Are Mirror Lenses Cool or What?

"brian" wrote in message
m...
"William Graham" wrote in message
news:qjTYc.363$3l3.336@attbi_s03...
Now, with over a dozen
Nikkors, I am locked into Nikon for the rest of my life. If I buy a good
digital camera, It will have to take Nikon glass too. (Fuji makes a good
one) If I could turn back the clock and do it all again, I would either
go
with Minolta or Pentax, whose Takumar lenses are classics.......

The good news for you is that Nikon lenses have the largest BFL of any
35mm brand, so you can use them on other brand camera bodies via a
purely mechanical adapter (no optics) and maintain infinity focus.
The Canon EOS mount, for instance, can be adapted for use with both
Nikon-F and Pentax screw mount lenses. The Olympus 4/3 mount should
be similarly versatile.

Yes.....While I don't care about AF, I am partial to TTL metering. I also
need the open aperture for viewing/focusing before I shoot. (I am 69) For a
while I considered buying used medium format lenses and getting an adapter
for my Nikon, but in the long run, it's a waste of time......I think that if
I really wanted to use OPG (other peoples glass), I would just buy a good
used Minolta and/or Pentax body......After all, they are not expensive on
the used market.

"brian" wrote in message
m...
"William Graham" wrote in message
news:qjTYc.363$3l3.336@attbi_s03...
Now, with over a dozen
Nikkors, I am locked into Nikon for the rest of my life. If I buy a good
digital camera, It will have to take Nikon glass too. (Fuji makes a good
one) If I could turn back the clock and do it all again, I would either
go
with Minolta or Pentax, whose Takumar lenses are classics.......

The good news for you is that Nikon lenses have the largest BFL of any
35mm brand, so you can use them on other brand camera bodies via a
purely mechanical adapter (no optics) and maintain infinity focus.
The Canon EOS mount, for instance, can be adapted for use with both
Nikon-F and Pentax screw mount lenses. The Olympus 4/3 mount should
be similarly versatile.

Yes.....While I don't care about AF, I am partial to TTL metering. I also
need the open aperture for viewing/focusing before I shoot. (I am 69) For a
while I considered buying used medium format lenses and getting an adapter
for my Nikon, but in the long run, it's a waste of time......I think that if
I really wanted to use OPG (other peoples glass), I would just buy a good
used Minolta and/or Pentax body......After all, they are not expensive on
the used market.

Bowser wrote:


Other than that, they're not as sharp, offer no aperture control, no
DOF control, absolutely horrid bokeh, and no AF.

The Minolta 500 is definitely AF, and certainly other mirror
lenses come in AF as well.

But all camera AF's will suffer a little as that is several stops
less light for the AF to work from.

Cheers,
Alan


--
-- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource:
-- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--

If you like doughnuts, you'll love mirror lenses.

That's why the police use mirror lenses
for all their surveillance work ;-)

Excelsior, you fatheads!
-Chris-

"William Graham" wrote in message news:vR5Zc.93196$Fg5.81251@attbi_s53...
The good news for you is that Nikon lenses have the largest BFL of any
35mm brand, so you can use them on other brand camera bodies via a
purely mechanical adapter (no optics) and maintain infinity focus.
The Canon EOS mount, for instance, can be adapted for use with both
Nikon-F and Pentax screw mount lenses. The Olympus 4/3 mount should
be similarly versatile.

Yes.....While I don't care about AF, I am partial to TTL metering. I also
need the open aperture for viewing/focusing before I shoot. (I am 69) For a
while I considered buying used medium format lenses and getting an adapter
for my Nikon, but in the long run, it's a waste of time......I think that if
I really wanted to use OPG (other peoples glass), I would just buy a good
used Minolta and/or Pentax body......After all, they are not expensive on
the used market.

I never pictured you as 69 years old - more like 24! I think TTL
would still work in all cases, but you're right about the automatic
aperture/stop-down metering thing. As for myself, I tend to shoot
large format style (stitched digital) almost all the time, so most of
these inconveniences wouldn't matter too much. I also keep wondering
about getting a Canon 1Ds to use with my Nikkors, in which case the
the body price would be decidedly expensive.

Brian
www.caldwellphotographic.com

"brian" wrote in message
m...
"William Graham" wrote in message
news:vR5Zc.93196$Fg5.81251@attbi_s53...
The good news for you is that Nikon lenses have the largest BFL of any
35mm brand, so you can use them on other brand camera bodies via a
purely mechanical adapter (no optics) and maintain infinity focus.
The Canon EOS mount, for instance, can be adapted for use with both
Nikon-F and Pentax screw mount lenses. The Olympus 4/3 mount should
be similarly versatile.

Yes.....While I don't care about AF, I am partial to TTL metering. I
also
need the open aperture for viewing/focusing before I shoot. (I am 69)
For a
while I considered buying used medium format lenses and getting an
adapter
for my Nikon, but in the long run, it's a waste of time......I think
that if
I really wanted to use OPG (other peoples glass), I would just buy a
good
used Minolta and/or Pentax body......After all, they are not expensive
on
the used market.

I never pictured you as 69 years old - more like 24! I think TTL
would still work in all cases, but you're right about the automatic
aperture/stop-down metering thing. As for myself, I tend to shoot
large format style (stitched digital) almost all the time, so most of
these inconveniences wouldn't matter too much. I also keep wondering
about getting a Canon 1Ds to use with my Nikkors, in which case the
the body price would be decidedly expensive.

You should probably do what I intend to do.....Wait until Nikon comes out
with a digital camera that takes all your old Nikkor glass, and has all the
features you want. Either that, or you might consider buying the Fuji 2S (I
think that's what its called) which takes Nikkor lenses, and has a six meg
sensor. It is a very nice camera. Our local camera store owner has one, and
I saw the results on a 17" monitor, as well as printed results on an Epson
2200 printer.....They were beautiful........Adapting other lenses to cameras
is a hassle. You lose a lot of features, and it doesn't make much sense when
the price of just one good professional quality lens is usually more than a
pro camera body that fits it. In my example, had I bought an older, cheaper
Nikon body, instead of my F5, and spent the savings on just one top quality
fast Nikkor, I would probably be getting better pictures today than I am
now. Surely this would be true if I were a sports photographer.

"brian" wrote in message
m...
"William Graham" wrote in message
news:vR5Zc.93196$Fg5.81251@attbi_s53...
The good news for you is that Nikon lenses have the largest BFL of any
35mm brand, so you can use them on other brand camera bodies via a
purely mechanical adapter (no optics) and maintain infinity focus.
The Canon EOS mount, for instance, can be adapted for use with both
Nikon-F and Pentax screw mount lenses. The Olympus 4/3 mount should
be similarly versatile.

Yes.....While I don't care about AF, I am partial to TTL metering. I
also
need the open aperture for viewing/focusing before I shoot. (I am 69)
For a
while I considered buying used medium format lenses and getting an
adapter
for my Nikon, but in the long run, it's a waste of time......I think
that if
I really wanted to use OPG (other peoples glass), I would just buy a
good
used Minolta and/or Pentax body......After all, they are not expensive
on
the used market.

I never pictured you as 69 years old - more like 24! I think TTL
would still work in all cases, but you're right about the automatic
aperture/stop-down metering thing. As for myself, I tend to shoot
large format style (stitched digital) almost all the time, so most of
these inconveniences wouldn't matter too much. I also keep wondering
about getting a Canon 1Ds to use with my Nikkors, in which case the
the body price would be decidedly expensive.

You should probably do what I intend to do.....Wait until Nikon comes out
with a digital camera that takes all your old Nikkor glass, and has all the
features you want. Either that, or you might consider buying the Fuji 2S (I
think that's what its called) which takes Nikkor lenses, and has a six meg
sensor. It is a very nice camera. Our local camera store owner has one, and
I saw the results on a 17" monitor, as well as printed results on an Epson
2200 printer.....They were beautiful........Adapting other lenses to cameras
is a hassle. You lose a lot of features, and it doesn't make much sense when
the price of just one good professional quality lens is usually more than a
pro camera body that fits it. In my example, had I bought an older, cheaper
Nikon body, instead of my F5, and spent the savings on just one top quality
fast Nikkor, I would probably be getting better pictures today than I am
now. Surely this would be true if I were a sports photographer.