My new toy :) AI Nikkor 180 2.8

Langstrum · Joined: 16 Feb 2014 Posts: 351

I really like the horse photos, it shows more the strength of this lens with shallow DOF at the distance, and of course, your skill, too. I was hesitate to get this lens several times even though I found pretty cheap ones, but now I have more motivation to buy it. Thank you for sharing Very Happy

vroger · Expire: 2016-10-21

nice results. I have yet to plan with that brand at all, perhaps I should.

Basilisk · Joined: 21 Mar 2013 Posts: 356 Location: UK

I can see some purple fringing on the gull with the non-ED lens, which seems to be gone on the ED lens. So looks like the ED lens is worth holding out for. It is probably fixable in Lightroom though.

simbon4o · Joined: 19 Dec 2011 Posts: 390 Location: Bulgaria

Some new shots

DSC02351 by Simeon Kolev, on Flickr

DSC02408 by Simeon Kolev, on Flickr

There is some magic with this lens when it comes to portraits.

DSC02584-Edit by Simeon Kolev, on Flickr

5 by Simeon Kolev, on Flickr

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

It's always nice seeing shots taken with the 180/2.8 ED Nikkor. It is a special lens and was probably my favorite Nikon prime when I owned one. Sadly I had to sell it when I was suffering through a time of having too much gear and not enough $$$.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the front of my old 180/2.8 ED. I bought it from a pro who worked for the LA Times. To say that it had been through the press corps wars would have been an understatement. Its exterior was beat all to hell and it had a gouge taken out of the front element about 1 cm^2 in size. Not a scratch, but actually a chunk of the front element was missing. I bought it because it was priced so cheap -- like about $200 -- and because the guy was telling me that it was still capable of outstanding results. I bought it in about 1990 and you gotta understand that clean copies of the 180/2.8 ED Nikkor were selling for around $600, so $200 was a great price back then. With respect to the gouge, I'll admit that, when looking at images through a camera viewfinder, I could see no evidence of the gouge. It was, quite simply, an amazing lens.

Here's one of my favorite shots taken with that old 180/2.8 ED. I've posted this image before in other threads, but this is a good reason for reposting it, since it's on-topic. Nikon F2A, 180mm f/2.8 ED Nikkor, Fujichrome 100 film. This image rivals one taken by a good digital camera, I've always felt since being exposed to the alleged superiority of digital vs. film. The aircraft is a US Navy A-6 Intruder, the aircraft for which the book and film Flight of the Intruder were named. Note Garfield:

A few years ago, I was looking to replace the 180/2.8 ED, which can now often be found on eBay in the $300-350 range. In fact, there's one on eBay right now for $187 -- it's priced so cheap because it has a few scratches on the front element, which have absolutely no effect on image quality. Anyway, I didn't quite have enough money on hand to get the 180 ED Nikkor, so I was looking for substitutes. And I found one that is equivalent in sharpness and contrast, that usually sells for about the same as the 180 ED Nikkor, but I was fortunate enough to find one that fit my budget -- the Tamron SP 30A 80-200mm f/2.8 LD zoom. If you compare the Modern Photography tests for both the Nikkor and the Tamron found at adaptall-2.org (the Nikkor's is found there as a comparison to the Tamron 180/2.5 LDIF), you'll find that the Tamron zoom's specs at 200mm are virtually identical to those of the 180 ED Nikkor. Plus, unlike the Nikkor, the Tamron zoom comes with a tripod mount. The only reason why I bring up this Tamron is just to mention there is an equivalent alternative available, although there is often no savings to be had. I bought my copy at KEH for $250, and the only reason why I got it for so cheap was it was listed in BGN condition. Why BGN? Because the zoom collar slips -- very slightly.

I wish I had more images taken with the Tamron 80-200, but they are unfortunately all on a hard drive that crashed. Here's an image of a rose I took. 10.1mp Canon XS, Tamron 80-200/2.8 LD, aperture value unrecorded, but probably f/2.8, ISO 100:

And a 100% crop of the above image:

I guess it also bears mentioning that, since the Tamron 30A is an adaptall-2 lens, it can be mounted to virtually any interchangeable lens SLR or DSLR -- or mirrorless, far as that goes.

papasito · Joined: 09 Jan 2015 Posts: 1658