Use for old lenses.

Crossy · 24 May 2008 at 17:42

hi. Ive been given these old lenses to me by my grandad who used to be a photography fan himself when he was younger. I have no idea what kind of lenses these are but i know they fit my D40x. Is there any market for older lenses? Anybody know what kind these are?

Small lens

larger lens

thanks Ryan

NinjaBill · 24 May 2008 at 18:11

The first one is an older version of the nifty 50, the second would appear to be a 200mm macro lens.

If they are nikon fit, they will work on your d40, but you will loose autofocus, and you will probably have to use stop down metering.

They arent worth a lot, Youre probably better off keeping them and using them.

robertgilbert86 · 24 May 2008 at 18:40

They are each worth £15-20 on the 'bay.

You have to use manual mode as the cheaper Nikon DSLRs won't meter with old lenses.

BusError · 24 May 2008 at 22:00

The Hanimex is probably not worth that; they never were good lens really -- can always be an exception, but in my (large) experience of 70s lens it's bottom of the pile. The Nikon on the other hand is probably excellent, and a good 50 to play with.

I am admin of a forum that specializes in "manual focus" ( http://forum.manualfocus.org ) ; old lens on DSLR, old film camera, anything goes as long as it's focused manually :-)

Feel free to visit; there are quite a few Nikon specialists.

Darren555 · 24 May 2008 at 23:22

Yes that Hanimex 80-200mm was at the budget end of the market.
The Vivitar Series 1, Tamrons and Kiron zoom-lock were the ones to have IIRC.
I had a gorgeous Tamron 80-210mm f3.8-4 lens.
I still don't get how you could make an optically sound zoom lens in the 1980s with a fast f/3.5-4 aperture & compact size (max 58mm filter size) but they cannot do it now.

BusError · 25 May 2008 at 18:09

Well you just have to compare the size of the lens themselves; even a modern 50 f1.4 is /enormous/ compared to say, a Takumar 50mm f1.4. The autofocus mecanism makewbs the lens a lot more complicated.

As a rule of thumb on old lens; it's still a good idea to stick to primes. You can get fantastic lens that will beat the crap out of most modern zooms for really cheap.