slr still lenses
 

Does anybody know the difference between nikon slr series E ais lenses and regular nikon ais lenses? I'm shopping for my 35mm adaptor.

The Nikon Series "E" lenses were "budget" lenses that came out with the Nikon EM in the early 1980s. There was a 28mm. a 50mm, a 100mm, a 135mm, and a couple of zooms, I think. I have three of them (28, 100, 135).

They are basically the regular Nikkors (sometimes older designs, though) with cheaper construction. Some of the early version had very cheap construction indeed, and Nikon later improved them.

They should all be plenty sharp for video. They are also lighter than regular Nikkors--and plenty cheap, too--I don't think any of them, in excellent condition, go over $75 USD. (I'll be e-baying my 28 and 100 soon--but not the 135, if you are interested.)

Some people say that the coatings aren't as nice as regular Nikkors (single vs. multi) but I don't know about that.

Hope that helps.

--Darin

Darin Boville
www.darinboville.com

What is the standard wide-angle lens that nikon makes? 24mm or 28mm? If both are available, which would you get?

I'd say it depends on your next lens up. I reckon you should always leapfrog focal lengths, so if you have a 50 mm, then go for the 28 mm. If you have a 35 mm, go for the 20 mm and so on.

tom.

Whats the logic behind your leapfrogging? I'm curious. I have a 50mm lens and want a nice wide angle lens to go with it.

The leapfrog idea is so that it's worth your while doing a lens change. The hassle factor of lens cap, removal, back cap, storage, retrieval, cap off, bayonet on new lens etc has made people accept slower, more distorting zooms.

If you've got a 35 mm lens you can always crop out a section of the photo that would give you a pretty convincing 50 mm lens viewpoint. You could say the same with a 28 mm of course, but the beauty of the 28 over the 35 is that the former *looks* wide, whereas the latter hardly ever does.

Same goes with changing from 28 to 24 mm. If you're changing lenses, go bold; leapfrog.

tom.

thanks for the elaboration. Also, do you guys know if still slr lens focal lengths match 1:1 with cinema lens focal lengths. Lets say, would a 28mm slr nikon lens have the same FOV as 28mm cooke s4 lens (if it exists)?

Hi Amos,
no, the focal length of photographic and cinema lenses do not match up.

Cinema film looks roughly the same as photographic film, however it is recorded differently. The film is approx. 24mm wide, photocameras record pictures next to each other, the frame is 24mm high, 36mm wide. Cinefilm records pictures below each other which means they are roughly 24mm wide and 13mm ish high (ignoring sound tracks and aspect ratios etc.)

Long story short: The FOV at a set focal length is different for film and photo. Film is closer to the digital SLR frame format (APS-C). So your 28mm lens would be closer to a 19mm lens for cinefilm.

Tom, leapfrogging is a great concept I was not aware of (I use zooms for my SLR ;-) Thanks a lot for pointing out.