learning your prime lens what they do and how to use them: have accumulted a lot of old prime lens nikon and minolta over the years.How to i determin what to use and when? some one...

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

have accumulted a lot of old prime lens nikon and minolta over the years.How to i determin what to use and when? some one suggested i photograh all in shade on a tripod at a wide open appendature at same distance and document the results to see the difference. i was thinking i should also use just one of the lens over a month at a time at all appenditures times subjects ect with different manual settings and evaluate and determine what format i liked and mostly used. How did you learn how to make such amazing photos ? just want to be better at doing photo. Rob

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

The learning curve seem to be a bit difficult.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

rmacilroy wrote:

have accumulted a lot of old prime lens nikon and ... (show quote)

Why don't you just Google each one individually on the internet. I'm sure all of them have been reviewed by someone. Maybe even someone reliable and just take how they have rated them to at least do the initial culling??? Good luck!!
SS

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

One fun self-assigned project of mine is to pick a lens at random, then take it out for a day and shoot with it. If it happens to be a zoom lens, I'll fix it to one focal length and not change it during the exercise.
--Bob

rmacilroy wrote:

have accumulted a lot of old prime lens nikon and ... (show quote)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Basically it depends on what you want in the shot when you compose it. You need to understand the field of view limits for each lens. Yes, you can put each with the camera on a tripod, pointed at the same center point, and compare the results of each lens to see what is included in the shot.
I used to have a 28, 35, 50, 135, 200 and doubler for my film cameras.
When I got my DSLR years ago, I decided that an 18-200 (f/3.5-5.6) would allow in-camera cropping without the need to change lenses. It lives on my camera now. I also have a 50 f/1.4 that I use sometimes.

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

SharpShooter wrote:

Why don't you just Google each one individually on the internet. I'm sure all of them have been reviewed by someone. Maybe even someone reliable and just take how they have rated them to at least do the initial culling??? Good luck!!
SS

doesnt tell me what i need to really know..

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Here is a focal length comparison I found at the Nikon site:
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/understanding-focal-length.html

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

SharpShooter wrote:

Why don't you just Google each one individually on the internet. I'm sure all of them have been reviewed by someone. Maybe even someone reliable and just take how they have rated them to at least do the initial culling??? Good luck!!
SS

well thanks will give that a shot bit later in my evolution.

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

Longshadow wrote:

Here is a focal length comparison I found at the Nikon site:
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/understanding-focal-length.html

the numbers dont mean anything to me im not that smart

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

rmacilroy wrote:

the numbers dont mean anything to me im not that smart

The focal length numbers will be on each lens, xxmm, usually inside the front rim.

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

to learn it i guess one has to just do it no fast easy way and if one can not see now chances are one will never be able to see unless something wonderfull happens to them to alow them see. still looking to see. thanks for your time and advise Rob

Laura72568 Loc: Anderson TX

rmalarz wrote:

One fun self-assigned project of mine is to pick a lens at random, then take it out for a day and shoot with it. If it happens to be a zoom lens, I'll fix it to one focal length and not change it during the exercise.
--Bob

I think that’s a great exercise. Great suggestion.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

The only way to learn what a particular lens can or can not do, is to shoot with it.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

rmacilroy wrote:

have accumulted a lot of old prime lens nikon and ... (show quote)

Have you tried experimenting with different lenses in different situations like the rest of us have? How do you think we learned? We searched the internet and read all we could, we viewed YouTube videos, and we experimented.

rmacilroy Loc: pompano beach, fl

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