just bought an F100

<p>hi,<br /> After snagging an older canon 35mm (T90) i fell in love again with film (bought abought 20 FD lenses over the past few months)<br>

si I had a few beers this eve and...hit ebay and just purchased a Nikon F100 for $200<br /> Now I require lenses for this beast...any advise on best glass for the buck to pair with the F100<br /> I shoot street...and portrait<br /> thanks</p>

<p>If you want a versatile lens maybe a mid zoom but 2.8s are $$ like the 24-70 or the former 28-70. Maybe a 24-120 f/4? There was a 24-85 AFS variable aperture right? Perhaps also a 85 prime like a older AFD 1.8 used?</p>

<p>The 50mm f/1.8 AF-D is just BRILLIANT on the F100. That motor in the camera kicks the focus in very fast and accurate and the bright finder makes every scene look a winner. That combo is modern film use at its best in my opinion.</p>

<p>You may want to have a few more beers before pulling the trigger on a 105/2 DC! ;)</p>

<p>If you want one good, affordable lens to pair with the F100, the 35-70mm f/2.8D AF Nikkor may do the trick. For candid photos that's been a good focal range for me with my 35mm film Nikons, and even with my DX format D2H on occasion. Be sure to examine it for haze - some folks report that problem has occurred with their samples.</p>

<p>In the F100's own day, the 28-200 and 24-120 were very popular, but I believe the slightly less expensive 28-105 3.5-4.5 is actually a better lens, and it also has a handy macro mode. Look at reviews. The 28-105 is the only auto focus lens I have. I have saved it mainly in case I ever pull the trigger on an F100 as you have because at the used prices today, the F100 is quite a bargain. Having said that, the choice of Nikon lenses to recommend as useful is vast. I have some of the finer manual focus Nikon lenses, but I doubt there is any point in you going down that road with an F100. ( I did once have the 50 1.4 D, which gave sparkling images, but there is a bit of distortion.)</p>

<p>+1 for Lex's suggestion of the 35-70 f/2.8D. It is one of my favorite lenses on my F100.</p>

<p>For portrait it is hard to beat the old 105mm f/2.5. I have the older non-AI version which I had AI'ed by John White at <a href="http://aiconversions.com/">http://aiconversions.com/</a> . It works perfectly on my F100. The AI or AIS versions have been optically updated and are suppose to be even better.</p>

The F100 will meter with the old

manual focus glass as well as ad

lenses, so if you don't mind focusing

manually, there are a lot of good value

manual focus lenses out there. The

105/2.5 is hard to beat for portraiture. I

also have the non-AI version, but mine

has the factory AI kit installed. The AF-

D 50/1.8 that has already been

mentioned is good, but if budget is an

issue, the manual focus 50/2 is also an

excellent lens and is almost as fast. I'll

also second the 28-105 that was

already mentioned. It's a great walk-

around lens if speed is not an issue. It's

okay wide open, but benefits by being

stopped down an f-stop or two.

That should read "AF lenses" not ad

lenses. Autocorrect got me and

apparently there's no way to edit a post

on the mobile version of the site.

<p>I find the 35mm F2.0 AF and the 85mm F1.8 AF to be a very good match with the F100. I too wanted the 35-70 F/2.8 Nikkor but couldn't justify the price. I went with the Tokina 28-70 F/2.6-2.8 and it is an outstanding lens but it is large and heavy for a "walk around" lens.</p>

<p>I used to use the 28-105mm on my f100, and it was a good match. That lens is rather small for a zoom. Also get a 85mm f1.4d and I think you'll be set</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>second the 35-70mm and 28-105mm. both are great lenses on the f100. depending on your preferred length, the 35mm f2 and 50mm f1.8 (as mentioned by a few) work great on the f100. my three lens solution has been the 35mm, 50mm and 28-105mm. two lenses, 35mm and 50mm. one lens, either one of the three</p>

<p>enjoy your f100!</p>

<p>I have the 35-70/2.8 (push-pull zoom) too which I use for product photography due to it's sharpness and FL range. As a heads-up my local shop/expert has said to check the slack in zooming because the lens was aimed at journos who tend to hit the stops on zooming quite hard in the heat of the action potentially damaging the threads inside.</p>

<p>Mine is fine but good to know to look at that.</p>

<p>checked out 'F mount' at wiki - there appears to be a few types,<br>

I'm interested both in bargain old glass as well as new in terms of AF function<br>

what F mount lens type pairs best with the F100 in terms of either of the above criteria<br>

I'm new to Nikon, but willing to place some effort to exercise a speedy learning curve...ha ha (kuv the cost of great film cameras in today's market!!!! want to learn/purchase everything I couldn't afford 10 to 20 years ago</p>

<p>When you say "for the buck" how many bucks are you talking about? The F100 has the same lens compatibility as a new DSLR like, say, a D800, so you can spend the same crazy amount on lenses as a lot of people who have those do. I have an F100 and a D700 sharing lenses. Ones that have been good to me on the F100 without costing a lot:</p>

<p>Autofocus:<br>

Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 (without in-lens motor). I got it used for $250. It's really good.<br>

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D and f/1.8G<br>

Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D. This is a good general purpose zoom that is also a 1:2 macro. Very handy. Unfortunately the hood is really, really ugly.<br>

Tamron 70-300, newer version with VC. The F100 will drive its USD and VC (Tamron terms for AFS and VR). The lens is really sharp, balanced well on an F100 and the VC is so good I've got away with ridiculous things like shooting handheld at f/11 at 300mm on ASA 100 film in dense fog and had photos that were sharp when scanned at 5400 PPI.<br>

Nikon 85mm f/1.8D</p>

<p>Manual focus:<br>

Nikon 75-150mm Series E<br>

Nikon 28mm f/2.8 AIS<br>

Nikon 100mm Series E<br>

All of the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and f/1.8 AI and AIS lenses<br>

Vivitar 70-210mm Series 1 (my favorite version is the one with serial numbers starting with 28)</p>

<p>For manual focus, anything that is AI or later will give you metering in Aperture preferred mode. Nikon started with Automatic Indexing (AI) in 1977. This meant that there were notches cut into the rear of the aperture ring that met up with a tab on the camera that told the camera how far the lens was stopped down and enabled the camera to set the correct shutter speed for that aperture. If you look at your f100 at about the 1 o'clock position you should see this tab just outside of the lens mount. It rotates counter-clockwise, and the position of this tab tells the camera what aperture you have set on the lens. In the early 80's (83?) Nikon updated this system to AI-S, which meant that the action that the stop down lever used to stop the lens down progressed in a linear fashion for each f-stop. Sounds complicated, but all it really meant was that you got shutter priority on some cameras. Not sure if this works for the F100 or not.</p>

<p>Realistically for you, all this gobbledegook really means is that with any manual focus lens since 1977, you will get at least aperture priority metering, possibly shutter priority with AI-S lenses. All AF lenses will work perfectly with no caveats (other than no DX lenses obviously). If you can find a good deal on a pre-AI lens, you can have it AI'd by someone professionally or you can hack it yourself (Google it) and it will work like an AI lens.</p>

<p>+1 on the 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5. It's really fine glass in a cheap package; it's my walk around lens on the D700 the F100 and even in manual mode on my F3. (Same era... I'd never put it on the F2 or F because That Would Be Wrong.) The aforementioned macro-mode is quite good. I'd add the 50/1.8D for low light situations; and a manual 20mm f/3.5 or the more expensive AF 20/2.8D for super wide. And you're set. <br>

Of course a great street AND portrait lens could the 85/1.8D or the 60mm f/2.8D Macro. Some people don't like a macro lens for portrait work (too sharp) but I'm not one of them. <br>

I love the F100. Enjoy. </p>

<p>I`m with Lex, The 35-70/2.8 would be my choice. If cheaper/longer range, then 28-105.</p>

<p>Hurrah for the F100! Congratulations, still a great camera!</p>

<p>Another vote for the 28-105 f/3.5-4.5. It's a good match for the camera, light and well balanced, and has very little distortion throughout the zoom range. It's sharp, the macro mode is useful, and it's a bit faster at the long end than cheaper alternatives like the 28-100. Nikon chose this as the lens to pair with the camera in the instruction book illustrations, which seems appropriate.</p>

<p>Great camera! I use the 35-70 f2.8 a lot, along with the 105 f2.5. </p>

<p>i think i'll hunt firsrt for the 28-105...a nice walk around zoom...primes will follow...thanks all!</p>

<p>I bought one too. Film camera prices are so tempting these days.</p>

<p>The 50 f/1.4 D is great on this camera. The new 50mm f/1.8 G AFS should be excellent, but I have not tried it. 50 f/1.8D has always been the best performance for the buck. The 35-70 f/2.8 D is also great if you want to move to that weight/size class. </p>

<p>I don't like the 35 f/2 D or the 28 f/2.8 as much as the lenses above, but they would make a good walkabout setup. </p>

<p>That's funny... I've gone and procured an F100, too and waiting for it to be schlepped home... I went through a phase of active eBaying. Got a PC 35mm lens, a 200mm macro (manual) lens, and a couple of Tamron SP lenses I've always had a yearning for... the 80-200 f2.8, for instance. Also got a Nikon 50mm macro (manual) lens. I've not yet got any f2.8 zooms... I wonder whether that's a huge gap...</p>

<p>at today's prices we have a great opportunity to play with older film cameras at perfest prices - i was reintroduced to film (and photogralphy) only a few months ago - I bought a 5D Mark II..took off to China shot about 9000 images...then hit a camera market with my 4 year-old, bought him an Olympus IS 5....shot a few roles with the IS....my 4 year-old and I would pass the Olympus back and fourth taking shots....well, I got the few roles developed and was rather shocked...ha ha...after editing the images in lightroom...well...I liked the images obtained through my $30 used film camera BETTER...so I have been enjoying snagging canon cameras and FD lenses over these past few months....now...onto Nikon....my Mark II is not gathering dust...bit it is being left in it's case more often then not....It may simply be that I'm taking more time and care to get a shot with a film camera....but not only that...I love the tones film offerers me...I'm currently uilding a darkroom in my home...yesterday...bring it on! </p>