Grimsby Ontario is on the raptor migration route and every year the town holds an indoor “RaptorFest” event at the local hockey arena during which various presentations of live birds, and educational initiatives are conducted. A fast, mid-range telephoto like the Nikkor 200mm f/2G VR would be the perfect lens to photograph birds during this indoor event. Like most people, I don’t have the $6,000 or so it would take to own the 200mm Nikkor…but I thought I might have a reasonable solution in my camera bag.
Knowing that the lighting in the venue is less than ideal, I thought it would be a great opportunity to test out how well the Nikon 1 V2 would work with the FT-1 adapter and my Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G to create a ‘fast telephoto’ combination. So I put the components together, creating an equivalent field-of-view of 229mm @ f/1.8, and headed off to the event.
In order to keep the ISO as low as possible with the Nikon 1 V2, I shot everything at f/1.8. This allowed me to shoot at either ISO 400 or ISO 800 depending on the lighting in various parts of the arena and keep my shutter speeds at decent levels.
Overall, I was very happy with how this combination performed. Focus was very fast and accurate and the set-up was very light and easy to handle. It would have been even better if my 85mm f/1.8G had VR, but I was able to keep most of my shutter speeds at 1/200 or higher. There were a few instances where I did have to shoot as low as 1/60th and 1/100th, but the results were still quite acceptable.
The next time you need a fast, mid-range telephoto lens to capture an indoor event…and you don’t have $6,000 laying around to buy the Nikkor 200mm f/2…think about using your Nikon 1 V-series camera along with the FT-1 adapter and one of your F-mount prime lenses like the 85mm f/1.8G. It can be a great solution. Obviously the image quality isn’t going to match a Nikkor 200mm f/2, but it doesn’t cost $6,000 either.
If any readers have examples of how you’ve used your Nikon 1 with the FT-1 adapter with your F-mount lenses, please share your experiences with us!
Article and all images Copyright 2014, Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction or duplication including electronic is allowed without written consent.
Check out the note about apertures greater than 1.8 (1.6, 1.4 etc.): www.robgalbraith.com/conte…1668-12212
” think about using your Nikon 1 V-series camera along with the FT-1 adapter and one of your F-mount prime lenses like the 85mm f/1.8G”
And that was just what I was thinking and how I ended up here:-) Great photos! Do you perhaps know of any fast zoom lenses for this purpose as well?
Hi Petra,
As far as I know you should be able to use any F-mount Nikkor lens that has an internal focusing motor in it. I often use my 70-200 f/4 with the FT-1 adapter and I’ve found it works very well.
Tom
Hi Alwin,
I have never shot with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G so I cannot give you an educated opinion on that lens. I do know that Nasim did a comprehensive review of the 50mm f/1.8 G vs the 50mm f/1.4 G and he found that overall, the f/1.8 outperformed the more expensive f/1.4 on the high resolution sensor in the D800 . Here is a link to his review: photographylife.com/nikon…g-vs-f1-4g
Hope this has helped.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the link. Nasim clearly favours the 50 f/1.8G over the f/1.4. Interestingly photozone.de is not crazy about the f/1.4 but the resolution figures are not bad. Like others I also liked the shots in the f/1.4 review. But that may be a matter of different subjects / light.
I solved the issue by buying the 35 f/1.8 G :-) I am obsessed with traveling light and it made sense to have a portrait lens (95mm on the V1) and a standard lens for an APS-C camera in one buy.
I will use the V1 for street and the APS-C for other work. I bought Fuji X but it doesn fill a gap for me. I rather have one camera that is good at working fast (V1) and one that has better IQ and can do it all. That is better than one camera with nice IQ but otherwise not excelling nor in studio portraits nor in street photography. Coming from 6×6 film one lens is fine.
The resolution of the 35 f/1.8 G seems a bit less than the native Nikon 1 10mm in some preliminary tests. The 35 is very useable , though.
Hi alwinvrm,
Sounds like you’ve made a good decision for your needs. When I had DX equipment I had the 35 f/1.8 G and thought it was quite a good lens for a very modest price.
Tom
Thanks a lot for the article and the replies as well; very inspiring pictures. I had a V1 + 10 mm but I sold it because I bought into the Fuji X system APS-C sensor system and I liked the looks and all in one approach of the Fuji X10.
But in the end I missed the handling, excellent quick viewfinder, and directness of operation of the V1. It does have life view and exposure compensation and program shift work swiftly contrary to what so many reviews suggest.
So I bought another V1 and 10mm, now with a bigger belief in its powers than before. So I added the FT1 adapter. I want to share a ‘portait’ lens with a Nikon DX system. So a 50 mm is logic choice, I thought.
BUT, what is the best 50mm FOR use on the V1, the 50mm 1.8 G or the 50mm 1.4 G. I remember to have read somewhere that the 1.4 performs much better on the CX sensor, but I can’t find the article anymore nor did I see this confirmed in other articles.
Thanks a lot for your help
Thank you Tom
You’re welcome. :-)
I have a D800 camera. Can I use it instead of the I V2 camera with FT-1 adapter
Hello QHaim,
The FT-1 adapter is made for use with the Nikon 1 series of cameras only.
Tom
Beautiful pictures, Thomas. Nice article.
Thanks Rajesh….glad you liked it.
Tom
Hi Ioannis,
I don’t know if the V-series cameras will work on the Tamron 150-600 or not…but that is one thing that I intend on investigating when I do my review.
Tom
I own an v1 and v2 too.
I try them with te big sigma, 50-500 OS but the autofocus doesn’t work at all,
Do you thing the new tamron will work ?
Hello ioannis,
I had a chance to try the new Tamron 150-600 VC on a V2 with an FT-1 adapter at a recent Henry’s Photography event in Toronto. The V2 does not recognize the Tamron lens at all.
Best,
Tom
I occasionally use a V1/FT-1 with my Siggy F/2.8 120-300 OS. I’ve also tried it with my 500mm F/4 VR. It works well on the Sigma IF the subject is stationary — with only center-point autofocus using the FT-1 and with the EVF lag on the V1 you’re not going to get birds in flight or be able to shoot action sports. On the 500mm the effective field of view is so small that it is difficult to find and hold the subject in the viewfinder. In all cases I keep the ISO very low, which means this is a setup for good light applications. All in all the D7100 is, for me, a much more versatile body and yields images that, when cropped to the field of view of the V!/FT-1, are as good or better than those from the V1.
Hi oeriies,
Thanks for your posting! I agree that the V-series works best with stationary subjects. I’ve found the V-series very useful to photograph small, perched birds. As far as birds in flight, the lens that I have found seems to be the best to use for this is the 70-200 f/4, especially if I can get at a 90-degree angle to the flight path.
I’ve never shot with a D7100, but when I owned a D7000 I did really enjoy the camera. Given the relative sizes of the DX 24mp sensor in the D7100 and the 14mp sensor in the V2…the cameras are very close in overall resolution potential (D7100: 24 x 1.5 = 36, V2: 14 x 2.7 = 37.8) …..but the absence of a low pass filter should make the D7100 sharper. The larger DX sensor would also have much better dynamic range, colour depth and low light performance so I can certainly understand why you would find the D7100 a better all-round camera.
It will be interesting to see how the V3 performs with its new, 18.4mp sensor with no low pass filter. It will not be able to provide as good dynamic range, colour depth or low light performance as the D7100….but since it has the potential to put 38% more pixels on a subject at the same efov (D7100 = 24 x 1.5 = 36, V3 = 18.4 x 2.7 = 49.7) I’m intrigued to see how much resolving power it can actually deliver and if the lenses I have can actually keep up with it.
Tom
Your math is off. Since the D7100 has 24MP and the sensor size is 24mm x 16mm, the resolution is 6000×4000 pixels, which means that you have 250 Bayer quads (pixels) per mm. In full frame (FX) that would be 9000×6000 or 54MP, which translates to 130 lp/mm. The V3 needs such an insane amount that you need 200 lp/mm resolving power to nail a perfect score on the MTF50 chart because it has the equivalent resolution demands of a 136MP chip in full frame! To put it in a different perspective, the D810 has a pixel pitch of 4.9 µm. The D7100 has a pitch of 3.9 µm. The V3 has a pitch of 2.5 µm.