Okay, I'll start.

If you are looking for great lenses, look no further than four from my own collection.

Nikon 55mm f2.8 macro
Beautiful lens, tack sharp at the wide end and can go as close as about 12 inches to focus on single letters of newspaper title print, etc.

Nikon 35mm f2.0
I don't know what it is about this lens but I love how it looks. The bokeh is very pretty and the angle of view is very pleasing for medium shots in particular. Very sharp picture

Nikon 24mm f2.8
Man, this is my favorite wide angle lens. No noticeable distortion in vertical lines and really sharp. I didn't think I would notice a huge difference between this and the 28mm f2.8 but the angle of view is apparently way wider and gives a very filmic panorama feel to my shots.

Nikon 100mm f2.8 Series E
I actually picked this up for $18 about a year ago on eBay! I love this lens and use it a lot for sports events and portrait type shots. As far as the angle of view, this is like a poor man's 85mm

Post edited by: disjecta, at: 2007/10/30 13:03

Hey I'm looking for lenses are you selling these??
Thanks!

SFGaffer,
He is just posting lens recommendations. You can find these lenses on ebay or at local camera shops. I don't think he wants to sell his collection

Can anyone recommend some good Nikon zoom lenses?

Say, disjecta - could you recommend a Nikon zoom lens to go along with the ones you've already listed? Thanks -

@ disjecta -

Well, I took your advice, and found all these lenses, one at a time, on eBay. I also picked up a 50mm f1.8, and a 200mm f4.0.

Total cost for a kit of six prime lenses? Just over $600. I didn't find any for $18, but the 200mm was $35, plus $15 for shipping. I made sure they were all AI, and was willing to accept less than perfect cosmetics as long as the glass was described as mint or excellent.

All I have to do now is score the Extreme, and I'm good to go. Can't wait! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on lens selection; you were a real help.

disjecta wrote:
Okay, I'll start.

If you are looking for great lenses, look no further than four from my own collection.

Nikon 55mm f2.8 macro
Beautiful lens, tack sharp at the wide end and can go as close as about 12 inches to focus on single letters of newspaper title print, etc.

Nikon 35mm f2.0
I don't know what it is about this lens but I love how it looks. The bokeh is very pretty and the angle of view is very pleasing for medium shots in particular. Very sharp picture

Nikon 24mm f2.8
Man, this is my favorite wide angle lens. No noticeable distortion in vertical lines and really sharp. I didn't think I would notice a huge difference between this and the 28mm f2.8 but the angle of view is apparently way wider and gives a very filmic panorama feel to my shots.

Nikon 100mm f2.8 Series E
I actually picked this up for $18 about a year ago on eBay! I love this lens and use it a lot for sports events and portrait type shots. As far as the angle of view, this is like a poor man's 85mm <br><br>Post edited by: disjecta, at: 2007/10/30 13:03
While these may be good lenses for your uses, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who is without a solid lighting setup. These lenses are a bit on the slow side, especially the 55mm. A 50mm f1.4 is fairly easy to find. I wouldn't expect to use that 200mm indoors.

The Letus family of adapters uses a focusing screen that sacrifices proper diffusion for lightloss; while this is not necessarily a bad thing, you must be sure to understand that this lack of diffusion will give you a greater (deeper) depth of field than the lenses intend, meaning you should start with lenses that provide shallower depth of field to start with.

Hello all,
Are you operating with your lenses wide open all the time, or do you have scope to close the aperture down somewhat? For example, is an f'stop of 8 or 11 practical in normal daylight, and what about indoors, under normal lighting conditions?
Many thanks and a very merry Christmas
Desperately seeking enlightenment!

Ok, so If I wanted to start with say 2 lenses that were versatile what would you recommend?

50mm f1.4 comes to mind immediately. I would also look into getting a fast zoom lens, for instance a 35-105mm f3.5. Many will say to avoid zooms as they are softer than primes but the active resolution of an adapter with a standard DV/HDV camera renders this loss of sharpness irrelevant.

Keeping lenses wide open is bad shooting behavior. No one wants to watch footage that shallow. f5.6 is a reasonable amount to keep lenses under normal shooting conditions. f8 is as far as I would need to go normally but outside I can see going as much as f11.

so do I get an EF, RF, FD, or AI?

FD, autofocus lenses don't work.

Ben Winter wrote:
Keeping lenses wide open is bad shooting behavior. No one wants to watch footage that shallow. f5.6 is a reasonable amount to keep lenses under normal shooting conditions. f8 is as far as I would need to go normally but outside I can see going as much as f11.

Ben, You're stopping down to F8-F11 with a Letus EX?

lander wrote:
Ben Winter wrote:
Keeping lenses wide open is bad shooting behavior. No one wants to watch footage that shallow. f5.6 is a reasonable amount to keep lenses under normal shooting conditions. f8 is as far as I would need to go normally but outside I can see going as much as f11.

Ben, You're stopping down to F8-F11 with a Letus EX?

Brevis35. But the principle is the same. If you can't go down that far under normal lighting conditions, that's when you need to consider taking it off or finding a new adapter

Post edited by: Ben Winter, at: 2008/02/25 17:56

Here is the list of lenses I use with my Letus 35 EX:

All Nikon mount here.. And I love every one of them.
17-35mm f2.8 ED IF AF-s

50mm F1.4 AIS

85mm F2 AIS

180mm F2.8 ED IF AIS

Vivitar 2x Macro focusing tele adapter (has multicoated glass!)

That's all for now..

ciao,

Tom

Ben Winter wrote:
lander wrote:
Ben Winter wrote:
Keeping lenses wide open is bad shooting behavior. No one wants to watch footage that shallow. f5.6 is a reasonable amount to keep lenses under normal shooting conditions. f8 is as far as I would need to go normally but outside I can see going as much as f11.

Ben, You're stopping down to F8-F11 with a Letus EX?

Brevis35. But the principle is the same. If you can't go down that far under normal lighting conditions, that's when you need to consider taking it off or finding a new adapter <br><br>Post edited by: Ben Winter, at: 2008/02/25 17:56

But you stopped down to F11 in bright light, outside for example?? Without grain?

Absolutely.

Interesting. ... I came across this:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1201983

Folks post similar results with the letus35EX..

I would love to see the footage from this. I have used the Letus extensively and have never been able to stop down this much without severe grain pattern. Care to post your footage?