According provided by Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 lens, many thanks to Ilya Kostenko (photo flea market of the city of Dnepropetrovsk).
APS logo located on the Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 lens
Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 is designed for cameras of the Nikon Pronea series, and there were only two models:
- Pronea s
- Pronea 600i, which for the US market was sold under a different name - Pronea 6i
These cameras have a classic Nikon F mount, but they are film type SLR cameras. APS SLR (Advanced Photo System Sgroin Lens Reflex). Nikon Pronea cameras are designed to work with IX240 film with a maximum frame size of 16.7 X 30.2 mm (aspect ratio 16: 9). During shooting, you could choose one of three crop options: APS-H 16: 9, APS-C 3: 2, APS-P 3: 1, depending on which crop factor amounted to 1.25, 1.44 and 1.36, respectively. This value was indicated on the film and taken into account during printing. Now such a film is not produced.
Nikon IX system is not widespread and in just 3-4 years has become part of the story. Many other manufacturers have also been involved in creating APS SLR cameras for IX240 film, but they have come to the same end.
Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6
IX-NIKKOR
For Nikon Pronea cameras in the period 1996-2002, only a few light IX-NIKKOR series zoom lenses were produced:
- Nikon IX-NIKKOR 20-60mm 1: 3.5-5.6, Japan, 9/7, black
- Nikon IX-NIKKOR 20-60mm 1: 3.5-5.6, Mark II, 9/7, Thailand, silver
- Nikon IX-NIKKOR 24-70mm 1: 3.5-5.6, Thailand, 7/7, black
- Nikon IX-NIKKOR 30-60mm 1: 4-5.6, Thailand, 6/6, silver
- Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6, Japan, 11/8, black
- Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4.5-5.6, Mark II, 10/7, Thailand, silver
Unlike other Nikon Nikkor lenses, the lens type for Nikon Pronea did not indicate the type of focus (they are all lenses 'AF' type), and the absence of a diaphragm ring was not indicated (they are all lenses 'G' type) All these lenses do not use special optical elements in their optical schemes, their body, as well as the bayonet mount, are made of plastic. All have 7 aperture blades, and filters with a diameter of 52 or 46 mm.
IX stands for Iinformation eXchange, Data Exchange. This technology allows you to record the date and time of shooting, parameters exposure, framing method, etc. onto photographic film magnetic or optical. Roughly speaking, this is a film analogue of modern EXIF.
These 'cropped film' lenses are the ancestor of all Nikon DX lenses for Nikon APS-C cameras (crop factor 1.5).
Important: Nikon Pronea cameras can use ordinary Nikon lenses with an F-mount: AF (D, G), AF-S (D, G) types. AF-P, E, VR lenses will not work correctly. DX lenses will give vignetting.
Important: and here IX-NIKKOR lenses cannot be used with conventional Nikon SLR cameras. These lenses have a large protrusion on the side of the mount, which abuts against the mirror of classic cameras with Nikon F mount.
Redesign
The rear protruding part of the body rim is simply sawn to a certain level, to be precise, to the point where the rear lens protrudes at a value of 70 mm focal length. The rear protruding portion of the body frame is simply a hollow plastic tube in the middle of which the lenses move. During zooming in the direction of 180 mm, the rear Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 rear lenses are removed from the lens mount and do not rest against the mirror of ordinary Nikon CZKs. Also, a restriction was added to the zoom ring, which now rests on a value of 70 mm and does not allow you to set 60 mm focal length and thereby prevents too much protrusion of the rear lens. Maybe something else was redone.
In the 70-180mm range, the lens works like any other Nikon Nikkor 'AF-G'FX / DX. In terms of its specifics and capabilities, this Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 is similar to a full-frame lens Nikon AF Nikkor 75-240mm 1: 4.5-5.6 и Nikon 80-200mm AF Nikkor 1: 4.5-5.6D.
Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6
Appearance
The Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 has a plastic body with a plastic bayonet mount, a plastic focus ring and a plastic zoom ring. The zoom ring may visually appear rubberized, but it is not, the texture of the plastic imitates rubber anti-slip inserts. The Pronea S camera mount is also made of plastic.
The focus ring rotates 90 degrees. During focusing, the trunk of the lens rotates and drives forward. The focus ring is uncomfortable, very narrow, jerky.
Auto Focus is fast. There are no problems with focusing the lens. The redone lens will focus only on cameras with a focus motor.
EGF Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1:4-5.6 on original Pronea cameras is approximately 75-225mm.
Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6
Sample Photos
The lens produces 'average' image quality with a noticeable drop in sharpness with increasing focal length. The lens is weak at 180 mm. In addition, it suffers from noticeable distortion and lateral chromatic aberrations. In the backlight, the image is clogged with glare (example). By itself, it gives a rather 'hard' picture, so the photos in the gallery are slightly tweaked with the native Nikon Capture NX-D.
The gallery below shows photos on the camera. Nikon D90:
Original RAW ('.NEF') photos can be download from this link (57 files, 600 MB).
What's in full frame?
Apparently a copy of the Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 from this review was altered specifically for the Nikon DX cameras. Full frame camera Nikon D700 the lens catches a mirror. But still, here's what I managed to find out:
- vignetting is greatly enhanced when focusing on MDF
- vignetting increases significantly when the aperture is closed
- vignetting is present at all focal lengths (70-180 mm)
- minimal vignetting is observed while focusing on infinity and open apertures. Distinguishing a vignette from any FX lens will be extremely difficult
- the strongest vignetting is observed when focusing on MDF and strongly closed apertures. Example 1, Example 2.
My experience
Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 turned out to be a weak lens, but this is not surprising, since Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 was the first telephoto for APS cameras. I was very interested to work with the IX-lens on the digital.
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Results
Nikon IX-NIKKOR 60-180mm 1: 4-5.6 can be relatively easily adapted to modern Nikon central control zones and ZKs while maintaining all its functions (except for using 60 mm focal length). Optically, the lens is not strong and is of little interest for practical use. For a full frame, it’s better to use even the super-budget Nikon 80-200mm AF Nikkor 1: 4.5-5.6D or other similar solutions. For Nikon DX cameras, any 55-200 series lens is better, even some super-budget lens. Quantaray AF LD 55-200mm 1: 4-5.6 Macro or other similar solutions.
10 main advantages
- compact sizes
- light weight, which is only 270 grams
- high focus speed
- small diameter of the filters, only 52 mm
- seven-petal diaphragm
- convenient set of focal lengths (EGF 75-225mm on Nikon Pronea cameras)
- the optical scheme is adapted to work with the 'cropped' IX240 film
- good sharpness in the region of 60-100 mm focal length
- good contrast
- on heavily covered diaphragms you can easily get the effect of a 14-ray star
10 main disadvantages
- high cost (at one time $ 250 for the new IX-NIKKOR, for example, Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1: 4-5.6G only cost $ 170)
- unpleasant noise from the focus motor, no built-in quiet focus motor. For example, for Canon IXPS APS full frame was created Canon Zoom Lens EF 22-55 1: 4-5.6 USM with a convenient set of focal lengths that has an ultrasonic motor
- during focusing, the trunk of the lens, together with the thread for the filters, rotates and drives forward
- uncomfortable, narrow, plastic focus ring with a small pitch
- plastic mount, zoom ring does not have rubber inserts
- the lens poorly tolerates backlight, a non-bayonet type hood
- tangible drop in sharpness with increasing focal length
- strong milling (transverse chromatic aberration)
- palpable distortion closer to 180 mm
- inability to use on Nikon cameras other than Nikon Pronea
Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram
Well, I think that a moment with a high price is no longer relevant, lenses for dead systems such as APS are now worth a dime, another thing is that you need to cut, but the game is not worth the candle
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I wrote referring precisely to the release time and the fact that a full-frame 70-300 was cheaper. That is, it is rather strange that light plastic cropped lenses are more expensive than “correct” full-frame lenses. Apparently it was a cunning plan to earn extra money, but in the end it turned out like with Nikon 1.
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Yes, yes, as you know, true professionals shoot only in large format, and everything else is just self-indulgence. Maybe it's time to come up with some particularly large format?
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Ku-ku! APS - half film format initially. Designed for “household” camera-soap boxes with additional features for fast automatic development. Canon and Nikon went there, releasing both cameras with the usual mounts (for using EF and F lenses with serious technology), and specially created ones with a convenient focal range (20-60, 22-55), but these are full-frame lenses that cover ordinary film and FF sensor. But nothing good came of it, and then the format itself died safely. Film soapboxes turned out to be cheaper, film DSLRs were more convenient, then digital cameras and digital SLR cameras came.
APS-C and APS-H digital are in a sense named “after” film APS. But they have only the name and (conventionally) size of the photosensitive element in common. So don't get excited about the crop battle, in this case it's not about it.
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The case resembled the Soviet plastic Zenitar 2/50
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First of all, I was reminded of my own Nikon AF Nikkor 28-80mm 1: 3.3-5.6G (MKIII)
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I thought that this is some kind of modification, because it looks similar to the pictures.
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take garbage, cut off part of the garbage, get garbage.
A great way to get rid of garbage at a flea market!
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Imagine, someone at one time paid for her hard-earned 250 forever green :)
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Blat!
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So that's it for ix, thanks
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Damn, it’s necessary to manage to come up with such an inconspicuous lens design. Even for the 90s this trash seems to me.
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I would like to add about the glare. When digital cameras appeared, lens requirements increased due to reflections. The fact is that the sensitive layer of the film is matte, and the coating of the matrix is glass and therefore gives additional reflections. This should always be taken into account when placing “film” lenses on digital cameras.
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If this was done in the USSR, everyone would start scolding the USSR and not the manufacturing plant, but when the Japanese produce such ugly trash, which is also part of a complete marketing failure in the market (by the way, Nikon repeated such strategic mistakes after producing a dead Nikon system 1 and almost started the production of another guaranteed failure DL system or something like that, but sensing something was wrong during the time), then not a word about Japan, since other successful products cover the failures. By the way, I always wonder why Canon and Nikon always focus on their own lenses not to a point, but to have Back or Front focuses (it should be noted that Canon calibrates its systems better, it has less defects in this matter), but on Olympus and Panasonic systems this is rarely or never? What is this, if not the absence of strict standards in the production and calibration of all products? Or a conscious step in order to earn additional money in service centers. I say this because over 10 years of using Pentax devices I have tried several old autofocus lenses, but nothing like this happened with them, is it really so difficult to do that there are practically no lenses from Canon and Nikon that, without additional adjustment to a specific camera, are not they can get into focus, or they can, but with luck, like in the lottery. I am writing this because literally 2 weeks ago, a Chinese friend of mine bought a Nikon system, all three high-aperture zooms - 14-24, 24-70, 70-200 F2.8, with the Nikon D5 included, and everything was smeared in focus until he didn’t take them to the service center and didn’t pay 450 dollars for adjustment, after which everything was in place and the camera began to give out as if completely different photos, super sharp, focus misses became minimal or negligible, etc. Why can't Nikon do it in his factories? Can someone explain this?
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Just Nikonov and Canon are much more in the market (an order of magnitude?). And even if the percentage of cameras with front / back focus at Olympus and Pentax is higher, then the absolute number of users who come across this is much less.
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There was no autofocus in the USSR, just as there was no genetics and cybernetics. It’s just that the party decided, people don’t need autofocus, just as they don’t need genetics and cybernetics, you can use helios-44 for fifty years in a row and tuck it into holes. And these, through trial and error, eventually occupied their niche, but not all, here Kodak, for example, has gone somewhere. Competition however
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It was not the party that decided, but the engineers were "not round in their noses." Now zenitars-helios who does not allow autofocus to do?
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As in that joke - the place is damned.
Theoretically, you can, of course, but you don’t want to carry the battery pack from their autofocus behind your back?
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Well, you yourself answered your own question: 450 evergreen pink papers do not roll on the road.
Well, olics and Panasonics are not mirror ones, they have no problem with inaccurate focusing, as they say, by design. For mirrorless cameras, there is only one image that is formed on the matrix and absolutely all camera nodes work with it. In the DSLR, we have as many as 3 different images: what we see in the viewfinder (on frosted glass), what the autofocus sensor sees, and what happens on the sensor. Therefore, to hell with it, you will definitely focus on it if there is even a slight inequality in the distances to the matrix and the used focusing plane (manual or automatic).
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I agree one hundred percent ... Nikon does everything at random ... I have two bodies and almost a dozen lenses, I had to take everything to the service for adjustment ... And for some reason, the service was very surprised at this, because in their opinion Nikon always has the correct focus setting ... The image on Nikon cameras is taken by Sony matrices - is this the only plus of Nikon? everything else is like everyone else's and it is not at all subject to discussion, the main thing is the matrix ... If the matrix is worthless, as on the Canon, then no strapping will help ... If Nikon made his own matrices, then I think you could not look at him, it would be the same situation as with Canon - the image quality would be useless ... There is a feeling that they (these companies) do it anyhow ... for what ..? Provide work for yourself and your services ...? From the very beginning I had mirror Olympuses and Sony, and then I did not even remember about any adjustment, everything worked correctly ... I just switched to Nikon and off we went ... The area where their service center is located in Moscow I already know as my own five fingers ... In a word, these capitalists have already lifted up with their marketing logos ... And this is not only in photography, this is in any sphere ... Now, more than ever, you understand from what world-class degenerates and grabbers the Soviet Union was protecting us ... Now even many young people understand this who did not live in the Golden Time ...
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I have nothing against the USSR, but even then marriage was enough. Probably even more than now. Tape recorders, TVs that do not crawl out of services ... It is not necessary to make a golden age from the Soviet era. Marriage has always been and will be, regardless of the system and politics.
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The main thing is not only the matrix, but the processing of the information received from it. It's like with OLED TVs. Panasonic does not produce OLED matrices, but buys, if I am not mistaken, from LG. But at the same time, the quality of Panas is a reference, in comparison with the same Skis.
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And now we take everything together and go to the double-crop
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Well, stuffing ...
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It is not just fat, it is fat.
Are you a masochist? Why did you switch to Nikon, the beautiful mirrored Sony is still available.
Why do not all soviet co-drivers sit on divine Zeniths with divine tyrenny Biotars, but constantly switch to something and suffer unseemly from the damned capitalists, enjoying the process?
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Oooh, what a delicious bacon ... come on again!
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Indeed, the USSR carefully protected you from the capitalists, selling you at crazy prices (in relation to the salaries of that time) helios-44 with single-layer enlightenment, jupiters with grease on the petals and metal shavings inside, and zeniths / feds / cues, rooted in the dashing 50s . Do not worry, you will have the opportunity to return to everything domestic.
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Kick-ass ... The logic is iron ... yes, the capitalists will cheat you a hundred times while someone eats them ... And who will eat them there, if they are all wolves .. And the raven will not peck out a crow's eye ... the capitalists are now engaged in a scam, and not devouring each other through competition ... They had fair competition in the 197s ... And now this is no longer for a long time ... Kakrl Marx very clearly characterized capitalism: "the capitalist will commit any crimes for the sake of superprofits" ... That's all your competition ... capitalists are enemies for people ...
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Alexander, well, there is no 100% truth or correct beliefs. And Karl Marx, and after him Lenin, lied like gray geldings in their “works”, and the socialist-communists committed even greater crimes for the “happiness” of certain groups (classes) of society or peoples. And, no matter how sad, as laziness is the engine of progress, so the thirst for profit, the desire to organize a profitable business is also the engine of progress.
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Well, the socialists never deceived anyone, everything was like garlic. Here is helios, here is the zenith, if you don't want it, don't take it. And no one wore cameras to services, but not because they were so well adjusted from the factory.
And those you are writing about have the same relation to the discourse about capitalism as a pimple on the nose to the way of breathing.
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* respiratory organs
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I wanted to clarify about a Chinese friend. He bought this kit new, from an authorized seller or used? The specialists of the service center are absolutely right about the new equipment, all equipment at the factory is calibrated according to quality standards.
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It's about admissions and marriage. Reduce the tolerance by 2 times - the price will increase by 10. Tolerances for all manufacturers + are the same. It's just that you are somehow out of luck. I didn't have such problems with Nikon.
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There is such a thing with focus. Definitely there. As the former owner of Pentax switched to Nikon, I confirm every word! But for this there is a fine tuning of autofocus in the camera menu, which is configured for each lens separately and stored in the camera’s memory. After connecting the appropriate lens, this correction is automatically applied. Thus, once tuned in, you can forever forget about it and always get jewelry with accurate focus. From my own experience I will say that with a fine-tuning tool, I was able to adjust the correction for my 28-105 in such a way that in macro mode, at autofocus, removing the dugout flower, I was able to choose with autofocus which pestle to focus on! If the back- or front-focus of the lens is so large that it cannot be corrected with the built-in camera tools, then such a lens has a direct road back to the store. On return, as defective goods. Why your friend didn’t do it, but ran to repair it for his money, I don’t understand.
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what a pity you late reminded them that there is such a wonderful function
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It is strange that no one had thought of remaking it before. There are a lot of similar lenses on the secondary
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“A large cost at one time $ 250 for a new IX-NIKKOR, for example, Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1: 4-5.6G cost only $ 170" stripped off. There was a lot of full-frame, but not enough crop. And everyone said: wow, you have a crop. Maybe there were more frames in the roll of film and so they tried to compete with soap dishes
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It was not so. Read about this system. At least in a compressed form here:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Усовершенствованная_фотосистема
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And if you speak English, then Ken described his emotions about this system in “colors”:
https://kenrockwell.com/tech/aps.htm
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“Special devices - APS players allow you to easily view the captured and developed film on a TV screen or computer monitor. If you have such a device, you don't have to print the photos - it is enough to develop the film, but it only costs about $ 1000. They are produced by the same companies as cameras: MINOLTA, CANON, etc. ” It didn't work with the film, but now we definitely print little on digital
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Who is how. I often make prints of the best portrait photographs in photo albums in 15X20 format, as well as on a wall in an A4 format frame for myself and my friend, well, one A1 format poster.
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Once in 2021 I bought it for 1000 rubles, sawed off the tail using a barbaric method, played around and sold it as a plug on the camera.
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And here is a photo)
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