My Nikon gear.

I currently own

• Nikon D200 body
• Nikon FM2n body
• Nikon EL2 body
• AF Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D
• AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
• AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
• AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED(PDF:61KB)

the legion of Nikkor AI/AIS lenses:

• AI Zoom-Nikkor 25-50mm f/4
• AI Zoom-Nikkor 50-135mm f/3.5S
• AI Nikkor 24mm f/2.8S
• AI Nikkor 28mm f/2S
• AI Nikkor 28mm f/2.8S
• AI Nikkor 35 mm f/2S
• AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
• AI Nikkor 105 mm f/2.5S
• AI Nikkor 200mm f/4

accessories

• Nikon close-up NO. 4T, NO. 3T
• Canon 500D
• Kenko 1.4x
• Nikon BR-2A and BR-3
• Micro coupler
• Extension tubes
• Light meters
• Bogen Manfrotto 3021BPro Tripod

I previously owned:

• Nikon D50 body
• Nikon N80 body
• AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G
• AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
• AI Nikkor 135mm f/2.8
• AI Nikkor 180 mm f/2.8 ED
• AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
• AF-S VR Zooom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

On my near-term wishlist

• Nikon D700
• Nikon 28-105mm F/3.5-4.5D
• Nikon 28-70mm F/3.5-4.5D
• Nikon 28-85mm F/3.5-4.5D (I really want to see which of these cheap lenses works best on a D700.)

and more Nikon manual focus AI AIS lenses

• AI Nikkor 20mm f/3.5S
• AI Nikkor 20mm f/2.8S

On my longer-term wishlist

• An equivalent to Canon's 24-105mm F/4L USM IS.
• An equivalent to Canon's 70-200mm F/4L USM IS.
• I guess I will just buy a FF Canon body to use the above two lenses, when I have enough money and if Nikon still does not have thest two lenses.
• Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 (I am not sure I really need a f/2.8 lenses)
• Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 (I am not sure I still like wide-angle lenses)

On my dreamlist

• Nikon D-F6 body, a full frame SLR body with exchangable digital back (Not yet available and far from affordable :) Isn't it a waste to upgrate a great camera body every few years? It will be great if I only need to upgrade the digital back (at a lower cost, of course).

Useful Nikon links (for my own benefit)

Keywords: Nikon, Nikkor, Lens, AF, AI, AIs, AI/s, AFS, AF-S, DX, zoom, 18mm, 20mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 105mm, 180mm, 200m, f1.4, f1.8, f2, f2.5, f2.8, f3.5, f4, ED, IF, VR

AI Zoom-Nikkor 25-50mm f/4

I bought my copy from ebay a few years ago after I read Bjørn Rørslett's review on this lens (which I quoted below).

The first thing I noticed is that the lens gives very strong flare when used at 50mm/4. The flare will mostly disappear if I stop it down to 50/5.6 or change the focal length to 45mm. For quite a while, I was wondering whether this is a design issue or I just got a bad copy. Cosmetically, mine looks very clean.

Recently, when I googled about this lens, I noticed that an article about this lens

http://imaging.nikon.com/history/nikkor/46/index.htm
has been added to the series NIKKOR - The Thousand and One Nights. In this article, the author mentioned that "At the maximum telephoto position of 50mm, spherical aberration causes a slight amount of flare throughout the entire frame with shooting at maximum aperture. From design data as well, we can see that overcompensation for spherical aberration results in flare." This seems to confirm my findings on the lens. The lens is more like a F4.0-5.6 lens.

I have collected a few manual focus Nikkor lenses as a hobby and I did not actually used these lenses often (which I plan to do so in future). To me, whether a lens has the best image quality is not that important, it is more fun (especially since I am not a great photographer) to find out the character of each lens. In this sense, it is very satisfying that my own experience with this lens is confirmed by someone knows about the lens very well.

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Intersting links about this lens:

From Photography is Malaysia AI Zoom-Nikkor 25-50mm f/4

Bjørn Rørslett says (referring to Zoom-Nikkor 25-50mm f/4 AI/AIS) "Never a volume seller in its days, this long discontinued lens exemplifies the good qualities achievable by a zoom without colour aberrations. Images are sharp corner-to-corner and light fall-off is very low even wide open. It quickly attains peak sharpness at f/5.6 and the image quality holds up well when the lens is stopped down, so even f/16 delivers good results. Compared to e.g. the 20-35 Nikkor, centre sharpness is slightly lower, but corners are much better. Field curvature is moderate and the same holds for the barrel distortion. A crisp rendition extends into the depth-of-field zone to make this an excellent choice for landscape photography. In fact, this was my preferred lens against modern zooms for this very application. Compared to most zooms, the 25-50 is very resistant to flare and ghosting is kept to low levels whenever the front element is carefully cleaned. This is one of my favourite lenses for the F2, F4 and F5 cameras, and it handles nicely, too. You could complain about a rotating front end but that's just nit-picking. A great lens that is sold cheap on the second-hand market. My F2 Titan would be naked without this zoom lens.

Later development shows this even might apply to the D2X for landscape work. Thus, the venerable 25-50 is able to produce silky-smooth images when it is attached to the D2X. There is a roundness and tactility to the image that makes the 25-50 downright enchanting. You might get slightly sharper images with other lenses, but hardly more pleasing to the photographic, inner eye. The virtual lack of distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberration helps the 25-50 to project its endearing image quality onto the imaging sensor of the D2X."

AI Nikkor 28mm F2S: Introduction

From Photography is Malaysia Nikkor 28mm f2.0 Lens

Bjørn Rørslett says (referring to Nikkor 28 mm f/2 AI) "The high-speed 28 Nikkor is unusual in having its close-range correction (CRC) executed with the front elements, not with the rear as the case is with other wide-angles. It offers outstandingly sharp images and these are produced at all aperture settings from f/2 to f/8 with just a trace of corner softness at the wider settings. Field curvature is modest in terms of wide-angle lenses. Peak performance occurs between f/4 and f/5.6. When stopped down beyond f/11, sharpness suffers however. This lens is unusually resistant to flare and ghosting and eminently suitable for shooting directly into the sun. Never catching the buyers' fancy, this is an uncommon lens which is indicative of the perils of free enterprise."