Vintage Nikon Lenses on Sony A7 Full Frame 24 MP

Nikon 24mm 2.8 AI	Nikon 28mm 2.8 AI	Nikon 35mm 2.0 AF-D
Nikon 50mm 2.0 Pre-AI	Nikon 100mm 2.8 Series E	Nikon 200mm 4.0 AI

Having been photographing with the old Minolta lenses, I got curious how vintage Nikon lenses will compete on Sony A7 24 MP full frame. I'm happy with the vintage Minolta lenses except in the wide angle range. Here I wish for more. So I bought some Nikon wide angles lenses and a standard one . Eventually I got a 200mm as well.

I chose from different time periods: Pre-AI, AI, Series E and AF-D. The last one is an autofocus lens, but due to adapter, I have to focus it manually. Newer lenses like Nikon G-Series are difficult to adapt, cause they don't have an aperture ring any longer. My adapter has an integrated aperture ring, but it's click-less and the throw is very short. It doesn't make much sense.

Basic Statements about Vintage Nikons on Sony A7

The Nikon lenses has different rendering compared to the Minoltas. For my taste not better or worse just different. The basic rule that you have to stop down to f/4, or better to f/5.6, to get sharpness across the frame is for the Nikons valid as well. Wide open they are soft in the center and it gets worse towards the the edges. Telephoto lenses, as long as they are not APO-lenses, need definitely corrections in post. It's not an issue though. My hope that the old Nikon wide angle lenses would be better than the Minoltas hasn't come true. I assume, on average, they are on the same level. Of course, there are differences when you compare single pairs, but you won't find a trend. In it's days Nikon was just the big guy, Minolta the under dog but produced the same optical quality.

The mechanical quality of the Nikon Pre-AI and AI(-S) is top notch as we are used to from the 70's and beginning 80's. It's just plain fun to use it. The quality of the Series E and AF-D lenses is plasticy. That was the common trend. All other companies did it as well. It's difficult to get access to good information about Nikon lenses on the internet. Statements like: "Top sharpness across the frame wide open" doesn't really help. Often it's accompanied with strong down scaled images 800px wide. A cheap smart phone image would look the same. One long-term trend has been established: The used prices of Nikon lenses are always higher as the Minolta ones.