Nikon 300mm f/4.5 AI Lens Review

Background

I already have a great 300mm f/4 lens, so why did I get this one?  Good question readers!  The newest Nikon 300mm f/4E PF lens is a fantastic creation.  Much sharper than I could imagine, focus' fast.

What I cannot do with it is adapt it to my mirrorless cameras and I could never get this lens as cheap as I can the 300/4.5 AI.

Handling/Size/Weight

You'd think a legacy 300mm lens would be heavy.  To the 300/4.5AI's credit, it has a noticeable weight to it, but it is not something that is off putting, even on a mirrorless camera.  It did originally come with a removable tripod collar.  Hopefully if you find one of these in a store, the lens collar will still be with it.  I was lucky enough to find one with the tripod collar.

The aperture ring is what you have come to expect with a Nikon of this age.  Positive clicks by the numbers.

The focus ring is smooth, but does have quite a long throw to it.  I noticed it can be a bit picky to get precise sometimes, however, this is an old, used lens so I'm not sure if that is just a symptom of use/abuse or if that is the way it was from new.

Image Quality

Many reports that this lens is a decent performer wide open.  Stopped down, as with most lenses it is supposed to really start shining.   Do those statements from others hold true?

On the Nikon Df:

1/500, f/4.5, ISO 100

1/500, f/4.5, ISO 100

1/1000, f/8, ISO 450

1/320, f/4.5, ISO 1800

1/320, f/4.5, ISO 2200

1/320, f/4.5, ISO 1250

Focusing

Manual focus and pretty decent.  Not the best I've ever used with the Nikon 180/2.8 ED AIS and 105/2.5 besting it in feel.  It was a little bit of a struggle at times trying to balance the weight with my left hand and also turning the focus ring.

Bottom Line

For the $50 I nabbed this for I can't really complain too much.  With my Olympus Micro Four Thirds kit, you have very few options at the longer end. A handful of 300mm zooms that are not very fast (f/5.6-6.7) and the ones that are fast like the Olympus 300mm f/4 prime are $2500+ USD.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing the IQ of the Olympus to this legacy Nikon.  But this is a decent way of getting that 600mm field of view for not a lot of money if you don't mind having to manual focus.

Nikon 105mm f/2.5 AI Lens Review

Background

Considered by most Nikon lens aficionados as one of the must have manual focus lenses, I took the leap and snagged this lens up from a local camera store.

1/400, f/4, ISO 200 - PEN-F

Handling/Size/Weight

This lens covers the FX sensor size.  Given that fact you might think that a 105mm f/2.5 lens should be rather on the large size.  That is not the case with this lens.

An all metal build gives the lens some heft to it, but I would not consider the lens to be "heavy".

Used on the Nikon Df and adapted to the Olympus PEN-F, the balance feels right on either camera, although it is a little more lens heavy on the PEN-F, as one might expect.

Being an AI (aperture index) lens, setting up the Df in the menus to accept the lens allows the aperture index lever to accurately report the cameras settings in the EXIF data.

1/125, f/4, ISO 1000 - PEN-F

1/200, f/2.5, ISO 200 - PEN-F

Image Quality

Some people think that older lens designs, even prime lenses, are not as good as the modern equivalents.  There might be some truth to that statement if we get into a "measurebating" analysis.  I, however, do not fully agree.  While it might be true that on paper one lens may be sharper than another, there is more to a lens than the overall sharpness.  My belief is that there is a threshold of "sharp enough" or acceptable sharpness that is good enough for me.  The 105mm/2.5 AI lens certainly falls into that category and then some.

If we look at the lens at f/2.5, this is probably where the lens is at its weakest.  Even with that, the wide open performance is still plenty acceptable.  Stopped down even a little bit to f/4 and it is very sharp.

I find that I like the rendering of the lens as well.

1/125, f/2.8, ISO 3200 - PEN-F

1/160, f/2.5, ISO 200 - PEN-F

Focusing

The focus ring on my copy is very smooth with a hard stop at infinity.  I'm able to go from closest focus to infinity with one turn.  The front element does move in and out when turning the focus ring.

The focus throw is great, giving one the ability to be very accurate with minute adjustments.

1/125, f/4, ISO 1000 - PEN-F

Bottom Line

Having this as my first experience with a manual focus lens was a great choice.  It ticked all the boxes for size, portability, image quality and ease of focusing.