Rockhound76
Contributor
If the Nikonos 3,4,5 were so great in focusing why did Nikon come out with the Nikonos RS SLR camera?
Maybe because (also answers Roundrock’s post) to get that “acceptable” not “exact” focusing the depth of field has to be maxed out, to get this maxed out condition requires small apertures like F22.
To properly expose this almost pinhole aperture opening the strobe have to be at full blast plus the help of the local power plant!
And the background…well you can forget about it! Most of you pictures will look like they were shot at midnight!
Note: the Nikonos 3 does not have TTL.
I'm not going to blindly endorse my Nikonos V setup, as I think digital has come a long way and I'll likely go to it very soon. However, I would like to point out that the above criticisms are inaccurate.
A well-estimated shot with the Nik and a WA lens is as "in focus" as that of a lag-prone focus locked or worse, any focus-hunting digital camera, especially when the subject is moving. A 15mm shot is as crisp as they get even using estimated distance (never confuse precision with accuracy).
Are all backgrounds like "night" on TTL because have to shoot f22 to get sharp photos? Somebody needs to do some homework. Fill flash is super easy to do on the Nik TTL systems. Just adjust the f-stop to get the background to match the shutter sync or set it one stop down. Then, look at your depth of field. It will still be greater than most anyone's estimation "error bar".
Duh. The only "night shots" are with extension tubes and closeo-up kits, where the advantage of SLR focus allows for a more open aperture (and very tight depth of field, making it hard to get sharp shot on moving subjects. With the Nik, you do have to stop it down all the way because the depth of field is so narrow it's not possible to keep a subject in range and in position on most shots. Hence, the old time preference for SLR's to do macro.)
I think digital is constantly improving, but I see no reason to abandon a perfectly good system if you enjoy working with it.