I've owned my D300s for about a month now and have fired about 1000 shots. I bought it because I have a ton of Nikon lenses, reverse lens adaptors, etc. from the mid 1980s (all AI-S). The camera that I bought these lenses, etc. for was a Nikon FE. With the FE, the best lens by far was the 300mm ED-IF F4.5 lens. I could push it like crazy with extension tubes and loved all of the sharp photos. I also got a 105mm F4 macro and was disappointed with the sharpness and the color. Now that I have transfered these old lenses to my new D300s, the opposite has proven true. The 300mm is O.K. but performs within the ordinary. My old 105mm now is the better lens that is much sharper with good color. Would the digital format react differently to lenses than my film camera did? Perhaps this new DSLR is so much sharper that it shows the flaws easier.
Hi Jeff,
I don't use Nikon equipment these days, but I do use several older lenses with DSLRs (as well as their digital updates). I have found that excellent lenses from 30 years ago generally retain their excellence.
My question to you is how are you evaluating the color, sharpness, and other attributes of these older lenses on your D300s? Are you shooting RAW or jpeg? What types of post-processing are you performing? Are you comparing prints rendered from the same printing process straight across? If you are using a display for all comparisons, is it a good one and is it calibrated?
My point here is that the many variables with digital workflow and quality assessment make it very challenging to compare apples with apples. But it is very much possible.
As a starting point, do realize that APS-C cropped sensor cameras, such as your D300s, utilize a smaller proportion of glass in older "pre-digital" lenses, focusing through more of the center. Often this is considered a benefit.
What apertures have you been using with your lenses? Sensors in digital SLRs tend to show diffraction effects at wider apertures than does film (f/11 vs. f/22, for example). If you're looking closely at your images, that may be the reason for poorer quality using the D300s.
As for better quality with the 105mm, that may be due to the fact that the image circle of the D300s' sensor is smaller than that of your FE, so you're using more of the "sweet spot" of the glass.
Dave
Posted by Basil Greber on January 11, 2010 at 5:41 PM
A number of things come to mind. The nature of a digital sensor is a bit different from film. Well, very different actually. Film had some thickness, a sensor essentially doesn't. A sensor reacts much more poorly to light hitting it at an angle. A sensor (well, your sensor) has Baeyer and anti aliasing filters on top of it. A filter is reflective, potentially giving rise to more flare and ghosting. And finally, you're more likely to view the output from your 12 MP sensor at high magnification than what you shot with film.
In spite of all this, I must say it's a bit surprising to that you feel the quality of the lenses has reversed, as these properties all affect all lenses similarly (except for the angle thing, but that's more of a problem with wide lenses, rather than telephotos). Have you tried focusing using live view to make sure both lenses are focused equally well? And are you using them for the same things as you did with your FE?
Thank you all for your replies. I am dealing with memories from 20 years ago but back then I was into how many lines of resolution each lens has, etc. I was surprised that I liked my 300mm (perhaps the ED lens?) so much that I ignored the 105mm and virtually never used it. But perhaps I was judging photos on color and contrast rather than sharpness and as was mentioned, one can enlarge digital images far greater and with greater speed than with film, far easier to accurately critique the shot. I notice that with time and choosing better settings (Adobe RGB vs. sRGB) my results with my 300mm are getting better. Rather than shooting only as jpeg, I now shoot in RAW and then convert to a 60 mg tiff. I'm starting to get a lot better photos. This forum has really helped a great deal. Thanks again.
Discussion
4 repliesDoes anyone have any similar experiences?
I don't use Nikon equipment these days, but I do use several older lenses with DSLRs (as well as their digital updates). I have found that excellent lenses from 30 years ago generally retain their excellence.
My question to you is how are you evaluating the color, sharpness, and other attributes of these older lenses on your D300s? Are you shooting RAW or jpeg? What types of post-processing are you performing? Are you comparing prints rendered from the same printing process straight across? If you are using a display for all comparisons, is it a good one and is it calibrated?
My point here is that the many variables with digital workflow and quality assessment make it very challenging to compare apples with apples. But it is very much possible.
As a starting point, do realize that APS-C cropped sensor cameras, such as your D300s, utilize a smaller proportion of glass in older "pre-digital" lenses, focusing through more of the center. Often this is considered a benefit.
Thanks,
ME
As for better quality with the 105mm, that may be due to the fact that the image circle of the D300s' sensor is smaller than that of your FE, so you're using more of the "sweet spot" of the glass.
Dave
In spite of all this, I must say it's a bit surprising to that you feel the quality of the lenses has reversed, as these properties all affect all lenses similarly (except for the angle thing, but that's more of a problem with wide lenses, rather than telephotos). Have you tried focusing using live view to make sure both lenses are focused equally well? And are you using them for the same things as you did with your FE?