Question for the group-lenses for Nikon

Screamin Scott

I have seen many nice photos taken with Russian & German lenses mounted on Nikon cameras...Short of eBay, how do you find these gems? EBay's prices leave much to be desired when the occasional Nikon mount lens shows up....Maybe I'm not searching right but I doubt that's the case...Any alternate suggestions?

Flor27 · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 1195 Location: Paris, France

T mount lenses ? Wink

Richard_D · Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2378 Location: Faversham Kent UK

Keep an eye out for the A mount lenses e.g. Tair-11A, they usually come with M42 mounts, but if you remove the inner ring of a T2 mount the outer ring is effectively an A mount. There's a whole thread on Soviet A Mount lenses somewhere...

The Mir24n is a fixed Nikon mount and isn't super cheap, but crops up quite often at about half of what you'd pay for a Nikkor 35mm f2...

If you're after a good Soviet 50mm the Helios 81N can be picked up very cheaply on ebay when it's listed separately but if you can't wait, it often comes with Kiev 19's cheaply. I'll post some samples of this lens in a short while.

I've browsed the UK online shops and soviet lenses in anything but a fixed M42 are few and far between, and generally dearer than ebay. There are some Russian and Ukrainian online shops but again they tend to be dearer than ebay.

ChrisLilley · Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 1767 Location: Nice, France

Craigslist is primarily US-oriented. It exists for other countries but ...

for example, browse the entire photography section for my area. (go on, it won't take long).

I found a second-hand camera shop a few weeks back, but their old and dusty stock is priced outrageously high. For example they will sell me a second hand and somewhat battered D70 at only 200 euro more than a new D80 would cost Shocked

The second hand lens market in the UK is a lot better served in terms of high street shops; but note down the interesting items and check online what they go for first, would be my advice.

I don't have much experience of US second-hand shops, but would be interested to hear recommended ones for places I tend to visit (Boston, San Francisco, Raleigh NC).

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

Scott
There is also the adapter route - with the one proviso that you will not achieve infinity focus except with medium format lenses (Pentacon6, 645 pentax, hassie etc.). The advantage nikons have over most of the others is that the camera requires no chipping on the adapter to give focus confirm (a major point for old people like me).
Personally I started collecting old nikkors first and spent several years putting together what I have. As Chris says - patience and discipline. Identify the lenses you want, find out what the market requires, set a fair price you can afford and go hunting everywhere you can. My collection is missing one key lens (the 85/1.4 AIS nikkor), but it sells for far more than I can afford, so I keep waiting. Crying or Very sad

Now I am having a great deal of fun picking the brains of all the fine photogs here who willingly share their experiences with MF lenses from all over. Some amazing bargains are still out there - like the silly little industar 50. But it takes really inspiring pictures... Smile

patrickh