Took my EX3 out today
 

OK, so I have had the EX3 camera since December and have been working with it on a DVD project, which meant I have not had much chance to do any experimenting with it. I am learning on the job so to speak.

Today was a brilliant sunny day in London so I took my Sony EX3 out, together with a handful of Nikkor lenses and Mike Tapas Nikon/Sony EX3 mount.

Here is the sneak preview footage.

Sony EX3 Nikon mount

My conclusion is that lenses from 85 up to 200mm are fine, the 300mm needs a good tripod, the 500mm needs to be set in concrete

Nice stuff, Vincent!
I think that even 500mm is certainly doable however.... (without setting in concrete!)
I have found the biggest limitation at that focal length is not the stability, you just need a VERY stable tripod and VERY good head. Atmospheric distortion is the bigger challenge.... pollution, dust, heat waves, etc.
I have a very nice clip shot at 500mm that is rock-solid, I didn't try to do any moves but just locked it down. I'd post it here, but for some reason it keeps getting rejected by the server... but it is plenty stable as long as you have good sticks.
Thanks for sharing the different focal lengths, this really puts the magnification factor into perspective. (pardon the pun) I've been trying to decide whether to buy some more Nikon glass to go with my Mike Tapa adapter (I only have a 200-500) or wait for the Canon EOS which I have plenty of glass for-
cheers

All the lenses used for this short clip were the older style manual focus Nikkors, most of them were picked up for less than £100 a few years back, you could probably pick these up on e-bay for a song, as now everyone wants auto-focus, electronic connections etc.

Don't write off local camera stores. People are unloading old prime lenses (and fast zoom lenses) at a remarkable rate. I have found lots of good deals in local shops and you can try out the lenses so you can see if anything is amiss.

I picked up all my lenses from a local store. The 500mm f8 which is a Reflex Nikkor (mirror lens) was only £175 and came complete with case and ND filters. This is a difficult lens to use, maybe I will have to invest in a new tripod.

I have just updated the video, will add text to the page later in the day.

Nice video Vincent. I am going to get some footage today with the Adaptimax. I have been invited to the press and practice session of Poole Speedway down here in Dorset. Should be fun to put the Adaptimax through its paces and see how longer lenses work with fast moving objects!

As for cheap nikon glass, there's a ton of it out there going cheap. I picked up a 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 ( Nikon 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF Zoom Nikkor) and paid only £125 for it in immaculate condition just last week.

Not as fast as I normaly buy but good enough.

Now for those with lots of Nikons which don't have an aperture ring, a solution is coming up in the next couple of weeks which means you can join the party as well.

In all reality Steve, lenses in the range of 85 to 135 work best for follow focus, longer than that and you will be hunting to find your subject. Even though I had my camera on a tripod, I still found it difficult to keep a steady pan on the rowing boat (500mm lens). The 105 worked a treat, and this would equate to a 567mm lens on 35mm.

To other readers, although I used Mike Tapas EX3 adaptor for the video, I have no doubt that Steve's Adaptimax will work every bit as well, and I love the colour of it too.

I will be doing a more detailed review of optical quality, comparing image detail between the Sony stock lens and the various Nikkors.

What tripod are you using Vincent? There seems to be quite a bit of shake with it. I have a Sachtler 20 ll and its rock solid unless there's gale blowing through it. Normal breeze has little to no effect.

The tripod used was a Manfrotto 755B together with a 503 head.

OK, so I now know thast this combination doesn't work with longer lenses. I do have a heavier Manfrotto set of legs the 525 together with a 503 head, this would have been a much better combination. I didn't have my assistant with me on this shoot so I had to carry all the gear - Kata 197 bag with camera and other accessories, Silver case with 10 Nikkor lenses, 500mm lens and a tripod. I slept well last night.

I will be putting together a more creative video showing the Nikon adaptor in use and giving more information on technique etc.

I've been looking into buying one of these adaptors and some old Nikon lenses but knowing which Nikon lenses will work and which will not is a minefield for someone whose never had a Nikon camera.
I did some research and found heaps of information about the history of these lenses complete with tables listing all the variants and model number but that left me more confused than I was to start with. This is not helped by how these lenses are listed for sale in places such as eBay.

If someone could throw together some form of guide specifically for the use at hand I and I suspect many other here would be most appreciative.

Bob,

Almost all of the older manual Nikkor lenses will work, and they also tend to have an aperture ring too. Lenses that have the Ai prefix are auto indexing lenses, this does not affect the way it will work on the Sony, it is used for exposure metering on older Nikon camera bodies.

In short any lens with manual focus and an aperture ring will work fine. But don't go for a wide angle lens, your Sony lens will cover these. The 85mm roughly picks up from where the Sony lens ends. Anything longer than 300mm and you may need a better tripod.

Hi Vincent,

Mirror lenses are difficult to use at the best of times let alone with a crop of 5.5x. Not impossible but difficult.

I'm using a 600mm f/4 AF-S II. I did write a quick post on my web journal covering this entitled Putting a Nikon Super Telephoto Lens on a Sony EX-3.

My prefered sticks/head combo for the above set-up is theMiller HD 925 Legs with 990 Mid-Leg Spreader teamed with a Miller Arrow 55HD Fluid Head.

However I have had the above rig on my the Manfrotto 542ART Road Runner Carbon Legs with Mid-Leg Spreader teamed with a Manfrotto 526 Professional Fluid Head and it was stable.

I do a times hang a camera bag / rock bag to help make it more ridged plus I always spread the legs out as far as I can while keeping the head as close to the floor as possible.

For ease I prefer shooting with a 100-300mm lens generally as it's easier to work with.

I have found the very best place to learn about which nikon lenses you would want to buy can be found at Ken Rockwells brilliant site.
Nikon Nikkor Lenses

Ken reviews just about every Nikon out there and ives his opinion. Using this I have got myself a great set of Nikon primes and zooms at bargain prices on Ebay.

I would love to get my hands on a Nikon 600mm lens but they are way too expensive considering how often I would actaully use it.

A 600 mm Nikon on the Adaptimax would make it a 3240mm lens!

Thanks for all the help guys.

To be specific, something described as "Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 ED Zoom AF Lens" will be OK?

My decoding says it's an Autofocus lens which obviously is not going to auto focus but I can still manually focus it. It has its own iris so I'm good to go.

Around the USD 500 - 1,000 mark is a reasonable price for such fast glass?

Hi Bob, this is the one I own and its fantastic. Sharpe and solid as a rock.
Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D

I got mine secondhand from ebay a couple of years ago for £320, which in todays market is about $450. You can see the lens in action on the Adaptimax website.