nikon f4s lenses / vintage / time appropriate

<p>did sigma, tokina or others make a fisheye lens in this period?</p>

<p>also are there good period tokina / sigma 400+ lenses that won't break the bank? <br>

seems the nikkors are still out of my price range....</p>

<p>what are some of the accessories i can nab for my f4s?<br>

the f4s was a great camera --- may have to get a new viewfinder someday as i have the lcd bleed.... finder still works great though</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I have a Vivitar 400/5.6 in TX mount that would be right about the correct vintage, though it's manual focus. It came out in about 1978. Not great, but not bad. Mine is in Minolta mount. The earlier T4 mount was not AI compatible or convertible, but the TX is, as far as I know. I think several of the makers mentioned made very short lenses during that time, but all were manual focus, and I'm not sure of the mounts. Sigma went down to 8 mm. and had made fisheyes for other brand names for a long time. They also have made a few longer lenses more recently in both manual and auto focus. They did a 400/5.6 APO in both, I think. <br>

Here's a page from a now defunct site, which has fortunately been archived:<br>

http://web.archive.org/web/20021203000649/http://medfmt.8k.com/third/cult.html<br>

My F4s has LCD bleed too, but at the price I paid I'm happy enough that I can read the numbers and it works. <br>

<br />One accessory I like for the F4S (which I have unfortunately mislaid or lost recently!) is the flip-up eyepiece magnifier. Make sure you get the right thread or adapter, though. The F4 takes the HP size, common to the F3HP, F4, F6 and F100. It's larger than the old F/Nikkormat/F2/F3 size. Other than that and a cable release, though, I can't think of much that an F4 needs. </p>

<p>Tokina made an AT-X AF 400mm f/5.6 during the F4 era (<a href="http://photo-gear.net/tokina-at-x-af-400mm-f5-5-sd/">http://photo-gear.net/tokina-at-x-af-400mm-f5-5-sd/</a>). Nice handling, well built lens at an affordable price. I had one in Minolta AF mount, but they made it in Nikon AF mount as well.</p>

<p>With respect to LCD bleed, depending on which field is bleeding it might be in the body, so a new viewfinder might not fix that. The lower display is in the finder, the upper right displays to the left of the ADR f/stop readout are in the body.</p>

<p>Best accessory for the F4s is the 4-cell MB-20 battery pack. Load it with some AA lithiums and it downsizes the beast considerably.</p>

<p>Enjoy. :-)</p>

<p>MB-20 is a good idea but they're selling at a premium (original price was $40). I'd suggest an MF-23 databack. Very versatile. </p>

<p>Sigma made a nice 400 f/5.6 that I used when I had a F4s. I had the manual focus version of the lens and in good light it even worked with the TC-16A. I've seen the auto focus version for less than $150 on eBay and KEH.</p>

<p>really gonna have to hunt down that sigma... have the cable release, the 24-120, the 75-300, a tokina and a sigma.... all useful -- my backup body is a ratty n90s with a sticky back<br>

]</p>

<p>even have the hove magic lantern book (look at the high end of those price wise on amazon)</p>

<p>have spent some time today just taking glam shots of my cameras- -- the camera gets beastly heavy with the 75-300 and a flash, plus the bag of everything - digital certainly is lighter -- usually the 50/1.8 is my goto lens, keeping the 75-300 on the finepix s2 as it becomes a 500 and has a handy macro function and the 20-35 on the n90s --- the n90s is the film camera i use for lightning shots as it's more expendable....</p>

<p>quick question, on the grip, the rubber is coming loose on the area where the fingers usually rest... any quick fixes? double sided tape or is this a nikon issue- -- off to shoot some pics</p><div></div>

<p>I owned a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens of about that vintage for all of two days, after which I took it back to exchange for a Tamron. The Sigma was an absolute dog.</p>

<p>Some Tokina AT-X pro lenses were (and still are) very good. I have a 20-35mm f/2.8 AT-X pro that still gives good results with a D800. It needs stopping down a touch, but it's really not too bad at all for a superwide zoom, and the build quality is second to none.</p>

<p>+1 to the Sigma AF 400mm f/5.6 Apo (red line) version - <strong>if</strong> you can find one in good condition. These lenses tend to grow some sort of mist on the inner elements, which I'm not sure can be removed. In any case they're not easy to dismantle, so a misty Sigma 400mm could be an expensive item to put right, if at all. There's also Tokina's 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 zoom to consider.</p>

<p>i want the 250 shot back for the f4s, but it's such an obscure item, servicing would be problematic, plus, with all my gear, i'd never finish a roll..... and... who would process the 250 exposures? loading and unloading could be problematic as well --- has anyone ever used this in the real world?</p>

<p>rodeo, the tokina 20-35 is the one mounted on the n90 --- picked it up cheap from a former wedding photographer ---- also special is the nikkor 55mm 2.8 micro ai lens</p>

<p> </p><div></div>