>From: Gen Kanai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: the old question: AF vs. MF? [v04.n227/5]
>For those of you who've bought an N90s, an F5 or F100, have you migrated
>completely to AF lenses? I cannot afford to own both AF versions of the
MF
>lenses that I already own and hate the idea of selling these amazing
lenses
>which have travelled with me to the far corners of globe.
It was a tough choice for me. Do I give up the well-built, silky-smooth
focusing, compact MF Nikkors for plasticky, loose-focusing of (most) AF
Nikkors so that I can really harness the Af and 3-D metering power of the
F5?
In the end, I kept most of the manual Nikkors primes, and saved up slowly
to buy 2 fine AF zooms [20-35mm and 80-200mm] and a AF 50mm 1.8. My advice
is, don't sell your manual Nikkors primes if you can. To me, mostly, is
the impeccable built quality and the smooth focusing feel - characteristic
of many MF Nikkors - that I found myself unable to let them go. If
anything has to go, it will be the AF lenses first.
The other reason that I kept my MF lenses around is because of the way I
shoot. I like to take F5 for certain applications that require all that
durablity and high tech functionality (eg flash at weddings) but when I
want to travel light or just shoot some pics around town on a Sunday
afternoon, I bring my FE2. What better to put on a FE2 (or any MF Nikon
body) than these small but beautiful MF Nikkor primes?
Since you already bought a 80-200mm F2.8, you could get a cheap (used)
24-50mm AF to supplement your AF line, and keep your MF primes. If you
really insist on AF primes, then perhaps a 24mm and/or 50mm.
On the other hand, the F5 finder is so nice that it makes manual focusing
a pleasure with MF Nikkors attached.
If you don't plan to use AF and 3-D metering that much anyways, just keep
your MF Nikkors and use them on the F5.
The bottom line: don't sell your primes. (Or if you do, don't look
back.) When you have both AF and MF Nikon bodies, deciding which lenses
to have can be a painful affair if you can't afford (to keep) all of them.
It's a valuable lesson in give and take.
