EX3 stock lens vs Nikons
 

Just done a couple of tests with Nikons on the EX3. Turns out that the stock lens on the EX3 is pretty damned good compared to even some top-notch Nikkors.
I did side by sides with the stock lens and a Nikon AF17-35 f2.8 (known to be very very good) and the stock lens was quite a bit sharper! I then tried a Nikoor 55 f2.8 micro (possibly the sharpest lens Nikon has EVER made) and the EX lens was marginally sharper than that too! I suppose this shouldn't be too much of a surprise given the fact that the Nikkors are made for a larger film size - but a surprise it was I must admit!
Steve

What about CA? That is my biggest problem with the Nikon lenses.

With they subject I shot didn't really notice anything troublesome on either lens. I would think you'd tend to get less with a lot of the Nikons than with the EX lens, certainly with the long lenses as they have lots of low-dispersion and apochromatic glass.
Steve

Might be worth trying the newer versions of the Nikkor lenses which have been designed with digital sensors in mind. I think the lens coatings make some difference. I have the new 60mm which you can try.

Andy

Sony PMW-EX3 Stock Lens
 

Steve and all, very interesting comments. I had a feeling that the stock lens on my EX3 was very, very good. In certain situations I've been truely blown away by the stunning sharpness and clarity (and so have some of my corporate clients I think!) but I do not have any other lenses for the EX3 to compare it with (at the moment!)

About the only thing that I've found as a very slight negative is a little barrel distortion at full wide which I've had to watch in certain architectural shots that I'm currently doing in corporate videos for several Cambridge based clients. That being said, I like the fact that it goes reasonably wide - really useful for just about everything!

Most of the new Nikkors don't have manual aperture rings and can't be used. It's mainly the G Lens that don't. It's rather unfortunate! The D Lens do have an aperture ring.

Yes, I just looked at my new 60mm Nikkor and it doesn't have an aperture ring!!

There is a mechanical lever to adjust the aperture on the lens mount so it might be possible to engineer an adapter to move this. More expensive to make of course but would enable all Nikon lenses to be used.

Andy

That, would definitely be cool. To be able to use "G" lenses. Unlike you can do on Canon EOS lenses/cameras - you cannot set the aperture with the dslr Nikon body, then take the lens off with that same aperture set and maintained until it is changed by the dslr body again. That aperture lever on the "G" lenses is spring loaded - toward the closed position (if I'm not mistaken). Of course Nikon sells very special really expensive match sticks which you can stick in there to hold the aperture open. This technique is very accurate by the way. Kind of like parking your car in the garage at night, by ear..

Just do an ebay search for older manual Nikkor lenses, these can be purchased for a song as nobody seems to want them - except EX3 users.

You can get one of these Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D Review for about $100 new. It's one of the sharpest lenses Nikon ever made and it works on everything, full frame or DX, manual or auto, both focus and aperture. I use it for head shots on my D100.

I would also highly recommend the 55 micro (MF) as it's ridiculously sharp, especially CU.
There are always ways and means with lens conversions and adapters, and it's pretty much true to say that anything's possible, just a lot of things are prohibitively expensive or a pain (like the G lens aperture ring situation), but it can be done. Some lenses in the past have even been dismantled completely, the optical elements then rehoused in a completely newly-manufactured body (ie the Century Series 2000 Canon 150-600).
Steve