anotherMike
Veteran Member
Doing some thinking recently. Obviously things are quite expensive. and to assemble a "best in class" landscape kit (meaning Body + wide/normal/telephoto) gets into truly serious dollars in a hurry. So while I'm not a nostalgia/character/old lens guy, a couple of things have crossed my mind recently and I started thinking about the question "Could I assemble a basic, but capable landscape kit for less than the price of my favorite lens (the 35/1.2S)?" and how would I go about it.
Parameters for me are: One isn't going to be able to do literally everything, nor do birds or astro or wildlife, and one is going to have to accept manual focus. When one is price constrained, there has to be limitations. The secondary thought for me is that I believe it's better off for someone starting out to get good with a limited lens (focal length) set as opposed to trying to cover 7mm to 7 billion mm in a lens kit. In my many years, I think learning to work with limits actually is beneficial, and the other purpose of this kit is to start with a platform that offers growth, while still being able to produce a very nice 16x20/A2 print in the landscape or general portrait use cases.
What I came up with was this:
Nikon Z5-II body: 1700 bucks give or take, because 24mp, while on the lower end of "it's enough", is still enough to start out with for most peoples output needs. Such a body also can be part of a kit "down the road" as a backup body when that person acquires a Z8 or mythical Z7-IX or something. So it's a body you buy once.
Lens wise it gets interesting. I'm going quality for the buck as opposed to "cover everything with a super zoom"
Wide angle is the hardest lens design, so here we have to spend money and go modern, so that's either your 24/1.8S or 35/1.8S option. There just isn't a great 'old/vintage' option here that performs well across the frame, so we have to part with cash here. It also will be the only autofocus lens in the kit. So maybe 900-1000 depending if it's on sale. It's the most cash of the lenses below, but it's also a "buy once" lens.
Normal and mid tele are where we can save a LOT of cash, and I propose the following:
50/2 AI or AIS on the used market with an FTZ adapter. No, this lens is not going to be much of anything wide open or anything near it; but at F/5.6 it starts to become acceptable and by F/8, while not in the same league as the very best of modern 50's, it's actually quite good. Used price - maybe 100ish bucks
105/2.5 AI (gauss/xenotar later model, definitely not the earlier sonnar optical formula). A recent suprise. The later (mid 70's) 105/2.5 AI was a mainstay in my film era and my favorite lens in the film era. I was recently able to acquire not only this model but the earlier sonnar optical formula for dirt cheap. For this exercise, we are only considering the later model, which is substantially better as a general purpose lens. No, not worth much wide open, and maybe F/4 you'll start to be okay with it if you're not picky about edges and corners, but the surprise here is that by F/5.6 you're far closer to the reference 105/2.8MC than you have right to be for a lens that costs 200 and change in EXC- condition on the used market. And it can double as an excellent portrait lens from F/4 on too. Really the only thing you're giving up to the reference telephotos is some (a touch of) higher spatial frequency performance (the subjective "bite") and corner/edge performance, but this lenses performance at F/5.6 surprised me - and it's got a gorgeous, natural, balanced and unforced rendering that doesn't shove crispy in your face. Not "world class", but not that far from it either once yous top it down a bit. And it can be had on the cheap.
That's my vote anyway - curious what others might think...
Parameters for me are: One isn't going to be able to do literally everything, nor do birds or astro or wildlife, and one is going to have to accept manual focus. When one is price constrained, there has to be limitations. The secondary thought for me is that I believe it's better off for someone starting out to get good with a limited lens (focal length) set as opposed to trying to cover 7mm to 7 billion mm in a lens kit. In my many years, I think learning to work with limits actually is beneficial, and the other purpose of this kit is to start with a platform that offers growth, while still being able to produce a very nice 16x20/A2 print in the landscape or general portrait use cases.
What I came up with was this:
Nikon Z5-II body: 1700 bucks give or take, because 24mp, while on the lower end of "it's enough", is still enough to start out with for most peoples output needs. Such a body also can be part of a kit "down the road" as a backup body when that person acquires a Z8 or mythical Z7-IX or something. So it's a body you buy once.
Lens wise it gets interesting. I'm going quality for the buck as opposed to "cover everything with a super zoom"
Wide angle is the hardest lens design, so here we have to spend money and go modern, so that's either your 24/1.8S or 35/1.8S option. There just isn't a great 'old/vintage' option here that performs well across the frame, so we have to part with cash here. It also will be the only autofocus lens in the kit. So maybe 900-1000 depending if it's on sale. It's the most cash of the lenses below, but it's also a "buy once" lens.
Normal and mid tele are where we can save a LOT of cash, and I propose the following:
50/2 AI or AIS on the used market with an FTZ adapter. No, this lens is not going to be much of anything wide open or anything near it; but at F/5.6 it starts to become acceptable and by F/8, while not in the same league as the very best of modern 50's, it's actually quite good. Used price - maybe 100ish bucks
105/2.5 AI (gauss/xenotar later model, definitely not the earlier sonnar optical formula). A recent suprise. The later (mid 70's) 105/2.5 AI was a mainstay in my film era and my favorite lens in the film era. I was recently able to acquire not only this model but the earlier sonnar optical formula for dirt cheap. For this exercise, we are only considering the later model, which is substantially better as a general purpose lens. No, not worth much wide open, and maybe F/4 you'll start to be okay with it if you're not picky about edges and corners, but the surprise here is that by F/5.6 you're far closer to the reference 105/2.8MC than you have right to be for a lens that costs 200 and change in EXC- condition on the used market. And it can double as an excellent portrait lens from F/4 on too. Really the only thing you're giving up to the reference telephotos is some (a touch of) higher spatial frequency performance (the subjective "bite") and corner/edge performance, but this lenses performance at F/5.6 surprised me - and it's got a gorgeous, natural, balanced and unforced rendering that doesn't shove crispy in your face. Not "world class", but not that far from it either once yous top it down a bit. And it can be had on the cheap.
That's my vote anyway - curious what others might think...
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