Lenses optimized for digital on film camera

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I'd like to know how the latest nikon lenses (16-35, 24-70, 24 1.4) , that are supposed to be optimized for digital, behave on<br>

film camera. (F6)</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

<p>Hi Christa. I'd hope they'd be pretty good - my 14-24 seems fine on my F5, although I'm probably not the most critical judge - I've not drum scanned anything. "Optimised for digital" tends to mean "don't emit rays at too sharp an angle" (which causes the sensor sites trouble) and "give the rear element an anti-reflective coating" (because sensors are shinier than film). I don't think any have particularly bad lateral chromatic aberrations and rely on the camera to fix them, nor do they vignette particularly badly and rely on the camera to fix that - even though the newer dSLRs can, in both cases. Some older lenses may have slightly less distortion, although in this, I don't think Nikon have gone down the route of micro 4/3 lenses, which deliberately distort in return for better size and sharpness. I can't vouch for personal experience with any of the above, though - I just wanted to say I'd not panic too much.</p>

<p>They'll work fine on the F6. For various reasons, digital is more demanding and that is why some lenses, especially wide angles, need to be redesigned to optimize on digital.</p>

<p>The "optimized for digital" marketing-speak you get out of a lot of manufacturers is FUD to make you feel like you are going to die unless you have their latest products. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt</p>

<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory</p>

<p>Folks, please read about telecentric lens design and you'll find out why they perform better on digital sensors. The four-thirds web site also talks about that, although Olympus, etc. have an interest in promoting their "digital lenses."</p>

<p>Took a quick peek at 4/3 website. It seems they were big in telecentric design for their original 4/3, but the newer 4/3 specification cannot achieve nearly as much telecentricity because the lens is a lot closer to the sensor.</p>

<p>Shun, are any Nikon lenses (near) telecentric on FX?</p>

<p>If they are designed for crop sensor they may vignette on full frame film body!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>They'll work fine on the F6.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1 </p>

<p>If anything, they may work better than older lenses (e.g. improved flare resistance) since some of the coatings are newer tech. You probably won't get any sensor filter reflections in your photos either. ;)</p>

<p>Digital cameras are not more demanding of lenses than film cameras. They are simply designed to work differently with lenses. If I shoot TP with a 55/2.8 AIS Nikkor I will need a very expensive digital camera to match that resolution even with a lens designed to be used with a digital camera. KM has been gone for a while so any comparison with digital output can no longer be made with it but Ektar 100 is capable of very high resolution for a color film. I don't see CA when I shoot with Ektar 100 with any of my lenses. Could some of these same lenses show CA with a digital camera? Maybe they could. The point is that they perform well for the purpose they were designed for, shooting with film.</p>