Share Images Made with Your Adapted Lens on a Nikon Z Body

[acnomad]

The Nikon Z6 and Z7 offer an unprecedented opportunity to shoot some interesting old lenses with the benefit of IBIS, focus peaking, and short flange length. Let's share our images made by mounting interesting old lenses on the Nikon Z6 or Z7.

 

[acnomad]

I'll start with the W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/2.5. This lens was manufactured in the 1950s in what Nikon called an "S" mount, a copy of the Contax rangefinder mount. Since there was no mirror to get in the way, retrofocus design was not needed, therefore this lens is tiny. It is available for a fairly modest price on the used market, though not in abundant supply. Mounted on the Z body it is very compact.

1. Here's the lens on a Z6 with an inexpensive adapter

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2. The protruding rear element prevents use on an SLR or DSLR

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The lens barrel and mechanism appear to be all aluminum, providing a satisfying solid feel. The aperture is changed with the front filter ring; adjustment requires precision, but it is usable. Focusing is accomplished with the knurled ring. The focus throw is quite long, allowing extremely precise focus, and movement feels nicely damped. The following are SOOC and uncropped.

3. Minimum focus distance is not terribly close but there is a nice bit of swirl in the bokeh

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4. Stopping down to f/5.6 yields fairly good sharpness across the frame

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5. Colors are rendered quite nicely

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6. Here's a lower contrast scene at f/11

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7. As one might expect, the short focal length and swirly bokeh can combine for environmental portraiture with a vintage feel.

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Thanks for looking!

 

[Pa]

Timely thread, Andy, as I was playing around with some older AI and AI-S lenses today on my Z6. Nothing to post yet, but maybe in the next couple of days.

 

[MMRadman]

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[MMRadman]

Above, Z7 with Summilux R 35mm, shot after the sunset.
Below, indoor shot under LED illumination.

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[acnomad]

View attachment 1645787

Very nice! When you get a chance, please post more from your Summilux, along with your thoughts on its performance.

 

[tony-b]

Nikon Z7 with FTZ adapter 60mm AF-D micro using the Nikon slide copier kit.

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This was taken in the spring of 1965. My mom is on the left, my aunt (pregnant with my oldest cousin in the center and my uncle on the right. So far I’ve used this lens to photograph over 1000 old slides. I have a box of negatives to start on next.

 

[Jim Mohundro]

I'll start with the W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/2.5. This lens was manufactured in the 1950s in what Nikon called an "S" mount, a copy of the Contax rangefinder mount. Since there was no mirror to get in the way, retrofocus design was not needed, therefore this lens is tiny. It is available for a fairly modest price on the used market, though not in abundant supply. Mounted on the Z body it is very compact.

1. Here's the lens on a Z6 with an inexpensive adapter
View attachment 1645661

2. The protruding rear element prevents use on an SLR or DSLR
View attachment 1645660

The lens barrel and mechanism appear to be all aluminum, providing a satisfying solid feel. The aperture is changed with the front filter ring; adjustment requires precision, but it is usable. Focusing is accomplished with the knurled ring. The focus throw is quite long, allowing extremely precise focus, and movement feels nicely damped. The following are SOOC and uncropped.

3. Minimum focus distance is not terribly close but there is a nice bit of swirl in the bokeh
View attachment 1645669

4. Stopping down to f/5.6 yields fairly good sharpness across the frame
View attachment 1645665

5. Colors are rendered quite nicely
View attachment 1645666

6. Here's a lower contrast scene at f/11
View attachment 1645664

7. As one might expect, the short focal length and swirly bokeh can combine for environmental portraiture with a vintage feel.
View attachment 1645662

Thanks for looking!

 

[Jim Mohundro]

Acnomad,

Would you please identify that inexpensive adapter? I’m looking for a pretty compact 35mm lens for my Z 6.

Thanks.

Jim Mohundro

 

[acnomad]

@Jim Mohundro, it's made by Fotasy. I believe it was $15 on eBay from a US seller.

 

[Jim Mohundro]

@Jim Mohundro, it's made by Fotasy. I believe it was $15 on eBay from a US seller.

Thanks, Andy. I’ll check it out. A long tome ago, I owned a Contax IIA and later a Nikon S3 which shared the same mount.

 

[Gordo]

I've been using the rangefinder glass I originally picked up for the X system on my Z6. I can post some test shots, but there's really nothing great about the photography.

Using the Elmarit-M 2.8/28 ASPH, Voigtlander Vintage Line Heliar 50/3.5, and the Elmarit-M 2.8/90 on a Rayqual adapter. Been using Rayqual adapters after getting out-of-spec cheap adapters years ago. Will post a separate thread for each lens. I've recently read a claim that M glass has been tested and found to not work well on the Z cams, suppsoedly common knowledge I've somehow missed. Still trying to find what that poster is talking about, as I haven't seen too many people using M glass, let alone claiming they've tested and found the lenses lacking. Maybe it was specific to something like wide/ super-wide.

General thoughts on the three: small size is nice compared to the bulk of modern AF lenses, as I continue to age I continue to have increasing problems with manually focusing lenses (not a fault of the lenses), all three are capable of sharp photos if I nail focus.

View attachment 1646326

 

[Gordo]

Elmarit-M 2.8/28 ASPH. As with the others, capable of sharp images. However, it vignettes heavily, even at landscape apertures. These were at f/11 IIRC. Personally, this is too much vignette and I'll likely not use the lens on Z anymore. Shame, as it is wonderfully compact on the Z6.

Without vignette correction:
View attachment 1646327

With vignette correction:
View attachment 1646328

Final image, cropped to 16:9 and processed to taste:
View attachment 1646329

 

[JeeperDon]

Last one needs John Wayne on a horse.

 

[acnomad]

Elmarit-M 2.8/28 ASPH. As with the others, capable of sharp images. However, it vignettes heavily, even at landscape apertures. These were at f/11 IIRC. Personally, this is too much vignette and I'll likely not use the lens on Z anymore. Shame, as it is wonderfully compact on the Z6.

I don't have much experience with Leica glass (briefly owned a 40mm Summicron, which was quite good) but it surprises me that the vignetting is so significant. I do like your postprocessing of the image, though I presume that was a fair amount of effort.

...increasing problems with manually focusing lenses (not a fault of the lenses)...

I share this sentiment, yet strangely, it is one of the things I find myself really enjoying. The process of slowing things down to focus is helping me "see." I mean this in the sense of the mind's eye, not physical acuity. At the same time, the excellent EVF of the Z (and especially the magnification function) helps me achieve quality of focus as good as (probably even better than) I did when my eyes were younger.

 

[Gordo]

Voigtlander Vintage Line 50/3.5 Heliar. Sharp. Odd shape. Clickless aperture (not a big fan). Well damped focus. Did I mention sharp? Smooth OOF transitions and bokeh. The small max aperture isn't the best for low-light shooting, but the aperture makes it easy to shoot wide open frequently, and the rendering makes me want to shoot it that way.

This first pair is shown with user error. I somehow flipped the Z to recording only jpg instead of RAW + jpg. Still able to recover highlights and process the image. The more I use the Z6 the more I like it. The first pair are jpegs, processed and saved, uploaded to pbase and then to the Cafe, so there are several levels of compression here. All were taken handheld, with my inherent wobbliness. I'm sure a tripod would yield some increased sharpness.

No vignette correction, shot wide open:
View attachment 1646334

1280x960 crop (100% view) of the above image:
View attachment 1646335

Another couple of wide-open shots, trying to show both the sharpness and OOF characteristics. Harsh daylight. Processed from RAW.
View attachment 1646336

View attachment 1646337

Another pair, shot wide open, processed from RAW, full view:
View attachment 1646338

And 1280x960 crop (100%):
View attachment 1646339

 

[Gordo]

Last one needs John Wayne on a horse.

Thanks!

I don't have much experience with Leica glass (briefly owned a 40mm Summicron, which was quite good) but it surprises me that the vignetting is so significant. I do like your postprocessing of the image, though I presume that was a fair amount of effort.

I share this sentiment, yet strangely, it is one of the things I find myself really enjoying. The process of slowing things down to focus is helping me "see." I mean this in the sense of the mind's eye, not physical acuity. At the same time, the excellent EVF of the Z (and especially the magnification function) helps me achieve quality of focus as good as (probably even better than) I did when my eyes were younger.

I was surprised as well. Not nearly as evident on the longer glass.

Like you, I enjoy using the manual focus glass, just not sure how much longer I can do so without it turning into frustration.

 

[Gordo]

Elmarit-M 2.8/90. Compact. Dense. Built-in hood. Nice focus feel and throw. Need to get out and shoot this more to get some better examples and some landscape.

Slightly cropped to remove an unwanted item I didn't see before tripping the shutter, cannot remember the aperture but I think it was f/4:
View attachment 1646340

Another slight crop to remove the top of a fence visible at the bottom of the frame, taken at f/2.8 or f/4:
View attachment 1646341

 

[acnomad]

@Gordo, the Voigtlander 50 and the Leica 90 both look extremely sharp! Regarding remembering the aperture settings, I've resumed my old habit of taking notes while I shoot. Except this time around, I have a better way to preserve the information long-term (using a plugin called LensTagger that revises the EXIF data). In days of old, the info was gone when my notes got separated from the negatives. If anyone is interested, I can share the details of my workflow for non-chipped lenses.

 

[Gordo]

Thanks Andy, I'm sure some people here might find the tagger info handy.

With my mf lenses, I tend to go out and shoot with a specific intent, including aperture. But for some reason I forgot to annotate when I uploaded the images. Oops.