out of my budget though.

Energize · 7 Jan 2013 at 23:52

Why is it not listed on the Nikon website then? :confused:

Seems like it would be nice to have for the indoor sports stuff I do.

Energize · 8 Jan 2013 at 01:45

D.P. said:
The Nikon website doesn't list all the lenses that they manufacture and sell as new. Somewhere on the website is a PDF which is the complete list of all Nikon lenses that are still manufactured. Quite an extensive list.

It wouldn't be useful for sports since it is manual focus and quite short. the Nikon 200mm f/2.0 VR is the main indoor sports lens, if you can get close then the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 is also OK.

Manual focus isn't such a problem as showjumping allows pre-focusing and I can get up close. I managed to get some great images with my 50mm cannon lens at f/1.8, but that was in the daylight, ideally I'd like a larger aperture lens.

Energize · 9 Jan 2013 at 02:06

Thanks for the suggestions, I may upgrade from the D5100 to the D7000, or second hand D700 to get compatibility with these older lenses.