Are Nikon stills lenses of any use?
 

I'm off to Prague in a couple of days, where I've found a place I can pick up second-hand Kikon stills lenses very cheap.

I'm also intending to buy a HVR-Z1.

Can I use these lenses on that camera - with an appropriate adaptor - and would this offer any real advantages? I'm thinking of at least picking up a fish eye.

Thanks.

To the best of my knowledge there is no adapter to mount other
lenses to that camera. I think the mini35 to mount 35mm lenses
is coming for the camera as well (or it already might be), but that
is an expensive piece of kit (think $10K without lenses).

To fit photo lenses on a Z1 or an FX1 requires major reconstruction of the camera. It has been done. I spoke the the fellow that did this modification and he mentioned that he's interested in offering the modification as a service for what seemed a reasonable fee.

However it looks to be like a one way job - ie once the mod has been done, there's no way to refit the factory zoom lens, so it's not something I'd do to my only camera. Also the lenses he's fitted are all long, I don't know if it would be practical to fit short wide angle lenses such as a fish eye.

Once you do the mod, some features, such as as shot transition and steadyshot, would be lost.

Ah well, it was worth asking. Thanks for the replies.

Further, if you look at the shots the modified FX took, there are aberrations in the shot. Changing lenses would be sweet, but not at the expense of the quality of the shot. The Super HADS and the Zeiss lens are fairly well matched, IMO.

Unless I'm mistaken, I got the impression (from the website and talking in person) that the shots that used the alternate lens had fewer chromatic abberations than the built in lens, though yes, there will always be SOME there.

The pictures on the Website would seem to bear this out, provided they're correctly labelled. When I spoke to the man at Video forum he point this out as a prime reason for using these lenses over the original lens.