F3 with old Nikon lenses? Studio interview FOV with 50mm or 35mm?

[Les Wilson]

I have a small studio strictly for interviews that I want to equip with a cine camcorder. The F3 suits my XDCAM EX workflow so I'm thinking of picking up a second hand F3 and put on the MTF adapter for Nikon. How far from the subject do you find yourself setting up the F3 with a 50mm for something like the attached? 35mm?

Also, can I expect my Nikon S 50mm 1.4 from the early 70's to work or should I pick up a modern Nikon lens?

Anything I should look out for in a second hand unit?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Depends on how close you want to be to your subject and how much space you have to work with. If your conducting the interview and operating the camera you want everything relatively close. Before buying a prime I put a zoom lens on and test the angles of views I'm looking for. Btw zooms are useful to avoid jump cuts because you can quickly change view.

[Les Wilson]

Thanks Pete. Your post made me realize I could use my wife's 7D and lenses to see the FOV at 35mm and 50mm. The same framing of the subject puts the camera at 4' and 7.5'.

But the 35 brings in sooo much more background. I don't want that.

Any thoughts on whether the old Nikon S will work with an MTF adapter?

[Bill Ward]

Les: Look for an Optitek Prolock nikon mount for your F3. Don't get the MTF adapter. The Prolock is much more robust, and more importantly, instead of the fiddly little spring release on the MTF iris adjustment, has a bombproof, smooth cinevised iris ring.

The Proloc works with pretty much any of the legacy Nikon glass, and with the newer no-F-stop ring lenses.

If you are in a short space, try to find to fast lenses, like 1.5 or 1.8s, and use the ND filters on the F3 to allow you to open up pretty significantly and rack out the background. Rokinon makes some very affordable lenses that are fast--the 85mm is one of my favorite interview lenses, although I use the venerable older Sigma 50-150 2.8 as a regular interview lens as well.

[Dave Sperling]

Lee,
Your 50 / 1.4 Nikkor should work -- but check the condition of the focus ring. I've found that my old 50/1.4's focus ring exhibits a little too much play - so the image shifts slightly when I focus. Assuming you have the same one I do (I think mine was new in 1969) it may be better looking once you stop down to a 2.8 or 4. Also, the lens coatings back then were not as good with flares as current ones, so definitely keep extraneous light out of the lens!
Of course the manual Iris is a definite plus...

[Les Wilson]

You are right. I see the shift. I picked up a Sony PL mount P50T20 and an F3 so this Nikkor lens goes back in the case. Also in the case is a Vivitar f3.5/28mm and 3.5mm/85-205mm glass from the same era.

Nothing's been used, de-clicked or cleaned for 30+ years. Given they are all manual, I'm thinking that for fun, I'd maybe pick up this inexpensive mechanical mount for the 28mm for outdoor stuff. I have no idea how well these old lenses resolve. Any thoughts on that and with these FotodioX adapters?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...adapter_s.html

[Dave Sperling]

Can't speak about adapter - I happen to use an MTF adapter, which has worked well.
Older still photo lenses can produce very nice images -- and many have the advantage of having a physical iris ring. I still have, use, and get very nice images from my older Nikkor 200/4, 135/2, 85/1.4 and 55 macro lenses. I was particularly surprised how clean and sharp the images from the 200 f/4 are.

[Les Wilson]

Just leaving some test result bread crumbs here. Nikon-FZ adapter has not arrived to test out Nikon/Vivitar lenses. However I did pickup Sony 35mm and 50mm PL primes on ebay and setup the same framing. 35mm is first attachment.

The 35mm is 3' and the 50mm is 5' from subject. Both lenses at T2.4. Pleasantly, the 35mm delivers decent bokeh for the same distance between subject and background but the FOV shrinks the background.

[Les Wilson]

I got my FOtasy Nikon adapter. It was only $60 and in this case, you don't get what you pay for. THe adapter's alignment pin on the FZ side is too long and prevents the flanges from lining up. After removing it, the FZ end mounted but on the Nikon end, there was nothing that locked the adapter to my 70's era Nikon mount lenses. They easily unscrewed from the adapter when adjusting focus, iris or zoom. So I'm returning it. I did do some test shots.... plenty of breathing ... but that 50mm F1.4 would be wonderful but I don't know if I'll ever find an adapter that will work with it. Ideas?