| Long history of high perfomance lens production by Nikon has several especially bright moments. One of this is an "accidental"
design of a very high performing moderate telephoto zoom within a budget "E" series.
The result is the lens known to be a wonder in the Nikkor line of lenses - Nikkor 75-150mm. The results produced by its lucky optical formula spoke for themselves, and at the time, professional fashion photographers started to use this small wonder in their assignments. Today a lot is spoken of modern ultra-complicated optical designs with a lot of aspherical, low dispersion, whatever elements, and everyone knows that you need to pay 4 figures to get a lens that is up to your 36 megapixel sensor. Really? Let's mount this thing from 1980s on Nikon D810 and see what happens. Briefly, see for yourself... This is very lazy non-scientific test done in a poorly lit room, ISO2200, f8, 150mm (the "softest" focal length of this lens). The file without any corrections shows all the intricate details of the typography patterns when inspected at full 36 Mp resolution. I see signs of resolution loss in the corners of the image only. The amount of chromatic aberration is also surprisingly low for an ancient lens with quite simple design. With 1 click Lightroom CA correction, you will get this. Please draw your own conclusions. More (earlier) discussion on the topic is, for example, here. March 17, 2017 P.S. This very lens is being offered for sale at a no-reserve auction starting from $0.99 and with free US shipping. In 12 hours, I see zero bids... An interesting experiment... People DO want to spend 4 figures on their lenses now, no matter what! |
