Probably my favorite lens type. I started out with manual focus lenses and many of my photographs here have been made using them yet the percentage of my in-focus shots are higher with AF lenses. These crinkle finish lenses are exquisite, their construction is exemplary and the optics are simply amazing. Yes, this lens type bridges the gap for me MF to AF and back again. It brings together the highest quality that Nikkor offers with their MF lens and the quality of the G or gelded series lenses in a single package. They do that. Metal construction, a beautiful hard but subtle black crinkle paint finish and the best of the Nikkor optics formula, I believe some of
Nikon’s best.
Once I got my feet wet and really started investigating photography and lenses, I began to think about what I wanted to see in my pictures instead of just framing and taking them. The composition really played an important role as it does today. Manual focus prime lenses were the way that I learned about bokeh and depth of field. I shot exclusively with film and the results continued to get better and more of what I wanted to see. Film developing and subsequent digitizing became a bill that prevented me from exploring new lenses and I researched Nikon’s DSLR line up and decided on the D780, truly a lens junky’s camera.
I also researched what zoom lens I could use for travel and landed on the 28-300 G or gelded series of lenses. The aperture ring was removed to be controlled electronically. The exterior lens construction lost the metal look, no longer were the numbers milled and filled with beautiful epoxy paint. A seemingly cheap plastic housing with surface applied paint was the construction technique, a step backward but with amazing optics, speed nailing the focus every single time. Gone was the hassle of driving to the film lab and GONE was the bullshit excuse of blown hand film development and embracing the imperfection of their results on my work.
Also, the social media aspect in the comparison of MF vs. AF, prime vs. zoom, old technology vs. new. I realized that the Internet is filled with so many echo chambers in specialized forums. The participants like a lynch mob, diversity was not embraced, it is frowned upon.
So I honed my body of research down to just a couple of avenues, first being my own results and two, people, actual photographers I could ask questions of and three, famous photographers work in print.
I have so many lenses but none have everything I want.
I bought lenses with good intentions and used them all but after using them, many just sat on my shelf. I was a lens junky trying to buy my pictures. The road to no where is paved with good intentions. The prime MF 20mm was replaced by a more modern zoom. Zooms worked, opinions at Internet forums only served to confuse and waste time and effort.
Primes work better when I liked the lens. Zooms work better all the time. Digital photography improved all aspects of my intentions and my work. I am learning and I’m happy with my progress but I’m still struggling to get to the next level.
It was my
pursuit of a fisheye lens that ultimately brought me to this type of lens. I like AF lenses that I can MF and with the
Nikon 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye-NIKKOR AF-D, I could do that. Next, I happened on the
AF Nikon 300mm f4 ED that I hand held, breathing hard after climbing and captured an amazingly mediocre shot with incredible detail. It wasn’t a bad shot but the devil was right there in the details. Nearly two miles away people appeared out of the desert when I expanded the photo. I bought the
AF Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 ED two ring focus version and learned how cool this lens was and and actually used for and my 28-70 f2.8, I already had that type of lens, but it wasn’t this type of lens that was so beautiful.
The crinkle finish lenses are special in so many ways.
I like concentrating on other things than having to enter a sniper like headspace of lining up my breathing, my heartbeat and calming my shutter actuation. All good multi tasking skills for photography but usually my mind is on race. I do it but I like AF.
I love taking pictures and if the camera is going to nail the focus, I’m going to let it.
These lenses are bomber, no plastic excuses, made with quality in materials, in optics and the aesthetic, this is attractive to me.
I have an F3 and an AI-S 50mm f1.2 loaded up with E-100. Yes, I enjoy the purposeful skill in creating an image from the sum of its parts yet if I’m on the move, thinking about things and the shot presents itself and I’m not ready, my camera system is with my F6 or my D780. AF lenses are badass. AF lenses that can be MF? They will work on my F3, or an F4 or my F6. …and my lovely D780. F-mount is cool and why I choose Nikon in the first place.
Built like a tank.
That’s what I read universally about this type of lens. I associate them with the D nomenclature, but Nikon, Nikkor does not exactly follow that. The D indicates “distance” as in providing distance information for focus and flash. There are lenses built this way, in this configuration that do not contain the D. They have the metal barrel, the black crinkle paint but no D. Some have painted lens names. I like them yet I like the gold placard D lens. That’s my favorite.
Probably my favorite lens in the line up is the AF Nikon 300mm f4 ED, no D but just a killer lens. That lens works far better than my eyes do. I take distant pictures, examine the results and can see crazy detail. Like I said, people at two miles with a 300mm lens, handheld. Expand that picture below, check out the pyramid and see it for yourself.
I’m not a pro, I don’t shoot weddings and I don’t work for a media corporation. I thanked pictures for fun and in my most valuable time, my free time I research and practice with the equipment I am interested in. I know good equipment and this is a series of lenses that is the epitome of Nikon and Nikkor. Look, I don’t think I know more about this than you. But I do know these are built well and are focus driven by a motor in the camera so not all cameras are going to auto focus them. The construction of the crinkle finish lenses is beautiful and so are the pictures they produce.
List of Crinkle Finish Lenses
AF-D 18mm f/2.8
AF-D 28mm f/1.4
AF-D 85mm f/1.4
AF-D 300mm f/2.8
AF-I 300mm f/2.8D
AF-S 300mm f/2.8D MK I ONLY
AF-I 400mm f/2.8D
AF-S 400mm f/2.8D Mk I
AF-S 500mm Mk I
AF-I 600mm f/4
AF-S 600mm f/4AF-D 200mm f/4.0 ED-IF Micro
AF-D 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED Micro
The ones I own.
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