Nikkor f.1.8 105mm Ais on M?

[vladik]

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Dear fellow Leica M (240) users would any one of you has any experience of using Nikkor f. 1.8 (or f. 2.5) 105mm AIs lens on M240? Thanking you for your comments in advance.

Vlad.

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[ECohen]

I have the Fotoiox adaptor Nikon to Leica M  http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Mount-Adapter-Nikon-M-Monochrome/dp/B003EAZXNM

I have had it only a few months so I don't have extensive experience but have made lots of tests  

 

I have used it on an old Nikon 50mm 1.4 from the late 1970s.

At 1.4 it wasn't super sharp but the quality of the photos were wonderful very "artsy"

the color was a little odd but nice and wide open it was flary .....I was shooting into the light

I doubt I'll use this quirky lens much but there was nothing wrong with the photos.

I dont see it replacing my 50mm leica summicron

 

I bought the adaptor primarily for my Nikon105 f/2.8D macro

Great results wide open and stopped down. Very very happy with the results.

 

So far I've only used it for macro in the garden but this is a great new lens so I'm confident that for general use  it will be fine.

I have not done any tests at infinity so I think it will focus but I not 100% sure

 

 

If you thinking of getting the adaptor....go for it...... the 105 on the Leica is great!

You extend the possibilities of your camera for  only $40

As long as you don't mind Live View.

 

Once going this direction it got the Leica 90 Macro off my mind....I had a little GAS

 

Hope this helps

[vladik]

I have the Fotoiox adaptor Nikon to Leica M  http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Mount-Adapter-Nikon-M-Monochrome/dp/B003EAZXNM

I have had it only a few months so I don't have extensive experience but have made lots of tests  

 

I have used it on an old Nikon 50mm 1.4 from the late 1970s.

At 1.4 it wasn't super sharp but the quality of the photos were wonderful very "artsy"

the color was a little odd but nice and wide open it was flary .....I was shooting into the light

I doubt I'll use this quirky lens much but there was nothing wrong with the photos.

I dont see it replacing my 50mm leica summicron

 

I bought the adaptor primarily for my Nikon105 f/2.8D macro

Great results wide open and stopped down. Very very happy with the results.

 

So far I've only used it for macro in the garden but this is a great new lens so I'm confident that for general use  it will be fine.

I have not done any tests at infinity so I think it will focus but I not 100% sure

 

 

If you thinking of getting the adaptor....go for it...... the 105 on the Leica is great!

You extend the possibilities of your camera for  only $40

As long as you don't mind Live View.

 

Once going this direction it got the Leica 90 Macro off my mind....I had a little GAS

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Thank you for your reply ECohen, I might consider a Nikkor f 2.8 Ais or a micro one as I would be using it mainly for landscape and nature photography. I have a set of Novoflex LEM/VIS II extension rings that I purchased to get me closer focusing with my M lenses and it works very well in deed for those few occasion that I do macro.

[250swb]

I have the 105mm 2.5 Ai and it works very well. It is a super lens anyway and this comes through using it on an M body. The nearest comparison would be the 90mm Elmarit and it matches it in most respects except of course rangefinder focusing. If you have an EVF or use the camera on a tripod and can use Live View the price alone would make me choose the Nikkor along with a cheap Chinese adapter.

 

 

 

Steve

[menos I M6]

I have a 105/1.8 AiS which I consider one of Nikon's most interesting lenses overall.

It is one of those lenses along with the Noct-Nikkor, that I wish somehow where available in a  fully rangefinder coupled, RF camera optimized version.

 

When I had to change my old MM to a newer MM2, I also bought out of curiosity the EVF and got myself also a Novoflex adapter to be able to use nikon lenses on the MM2 in a pinch.

 

Well, I knew from the very beginning, when the EVF was introduced with the M10 that it is a piece of atrocity and I never would want to be forced to use it for actual photography.

Putting these pieces together and playing with them for a few days has only hardened that standpoint further.

 

As a means of (mis) using a Leica M on a tripod, I can understand the appeal of having live view and the ability to adapt lenses made for other systems.

For actual quick, handheld photography or even the use in a studio application with live subjects I think it is a most unfortunate concoction at best.

 

The need to press separate buttons each time you focus, switching back and for between different views, having an extremely long black out, a long delay in actual shots, … completely kills any proper use of this gear as a photographic tool.

 

It transforms one of the greatest camera concepts in the history of mankind - the Leica M - into an atrocity.

 

The 105/1.8 AiS on a Nikon film or digital body - most wonderful!

The Leica M - most wonderful!

Live view - most useful!

EVF technology - most certainly has a place in some applications.

 

Trying to put these great things together into one in 2016 - not so fortunate.

[250swb]

 

The need to press separate buttons each time you focus, switching back and for between different views, having an extremely long black out, a long delay in actual shots, … completely kills any proper use of this gear as a photographic tool.

 

.

 

So photography is all about speed? I thought photography was about making a good photograph?

 

Although one questions answers another, collecting fast images with "one of the greatest camera concepts in the history of mankind" would account for the reason so many repetitive shit photographs have been made by with the M over it's history, fanboys caught up in the dream have wasted more film and bandwidth than any other camera concept.

[ECohen]

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menos I M6, on 20 May 2016 - 08:52, said:

The need to press separate buttons each time you focus, switching back and for between different views, having an extremely long black out, a long delay in actual shots, … completely kills any proper use of this gear as a photographic tool.

 

 

Nahhhh I've got plenty of time to slow down and enjoy using this lens configuration.

Photography is about making a good photograph? 

I'm guessing you've never enjoyed the slow speed and pleasure of making photographs with a view camera?

 

So maybe its not a sports lens ....but sorta neither is the M

[menos I M6]

menos I M6, on 20 May 2016 - 08:52, said:

The need to press separate buttons each time you focus, switching back and for between different views, having an extremely long black out, a long delay in actual shots, … completely kills any proper use of this gear as a photographic tool.

 

 

Nahhhh I've got plenty of time to slow down and enjoy using this lens configuration.

Photography is about making a good photograph? 

I'm guessing you've never enjoyed the slow speed and pleasure of making photographs with a view camera?

 

So maybe its not a sports lens ....but sorta neither is the M

 

The reason why I love to use my Leica M cameras is that they are the fastest cameras to use.

A Leica M is always with me (seriously, always), because a Leica M and small 35 or 50mm lens is so tiny and yet so capable - and really the fastest camera to use NOT to get in the way of a picture.

 

I have plenty other camera gear I enjoy … slowing down with.

I use my Noblex 150 or one of my old Graphlex 4x5s or any of the 6x6 film cameras I still like, heck even the digital Leica S I consider a "slow down camera" and enjoy it as such.

 

 

The Leica M really is for speed and most importantly for zero delay between what I see through the finder and what I capture.

 

Speed is often slandered and misinterpreted on these sites by vitriol lovers as doing blurry snapshots and the good photo is only taken with long preparation. This is utter nonsense.

 

There are as many different interests in photographic materials as there are personalities and not everyone loves their tripods, tea bags bubble levels and remote releases. There are still quite a handful of people who just love the Leica M for what it became known - the no nonsense, simple, reliable, compact and yet very capable little camera.

 

 

There is a point about this argument speed vs. taking your time that actually is borderline offending. There are photographs that are hardly possible to take with a Leica M and it's ancient EVF tech, yet these are perfect examples of photographs what Leica made the best possible optical rangefinder for.

A big part of the photography I am interested in is to take photographs of strangers I encounter in the places I travel.

I usually use a 50mm lens at wide apertures for this and 99% of these photographs take place in under 10sec. I get one single shot. That's it. No fiddling with Rube Goldberg contraptions, just the best rangefinder with great compact lenses.

 

 

Untitled by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr

 

 

L1064615-M Monochrom--for_flickr by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr

 

happy family by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr

 

Shanghai F1 GP 2012 - Saturday - portrait - Kai Ebel by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr

[250swb]

 

 

The Leica M really is for speed and most importantly for zero delay between what I see through the finder and what I capture.

 

 

So why are you so against people working slowly and making an photograph that best represents the landscape or the character of the person portrayed? Why denigrate care and attention to the photograph and the subject in favour of collecting images as quickly as possible?

 

What for instance does 'speed' do for a portrait? Well the first thing is does is cause people to smile, everybody smiles when somebody says 'can I take your photograph?'. It is a normal everyday human reaction even if the person has troubles on their mind. So what do we learn from smiling faces, we learn that somebody has said 'can I take your photograph'. It is the genre of the family snap, everybody smiles, but within the arms of the family people will know that x hates y and really aunty b isn't very well, so they add in the important contextual information to a smiling family portrait. Without context smiling says nothing about the person. The image becomes a genealogical specimen unless something is known about the subject, such as a politician or actress, and then smiles, or frowns, can be read in context of what the public know or think they know.

 

So speed isn't all it's cracked up to be, and if setting up a tripod and fiddling about with a lens that wasn't designed for the camera is what it takes to put a space between the words 'can I take your photograph' and the actual picture then nothing but good can come from it. It is the cooling down period to talk, it allows the subject to reflect, their body will change shape, if they smile it can become less intense, they may become irritable and show how they really feel, etc. All these things Diane Arbus did in her street photographs, not always using a tripod true, but delaying tactics to take one picture and capture the real character in the next when the smile wears off, or stays on. Sally Mann with her family photographs, not many smiles but characters coming through, brought about by slowing down and repetition until the sitter is hardly aware of the camera. And the speed of the camera is irrelevant, it could be a Leica, it could be a view camera.

 

So this genre of speed that photographers buy into with a Leica is a double edged sword, speed itself shows nothing, but capturing the decisive moment can be the last exposure on a roll of 36 all dedicated to one subject, it is hardly ever a single image fortuitously made out of context. There are hundreds of smiling faces on Bresson's contact sheets, and he took the picture to pop the bubble, get it out of the way so he could get the subject to ignore the camera and be themselves, he worked, and yet there are so many Leica photographers who truly believe he took all his pictures with one shot before moving on.

[pop]

....

What for instance does 'speed' do for a portrait?

....

You capture that fleeting moment when the model reacts with a brief smile or frown or shrug to something that happens during your session. Use a camera with a shutter delay of a few hundred milliseconds and lose that moment.

[NickR]

You capture that fleeting moment when the model reacts with a brief smile or frown or shrug to something that happens during your session. Use a camera with a shutter delay of a few hundred milliseconds and lose that moment.

 

 

...or the delay moves you into that moment.

[NB23]

If I may an analogy:

 

A quick glimpse on a fine Rolex wristwatch versus taking a phone out if the pocket, unlocking it, waiting for the lag to operate, looking at some digital numerals on a screen.

 

1 second versus 12. Pleasing versus unpleasing.

 

But that's just me...

[NB23]

Are we really discussing how sluggishness is actually a desireable feature in photography?

 

Really?

[bocaburger]

I haven't tried my F-mount 105/2.5 on my M's but I have the LTM version which is splendid...and rangefinder-coupled.  I have a 9cm M-adapter on it, the frame lines are actually more accurate than with a 90 except close up.  Been using it since film days, know how loose to crop.  Heavy beast though.

[NickR]

If I may an analogy:

 

A quick glimpse on a fine Rolex wristwatch versus taking a phone out if the pocket, unlocking it, waiting for the lag to operate, looking at some digital numerals on a screen.

 

1 second versus 12. Pleasing versus unpleasing.

 

But that's just me...

 

 

I think the analogy goes like this:

 

Two seconds to pull out my cell phone and read the time in large numerals.

 

10 seconds to find and put on my glasses to read my otherwise blurry Seamaster.

 

If you need the extra time to focus properly by using the EVF, so be it.

[NB23]

I think the analogy goes like this:

 

Two seconds to pull out my cell phone and read the time in large numerals.

 

10 seconds to find and put on my glasses to read my otherwise blurry Seamaster.

 

If you need the extra time to focus properly by using the EVF, so be it.

Pulling a phone in and out of your pocket is more effective than sinply looking at your wrist?

 

Prefering Large digital numerals to a fine analogue watch?

 

You sound like a typical Sony customer. Which is fine. But very far from the Leica profile.

[gyoung]

And how do you keep your phone on all the time? Battery would be flat in no time.

By the time you have typed on your password the decisive moment will be long gone

 

Gerry

[NickR]

And how do you keep your phone on all the time? Battery would be flat in no time.

By the time you have typed on your password the decisive moment will be long gone

 

Gerry

 

 

Decisive moment to tell the time? Don't need password for time and I never shut my cell off.  Can't read watch without reading glasses.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[NickR]

Pulling a phone in and out of your pocket is more effective than sinply looking at your wrist?

 

Prefering Large digital numerals to a fine analogue watch?

 

You sound like a typical Sony customer. Which is fine. But very far from the Leica profile.

 

Don't expect to read posts this obnoxious here.

[NB23]

Don't expect to read posts this obnoxious here.

What's obnoxious? If I've learned anything from my major in marketing it's that customers have profiles.

 

If you need glasses, can't align a rangefinder properly, don't see the point in owning a fine watch and really prefer electronic viewfinders, the conclusion is simple: you sound like a potential Sony customer. Especially since their EVF outperforms Leica's by quite a leap.

 

What's obnoxious in being with the majority (a Sonyman)?