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Nikon Series E 75-150 mm f/3.5s Zoom lens

An excellent focal length for portraits, sports, and travel photography, although many may feel its focal length at both ends are neither too practical to make it a one-lens-does-all choice optic for photographers.

Well, I think quite a number of Nikon faithful are equally very easy to satisfy - it was all started with a lens test published by 'Popular Photography' back during early '80 which it has reported some favorable results achieve by the lens. The review has made many users thinking Nikon has produced another 'legendary" status lens. (Frankly, I think even Nikon was surprised and embarrassed by such positive respond in a Series E zoom lens instead of a Nikkor). If a test report is solely used as a yardstick to judge such a status, Canon could have a few bucketful of legendary lenses because any seasoned users/readers will notice Popular Photography rarely reviewed lenses made by Nikon during that time; even if it has, while you can see most of content were using careful choice of words which often contradict with lens test results in data sheet. Further, many lens tests of Canon optic published usually scored highly and brilliantly in lab and on the field test. So, I think to see such overwhelming reaction from Nikon users was truly amazing and it might even went beyond its creator's expectation.

The lens indeed balances very well when mounted on camera (especially with a motor drive attached). Optically, it never disappoint either, perhaps with NIC which has greatly contains internal reflection among the lens elements within, images produce are uniformly quite sharp for a zoom lens at all apertures and color fidelity is very stable. The lens exhibits a slightly higher contrast (for a zoom lens), where it also provides excellent depth of field scales (lines) which are brightly coloured to illustrate their curves while it zooms/focuses. Overall, since the lens was designed within a focal length generally very useful (and practical) for medium telephotography such as half length body portraiture, scenic/landscape to isolate a specific area of interest, family pictures and even a great choice for indoor studio photography. However, similar to other Series E lenses, the lens is not provided with a meter coupling prong and when use it with any Non-AI Nikon bodies, you have to be aware that it may not be able to provide proper open aperture metering guide. Another slight drawback is its rectangular grip for the aperture ring has a very strong, fragile plastic feel.

Credit: Image(s) courtesy of Bert Furnari ®™ where I found the image(s) from his excellent Ebay Store. All image(s) appeared herein are Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. Please respect the visual property of the contributing photographer.

As with any other medium telephoto lens you can find on the market, shooting portraits with aperture between f/8.0 and f/11 with flash, should produce excellent photographic results with this lens. Over the years, just like the shorter 36-72mm lens featured earlier, I noticed many of this zoom lens are also being used "in front of the curtain" at many of the One Hour Color Lab for taking passport or B/W ID photo).

I remembered one of my good friend who has read that lens test and Photostat a copy for me. He was so convinced with the report and thought that was the one last good lens Nikon has ever produced and eventually bought one himself (I presumed there are many others just like him). I did borrowed the lens fro him, used it for quite a while and overall, I was quite happy with the results it generates. However, my experience with the lens made me concluded it was a good lens, but it is nothing near such 'legendary' quality as others claimed.

Credit: Image(s) displayed here are courtesy of betteroffblu/Jenny® where the EBAY STORE is also one of my favorite spot to look for great images on used photographic equipment. Image(s) copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. Please respect the visual property of the contributing photographer.

I remembered one of my good friend who has read that lens test and Photostat a copy for me. He was so convinced with the report and thought that was the one last good lens Nikon has ever produced and eventually bought one himself (I presumed there are many others just like him). I did borrowed the lens fro him, used it for quite a while and overall, I was quite happy with the results it generates. However, my experience with the lens made me concluded it was a good lens, but it is nothing near such 'legendary' quality as others claimed.

Credit: A well captured image of the 75-150mm f/3.5s Series E Zoom lense displayed here was contributed by "The Earl of Duke" ® . Image Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved.

Technical Highlights: * A versatile zoom lens offering focal lengths from medium long to a full 3X telephoto. * Focuses down to a close 1m (3.5 ft.) at all focal lengths; a magnification ratio of 1:5 is possible at the 150mm focal length.

Aperture scale: f/3.5 - f/32 on both standard and aperture-direct-readout scales
Exposure measurement: Via full aperture method with Ai cameras; via stop-down method with non-Ai cameras.
Focal length markings: 75, 100, 150mm
Distance scale: Graduated in meters and feet from 1m (3.5ft.) to infinity (OO)
Weight: 520g

Credit: A well captured image of the 75-150mm f/3.5s Series E Zoom lense displayed here was contributed by "The Earl of Duke" ® . Image Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved.