Nippon Kogaku 50-300 f4.5

ThKondak · Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 6

I am interested in a long telephoto lens for my d7100 so while i was searching online I crossed Nippon Kogaku 50-300mm f4.5 .From what I know Nippon Kogaku is a legendary brand but the lens are too old maybe non ai and maybe very soft with low contrast so here I am asking if anyone knows information about these lens and if this is a good investment for me as a digital SLR user.How this Lens behave?

Thanks

bernhardas · Expire: 2017-05-23

edited

ThKondak · Joined: 06 Feb 2012 Posts: 6

Thanks for your reply.I am interested in a long telephoto lens in order to shoot distant subjects like ships in open sea, birds, the moon with some buildings from a long distance etc, so i guess a prime telephoto would be great.I aksed about 50-300mm Nippon Kogaku, cause i thought Nippon Kogaku was some legendary lens designer (had 85mm f1.0 macro along with some other lens branded as Nippon Kogaku), so i guess this is not a lends for me.Could you suggest any long (300mm+) instead of this one?I am not familiar with old lenses, but i have to go for one since i can't afford any of the newer expensive telephoto lens.

wuxiekeji · Joined: 15 Aug 2012 Posts: 213

You'll have a tough time adapting a lot of lenses since you shoot Nikon judging from your signature. The flange distance of Nikon is probably the longest of most major SLR brands making it hard to adapt anything else to it and still maintain infinity focus.

You could try the Nikon 300 f/4.5 Ai-S ED IF though. I haven't used it but it's manual focus, two minutes of googling seems to say it's a decent lens, and it should theoretically work as-is on your camera.

T/T2 mount lenses would also work for you as they can be successfully adapted for Nikon. For example Soligor 350/5.6 looks pretty good:
http://forum.mflenses.com/soligor-350-5-6-a-very-odd-wundertute-t6958,highlight,soligor+350mm.html
Beware there are a lot of "dirt cheap and horrible" T mount lenses too like the Spiratone 400/6.3 so be sure to read up on forums before buying.

There is also the Vivitar "T system" or more accurately "T-4 system" which is an interchangeable mount system and does feature a Nikon attachment option, so you can get those too, but the attachments are rare to come by and it is not to be confused with the "T mount" or "T2 mount" which is a screw mount and much easier to find adapters for. Just beware of the difference so you buy the right adapter.

gaeger · Expire: 2021-03-09

Be careful on the Nikkor 50-300mm. There are two optical versions of this. The older one is not very good, and since it's a non-AI lens, won't fit on your D7100 anyway. The newer version has ED glass and is found in AI and AIS mounts. It is extremely good -- one of my favorite lenses ever. But as noted above, it is a heavy monster. I have taken it day hiking, but really it's more of a drive-around-with-it lens. I also have the 300mm f4.5 ED-IF AIS shown above. Note that there are also several versions of the 300mm f4.5 -- an AI version that is not internal focusing that is just OK, an AIS ED version that is not internal focus but that is rumored (I haven't shot with one) to be very good, and the ED-IF AIS version, which is lighter than the other two and a decent lens. There is also the Nikkor 100-300mm f5.6, but I found that a bit hard to handle. But if you're looking for a long manual zoom for your D7100, there indeed may be better non-Nikkor solutions.

Here are images with the 50-300mm f4.5 ED AIS (all of these shot on a monopod): http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaeger2/tags/50300mmedf45ais/

Here are images with the 300mm f4.5 ED-IF AIS: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaeger2/tags/300mmf45ais/