"Bruce Murphy" wrote in message
...
"William Graham" writes:

"ink" wrote in message
...

"Bruce Murphy" wrote
Roger writes:

Does anyone have any first hand experience with the Nikkor 45mm
f2.8
AI-P lens. I'm interested because of a few reports that I've seen
indicating that it is an excellent lens with good treatment of the
out
of focus areas. However, in those reports the performance over a
wide
range of apertures was really not discussed. More information
would be
greatly appreciated.

I found it a lovely lens. Doesn't Bjorn have a review of it up?

B.

I can second that. I've been using it mainly on an FM2n, for its
compactness. As an AI-P it works nicely on the F100 and the D70.
Focussing is easy with the precise focus ring. Performance wide
open is impeccable. Mechanically it's perfect, feels solid and
still light.

It does look incredibly silly on the F100, though ;-)

I haven't regretted getting it, it's become my favorite standard lens.

Cheers,
ink


Mine is an older version that was pre-AI. I had it AI'd by John White of
aiconversions.com. My model also has the ability to lock the focusing
ring
to the apeture ring at different ISO points, so flash photography is,
"automatic" when using flashes from the pre-quench era. I find that it
is a
fine lens, very sharp, very small, (only 3/4 inch long) with low
distortion
and good bokeh. It's only trade off from a standard prime is the loss of
an
f-stop in speed.

I'm fairly sure that the new 45 f/2.8 is optically different to old
old GN-nikkor.

B
They are not identical, but close.....Here is what Bjorn Rorslett has to say
about it:

Like its predecessor, the venerable GN-Nikkor 45 mm f/2.8, this lens has a
simple Tessar optical design. This means just 4 elements (in 3 groups) are
used and thus the reflecting surfaces are fewer than in most other lenses.
In shooting against bright light sources, a small ghost spot occurs, but
flare is otherwise quite well under control.

I have compared the new and old 45 mm closely and conclude that their
designs are not identical, although both are Tessars. The new lens has a
bigger exit pupil to make illumination more even over the entire image.
Colour rendition is superb and image contrast is quite high, although
slightly softer than most modern Nikkors. There is no ED glass in this lens,
but colour fringing is perfectly controlled nonetheless. The aperture has 7
blades and is nicely rounded, this combines with the simple Tessar design to
give excellent smoothness ("bokeh" is the buzz word) in the out-of-focus
zone of the image. Geometric distortion is virtually absent so this is a
perfect lens for architecture and similar applications.

This lens obviously is targeted for the new FM3A camera, but attaches to any
Nikon body to make a splendid travel companion. It is small, unobtrusive,
and capable of producing sparkling images. Equipped with a CPU, it will make
the most out of all Nikons, even the most modern camera such as D1/D1X.