Just a brief and quick review of some of the lenses discussed here, and the newest to me F-2 body.
The Tamron 500mm f8 cat lens has very shallow depth of field at long distances.
Zone of focus is less than an inch at 120 feet.
It is a very tricky lens to use, and definitely requires a tripod.
A focus magnifier for the F-3 body that it is best suited to would be a welcome advantage.
That being said, when the stars align, and I'm nice and steady, the areas of the image that are properly in focus are razor sharp.
The lens is marked as a macro unit. I find it a bit hard to use as a macro at it's closest focusing distance of 9.2 feet. Again, this situation would likely improve through the use of a tripod.
It would be worth it for me to practice using this lens in it's intended manner.
Nikkor Q 200mm f4.
What a sleeper!
I honestly cannot find fault with this lens.
It's poor internet reputation is hugely undeserved.
It has to be one of the sharpest lenses I've ever used in my life.
It's 8 foot minimum focus distance is no great handicap, and I rarely use it there.
Not much use for razor sharp pics of people's noses.
I can't find much difference in the medium resolution prints from f4 to f11.
Everything works as it should, and the slightly warm color rendition is actually quite appealing.
Nikkor 85mm f1.8 (K)
Very nice lens. Ever so slightly soft wide open. Razor sharp by f4. This lens seems to like f5.6 the best. Not much of a landscape lens wide open- it has slight barrel distortion at the edges at f1.8.
It is gone by f4.
The well documented original intent of this lens was portraiture. The ladies quite like the soft skin tones it produces wide open.
I do not use it as much as I thought I would. I seem to use the 135mm f 3.5 "Q" a lot more.
For a legacy lens, I'm not quite sure that the high prices these commanded when they were new can be justified. It does beat any zoom at the 85mm mark - even the nikkors.
Speaking of which- I have all these zooms here, and yet do almost all of my photos with the prime set of 28, 50, 135, and 200.
The new to me F-2 body is great. I have been using the stepless shutter speeds on it quite a bit, and everything comes out properly exposed. I can find no fault with this body at all. I would like to find another "B" focusing screen, just so's I have the same screen in both cameras. The "K" that came with it is entirely usable. My eyes dislike it's microprism collar a lot.
I will try and do some copy work later this week from the matte prints that came back from the lab....
Regards,
Doc Sharptail
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