#bokeh #Sony #nikon
We take two non Z mount 55mm lenses for a spin on two Z6’s, one manual, and one not a Nikon … how did we go?
00:00 Credits
00:48 Setting the Challenge
01:10 Nikon 55mm f/2.8 Micro
01:30 Sony 55 f/1.8 FE
02:00 The challenge specs?
03:00 What happened to Matt’s Scooter?
03:15 Finding our first location
03:56 Taking a closer look at the images in Capture One
04:20 Why setting lens data for manual lenses is a good idea
04:45 Which lens is brighter at f/2.8?
05:30 The Sony is a 56mm?
05:40 Nikon Smoother Bokeh?
05:50 Aberrations
06:05 Flare
06:51 Manual Nikon very affordable
07:05 How sharp are these lenses?
07:25 Which lens is more creamy?
07:50 A cinematographers lens?
08:11 Adjusting the files, is the Sony darker?
08:50 Joe explains what he loves about the Nikon 55 2.8
09:26 Matt talks through Sony lens ergo’s
09:48 First images slideshow
10:46 What are Matt’s challenges with the 55mm?
11:44 What are Joe’s challenges with the 55mm?
12:14 Dinner Arrives
12:25 Matt’s summary of the shoot
13:32 Joe’s summary of the shoot
14:08 2nd slide show of the Sony and Nikon 55mm
Check out my social media
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/mattirwinphotography/
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/MattIrwinPhotography
WEBSITE https://www.mattirwin.com
TWITTER https://twitter.com/mattirwinphotog
source
Nice
Great video! I love using old Nikon lenses on my Z6! I purchased the 50mm f/1.4 non ai and the 105mm f/2.5 non ai lenses along with 2 what I call dumb f to z adapters. It has been a couple months since I have been out and about with them. You have inspired me to get them out again and have some fun!
Wonderful video. It's amazing how well such an old lens performs. (The Micro Nikkor was Nikon's sharpest 50/55mm lens over some decades)
Love the video and funnily enough I have just found an adaptor that will allow me to shoot my old Canon FD lenses from the 80's on the Z's, which is both ironic and wonderful as I switched out of Canon as they dumped the FD mount when they went AF and I had to start all over again so went Nikon. Who knew that 30 years later I would be using those lenses on a Nikon body . Everything is manual, but its all good.
Nice results and video. I've been using the 85mm f2 AI Nikkor on my Z6 getting some nice photos. Lots of great f mount glad out there.
The "Sony" lens is a Zeiss lens of the Sonnar type. In recent times, the Sonnar name has been used for different lens designs, albeit the "normal" focal length original design (6 elements in 3 groups, later 7 elements in 3 groups) is very old (Wiki): "The Zeiss Sonnar is a photographic lens originally designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele in 1929 and patented by Zeiss Ikon. It was notable for its relatively light weight, simple design and fast aperture. […] Compared to Planar designs the Sonnars had more aberrations, but with fewer glass-to-air surfaces it had better contrast and less flare."
The article's reference to the Planar design is an implicit reference to Bertele's counterpart in the Titan world of lens design, Dr. Paul Rudolph (Protar, Planar, Tessar, etc.)
I would say that flare is a different phenomenon from glare where the latter reduces the contrast in my opinion in this case. That is to say, the "darker" Zeiss glass is optically superior in this respect. Its sky is more blue and its dark tones are darker because there is much less internal reflection between elements.
The Sonnar design was not compatible with wide angle lenses on SLR cameras as the rear of the lens would have to crawl into the mirror box of such a camera. To me, the original Sonnar looks a bit like a reshuffled double Gaussian.
The Nikon does a great job in the chromatic aberration department – much better than the Zeiss – contrary to popular prejudice. If equal in the glare area, I would prefer the Nikon. But the loss of contrast in the 55 micro Nikkor – meh. The Nikkor 55 is ideal for macro work where the glare will not play up, or in studio work, say with group portraits. Not for sunny backlit landscapes.
Message from an old Nikon and Hasselblad (Zeiss lenses) shooter – 47 years with Nikon, now entirely Z primes and no complaints about the glass whatsoever (any more).
Good job Matt
Another fantastic video!
Hello, super image both lenses are as they are. But Sony have been making lenses for years.
Hello The oddest lens I have used on my Z cameras is my 19mm PCe not that odd.
I had that same 55 plus a 50 1.4. I sold both of them to help generate cash to purchase my 24-120. I do have the native 50 1.8 so it made sense for me. I did pick up a 135 3.5 recently. It’s really a bit of a novelty but I should get back out with it sometime as I’ve only used it once.
I have a Vivitar series 1 85mm and fisheye that are for canon that I use a adapter on them to use on the Z50, have used the Fisheye on the Z6II. As for old glass I have a couple of old Vivitar lenses for Nikon I brought long ago when I started into photography s the camera shop sold them cheap. One is a 135mm and a 20mm lens which is a huge chunk of glass but they took crisp photos with my FM 10. I use them the 20mm for astrophotography and aurora. I also have a Sigma 400mm APO lens in a Nikon mount that I have used with the Z50 it works great.
Finally you got some real competition — Joe pulled some great shots off and demonstrated his photography skills and his on camera performance was spot on.
It’s the beginnings of a new series of Matt and Joe down-under camera dueling duo’s… keep up the great work !
The reflection shots were great and we know Matt is famous for excellent nightscapes ..
I have an earlier version of the Nikon 55mm. Mine is an F3.5 non AI (converted) circa 1972. I got it over 10 years ago for $85 and spent $35 for the AI conversion. I love this lens. I use it for all my film and print copy work. It’s super sharp. It’s semi permanently mounted on a D800 and a copy stand. I’ve taken thousands of exposures on it and have no need to upgrade to a modern lens for my use case
Very cool idea, love the colors of the Nikkor macro lens
As someone who only shoots on a Z6 with manual lenses, loved this video, there's nothing like a nice vintage 50mm! Love to see the Nikon smash the Sony here. Some of my weirdest lenses I use on my Z6:
Zenitar-ME1 50mm f/1.7 (square aperture)
Jupiter-38 75mm f/4 (has two apertures)
Mir-10A 28mm f/3.5 (beautiful wideangle)
ERA-6M 50mm f/1.5 (only 500 copies made)
??? 250mm f/5 prototype lens with a single group
I believe the difference between the lenses are the coatings. The SONY should have additional coatings as compared to the Nikon.
Always glad to see old Nikkors still being useful..
Love adapting those old lenses.
The oldest i've adapted so far is a military 8" Pentac aerial photography lens from 1913…🦘
Once I put on my Z6 an Leica IIIa lens from 1937 with a Novoflex adapter, a Summar 50mm/f2 from Ernst Leitz Wetzlar. It worked out fine, but because of not used long time and without service in between the images showed up foggy results. In the end it was just fun, thanks to Nikon to be universe with all kind adapters and lenses.
There's something magical about that Nikon 55 lens! The rendering is gorgeous! When the comparison was being made and before Matt shared which one is which, I thought the picture from the Nikon was miles better from the one from the Sony. It's just amazing to see what some of the old glass can do even until today, it definitely still is very relevant. And given that the Nikon is a fully manual lens, I think Joe did a brilliant job focusing and changing the aperture almost instantaneously! There is this one exception though where he back-focused, so maybe Joe could have switched his eyes to a different focusing mode or blinked to reacquire focus😄 seriously though, very impressive!
Could you cover a video on your favorite lenses for the z50/zfc? Maybe cover some third party lenses as most people can probably only afford <500 lenses so z50 1.8 is probably the most expensive.
I really enjoy these sorts of videos. I have a whole collection of vintage Nikkors and Minoltas, because I still enjoy shooting film. But when dollars get tight, I can get a very similar, slowed down, manual focus, experience on my Z6. Some of those old lenses have very unique characteristics: Minolta 250mm f 5.6 mirror len, Nikkor 50mm f1.2, Nikkor 105mm f2.5, Nikkor 135mm f2.8, Minolta 58mm f1.4 to name a few!