DPR Forum

Welcome to the Friendly Aisles!
DPRF is a photography forum with people from all over the world freely sharing their knowledge and love of photography. Everybody is welcome, from beginners to the experienced professional. Whether it is Medium Format, fullframe, APS-C, MFT or smaller formats. Digital or film. DPRF is a forum for everybody and for every format.
Enjoy this modern, easy to use software. Look also at our Reviews & Gallery!

SD cameras and Zeiss glass

saldun70

New Member
Hey ho everyone.

I'm a newbie to this forum. Been shooting Nikon for some years now and currently have a D700, but am craving more resolution, so am very excited about the SD1. Seems like an amazing bit of kit.

So I'm now thinking I could keep all my Nikon compatible Zeiss glass and get a Nikon/Sigma converter.

So I just wanted to say hi, and see if any of you folks out there have been using/converting Zeiss glass on the more recent Sigma DSLRs, and how it fares? Good IQ? Any metering problems at all? General advice or comments?

Thanks.
 
Welcome!

It is possible to use many of the Nikon lenses with a mount conversion performed on the Sigma. However, you will be focusing and shooting in manual modes. The Sigma will not communicate with the electronics in the Nikon lenses. There are some people getting some very nice images out of the setup.
 
ambaker...is right...however the only Zeiss glass that actually is made AF on a camera system is the Sony Alpha's...all the other systems ziess makes the metering and distance information available for the camera bodies...

With your D700 you can also dial in a manual focus lens and the camera will still do the distancing and metering correctly...and maybe even let you know when your in focus...(works with my D2x and series 1.0 Zeiss Lenses)...

As far as the SD1 you will have to change the mount from sigma SA to Nikon F...which ambaker said...but it is well worth it...

Good Luck...zeiss lenses are great..but some of the older Nikon Nikkor lenses are just as good... :proud:

Tony C.
 
Thanks, guys. Yeah, I have the Zeiss ZF2s at the moment, which do communicate with my D700 nicely, including focus confirmation. As I shoot manually or aperture priority, and tend to favour manual focussing, I think I'll be keeping hold of my Nikon/Zeiss glass.

Thanks for making me feel welcome here. :)

Duncan
 
Welcome!

It is possible to use many of the Nikon lenses with a mount conversion performed on the Sigma. However, you will be focusing and shooting in manual modes. The Sigma will not communicate with the electronics in the Nikon lenses. There are some people getting some very nice images out of the setup.

Does this mean the SD15, and so probably the SD1, don't/won't have focus confirmation in the viewfinder, as my D700 does...?

Thanks again.
 
My focus confirmation in my SD14 lights-up but it is wrong...you have to learn the lens and camera...old day's when you did not have that...the contacts for the sigma SA mount and Nikon do not match-up Nikon contacts are at the top and Sigma SA at the bottom...Nikon uses a 90 degree with pin's and Sigma uses a setup like Cannon....just different pin placement...and size...

The focus confirmation may work..depending on the camera...but will probably be wrong since you can not communicate the type of lens the f-Stop of the lens or the Distance characteristics to the camera...

It only takes about 30 mins playing with the lens to figure out what your doing...and a little pointer, don't close one eye keep them both open when you shoot...the DOF and Distancing is more accurate this way....Like I said earlier...just old School Shooting...!!!

Tony C.:z04_cowboy:
 
Nikon lenses on the SA mount...

If your only interested in close ups and macros you dont need to convert an SD1 to Nikon mount with one of luis's expensive Nikon mount swap kits, you just need a cheap Roxsen Nikon-M42 adapter plus an M42-SA adapter, and you will get a macro magnification advantage too.
This is how I use My Micro Nikkor 55mm f2.8 Ai-S and Micro Nikkor 200mm f4 ED IF Ai-S on my SD14.
I converted my Nikon 35mm f1.4 Ai-S and 105mm f2.8 Ai-S to SA mount so I could use them at infinity.
 
DSG where did you get the SA Mount for the nikon lenses...??

Thank you...Tony C.:z04_cowboy:
 
DSG where did you get the SA Mount for the nikon lenses...??

Thank you...Tony C.:z04_cowboy:

I bought 4 complete SA mounts, including lencaps, from someone on dpreview, for £15 each. A mate also gave me three old Sigma zooms when he sold his SD9 which gave me another three and I got two from my two Sigma kit lenses which I never used anymore.
I've since discovered that an M42-SA adapter is a perfect substitute for a proper SA mounting plate and they are cheaper than the real thing too.
The Chinese versions are particularly cheap and its really all their good for as they are'nt really proper M42-SA adapters.
The lenses I have converted to SA mount:
Carl Zeiss 28mm f2.8 Distagon T*, Nikon 35mm f1.4 Ai-S, Canon FL 55mm f1.2, Minolta Rokkor 58mm f1.4, Carl Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Planar T*, Canon FD 85mm f1.2 L, Nikon 105mm f2.5 Ai-S and a Vivitar 28-200mm f3.5-f5.3 macro.
Lenses I have converted to PK mount (so they can be used on the SA mount):
Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.7 Planar T* and the MTO 1000A 1100mm f10.5.
Lenses I have converted to M42 mount (so they can be used on the SA mount):
Sigma 14mm f3.5 (rectalinear), Wray 2" (50.8mm) f1.0, Vivitar 35-200mm f3-f4.5 macro and the Taylor-Hobson 12" (304.8mm) f4.
Lensmount adapters I have made:
The one for the Taylor Hobson above which also had to incorporate a focussing helicoid, and a Mamiya 645-SA adapter.
 
Back
Top