Customer Reviews

Nikon Lenses (Magic Lantern Guides)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've just finished reading both editions of B Moose Peterson's book, "Nikon Lenses" cover to cover.

They are interesting, entertaining and informative; however, they are also wordy, trite and poorly written. Don't take me wrongly: there is a lot of good information in them. But, both editions are peppered with misinformation and some of the technical data is haphazardly presented and there are dozens of "facts" that are just plain wrong.

I get the impression that Moose has rewritten something in his own words, adding some original material, but that a good deal of the material was written by someone else. I suspect he has never even handled some of the lenses about which he writes. What's more, especially in the second edition, my impression is that he added material hastily on a few new lenses and rushed to press without bothering to revise much of the material that needed correction and updating from the original edition.

Moose is an excellent photographer both technically and esthetically. He needs to write books about what he knows best. Unfortunately, a compendium of technical data on Nikon lenses is not what he knows best. Whatever the value of these two books, I resent their glaring errors and I resent the attitude of a publisher foisting off what I believe to be obviously poor material on Nikon fans.

I'm an experienced photographer who uses many of the lenses in the book. I have different oppinions of their performance than Moose. For instance, Moose dislikes the performance of the 85/2 AI-s and I love it.

On the other hand, lenses all vary greatly due to production tolerances, so no lens will always agree with what anyone says.

Yes, the book has a lot of info and is one of the few books of it's kind. OK, it's probably the biggest book there is on current Nikkor lenses, so give it a few more stars if it's the only book you can find. Therefore it is very valuable. However the information is not entirely accurate. Watch out for incorrect matching of illustrations and captions.

Moose is a great photographer; not a lens designer. Therefore his impressions relate to how well they relate to his wonderful work in the field, and not necessarily how well the lenses perform technically or even what all the various technical innovations mean or how they work inside the lens.

I suggest referring to "The Nikon Compendium" (also only 1994 edition) for more correct info if you really are curious about "how sharp" any lens is.

Also look at Nikon's own book, "Eyes of Nikon" from the early 1980's for the best look into their manual focus lenses of that era.

We'll see how well corrected the new edition is.

Thanks to Moose for taking the effort to write the book!

This review (c) 1999 Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved

This new lens guide is not very helpfull. It seemed a rehashing of some tidbits of technical data released by Nikon. Sorry Moose,but two thumbs down on this one.

Looking at my other review it looks harsh. This book is so-so if your interest is the lenses themselves, as the title suggests.

If your interest is how to select and use the huge range of Nikkor lenses to create meaningful photographs, then this book is unique and very helpful. Maybe a more descriptive title would be "How to Choose and Use Lenses from the Nikon System." With that title it's a solid 4 stars.

Moose's book may be the only book that puts much of the folklore surrounding the practical use of these lenses in book form. Thanks again to Moose for the great work!

I know Nikon makes some good lenses (I happen to think my 55 mm micro is amazing), but they also make some mediocre stuff (i.e. the new 70 - 300 mm). According to Moose, all Nikon lenses are great - he seems to rate them into three categories: Sharp, incredibly sharp and amazingly sharp.

Perhaps it's the American libel laws or something, but reading reviews in Canadian or British photography mags one notices that they are not afraid of trashing some product. This is an aspect I wish Moose would have been more confident to undertake.

Besides basic technical specifications that can be easily found in Nikon guides and booklets, the book offers little trustworthy information. If you are hunting for unbiased opinion about Nikon optics look elsewhere. Verdict: Not recommended.

I often buy second-hand Nikon lenses thru KEH.COM but sometimes it's difficult to know exactly which model of lense is displayed on their shelves. With the Moose Peterson book, any doubt vanished ! If you have an F5, you must go to Moose website dedicated to that camera.

As a critical guide to Nikon lenses, this book is quite useless because all Nikon lenses, in the author's opinion, are sharp and contrasty. He makes few distinctions but showers indiscriminate praise, making it quite impossible to make an informed judgment. Few of his assertions are based on fact, and none are based on rigorous trials.

Even as a factual guide to lens specifications, the book contains enough inaccuracies to make it useless.

This is a book for a serious amateur, who feels that he needs to have several different lenses in his posession, and wants to understand which of the Nikon lenses is best suited for his purposes. However, this book is probably not for you if you are shopping just for a single lens for your new camera. This book is not a buyers guide. It discusses different lenses from the point of view of what kind of shots they are best suited for. The price of the lenses is not considered at all, and the technical data are limited to the length, width, and weight of the lens. You will not find any evaluations of sharpness of pictures taken with different lenses using different apertures. The book also does not include the recently appeared 24-120 Zoom lens, or the cheapest Nikon lens 35-80, which comes with a standard set. This is because these lenses appeared after the book was published. I bought this book when I was shopping for a new camera, and ultimately returned it. I hoped that the book will help me to understand which of the lenses from the zoom range I was interested in, has the best value for the money in the terms of sharpness, color rendering, mechanical stability. Unfortunately, these (rather technical) issues are not discussed at all.

I actually purchased this book merely as a guide to get more information for buying new lenses. I was a bit disappointed because the book was written or published more than 8 years ago - means, it covers lenses which were in the market before the year 2000.
Don't take me wrong - it is a great book - I'm an old pro and I found some of my older lenses with a lot of information I didn't have. Nevertheless, it is not a purchase guide or help for making decissions what to buy today.
If you are considering to buy an older lens, this book will be of great help and gives you all you need to know....