Nikon Lenses for Letus?
 

Quick Question?

Can someone explain or name the type of Nikon lens mount that will fit with the Letus adaptor? Are the new lenses made with lighter materials?

I heard it won't work with auto focus lenses. Is this true?

I would to purchase say.... 3 lenses several lenses that would cover a good range. Any thoughts?

Sorry for the lame question but I'm juggling a million things right now and didn't get it figured when quickly visiting the Letus site.

As far as I know it'll take any Nikon lens. Problem with most current Nikon AF lenses is they don't have a manual aperture ring, you can only change aperture on the SLR camera body, that's the reason you can't use them. I would prefer older manual focus lenses anyway, as a) they handle better and are nicely made with smooth focussing etc., and b) they can be picked up for decent prices secondhand.
Good lenses include (well most of the MF ones actually) but especially things like 24mm (all) 28mm (all) 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.8 and f1.4, 85mm f1.8, 105mm f2.5 (superb), 55mm f2.8 micro (almost perfect optically). Another cracker is the AF 17-35mm f2.8 (which does have aperture ring).
Steve

Nikon lenses have the strange way of beeing stopped all the way down when not connected to a camera body. This way, if you don't have an aperture ring you would have to put some thingy in the aperture control feather part to get it open. Not good.

Canon lenses on the other hand is opposite. They are fully open when not in use.

It's not that so much that's the problem, it's that regardless of whether they are fully open or fully closed you just can't change the setting as there is no ring on there. This goes for the Canon EOS lenses too, NONE of which have an aperture ring and never have had.
Steve

Sure, but the canon lenses you could use.. I use canon AF EF lenses all the time.. I'd use them fully open even if they had an aperture ring.

you can't use nikon lenses without aperture ring because they're locked at F32

Not all of them. Since Nikon hasn't changed the lens mount in over 30 years, there are LOTS of lenses that will stay put at any f-stop you desire.

Decent list. Other great lenses that are still manufactured by Nikon are the 85mm f/1.4, 105mm f2, 135mm f2, 50mm f/1.4 . Some of these lenses are optimized towards wide open performance, such as the 50mm f/1.4 being sharper wide open than the 50mm f/1.8 . Otherwise, the f/1.4 design seems to compromise the overall wide open performance. An example would be that the 105mm f2 is better at f/2 than the 85mm f/1.4 is at f/2 .

I never valued the aperture ring until I bought the RedRock micro. Now, I'm holding on to all of my fast Nikon lenses with the rings.

Gints, that 135mm f2 was one of the sharpest lenses I ever owned. I wish I still had it. I still have a 20mm f4, 24mm f2, 105mm f2.5, 300mm f4.5 ED-IF, 80-200 f2.8 ED-IF and some newer DX lenses. The thing I haven't figured out yet is whether these DX lenses, which were designed for the smaller DX-format imaging chip, will cover enough of the groundglass for me to use them with a Letus. Anybody know?

I have a 35mm adapter, and when it arrived all I had kicking around was a Nikon D80 with a DX lens (for the smaller-than-35mm DX sensor of the D80) and it didn't cut it at all. I suppose if you could zoom in far enough with your camera (macroish) you could bypass the DX size, but you'd be cutting it close and loosing more light with your camcorder's lens as it zoomed further. I'd stick to regular 35mm Nikon lenses, reglardless of age (I just got a 1.4 Nikon 50mm.. wow.. so exciting!) Besides, DX will hopefully fall by the way side one day as full-frame 35mm sensors take over the wholelineup down the road (at least I hope).

In short, stick to full-frame 35mm Nikon lenses.

(P.S. I just got a 135mm 2.8 prime and it's got a poor CA problem.. I wasn't expecting that... not so impressed - my 150mm Nikon zoom is better! The 50mm shines thankfully.).

Go To
http://www.lenses35.com

a site I have an interest in lists the lenses for use with the Letus35 and others like the M2 and the Brevis and Mini35. But to answer your question quickly, you need the "F" mount. The lenses will all ne Nikkor AI or AI-s.

I hope that the DX sensor sticks while Nikon continues to produce full frame lenses. D3 owners are finding their favorite lenses aren't as good on an FX sensor. With FX, you hit the minimum focus distance sooner, and many of the lenses, notably the venerable 70-200mm VR are soft in the corners on the 200mm end. I have a D3 and am using it mostly as in DX mode for various reasons. FX is better for wide angle. DX is better for macro and tele.

Good info folks.
Thanks for nailing it Mike :)

I hate to contradict everyone here but there is now a solution for most G type full-frame Nikon lenses on 35mm adapters. If you mount an Canon EOS adapter on the Letus or Brevis you can then use this http://www.16-9.net/nikon_g/ adapter to get full aperture control of the Nikon lens. It works great with new lenses like the 14-24 f2.8 and 24-70 f2.8.

The only version currently available rotates the whole lens to adjust aperture so makes life with a follow focus hard, but a lever operated version is promised. Also the aperture value is not dislayed anywhere but this is not really an issue.

It is a little expensive but I spoke to the manufacturer and if there is interest he could make a version for video use without the AF confirm circuit that is designed for EOS cameras, this would cut the cost a little.

Dan