Testing the Nikon 55mm 2.8 AIS vs the 60mm 2.8D AF

I compare 2 Nikon macro lenses the manual focus 55mm 2.8 AIS vs the auto focus 60mm 2.8D.
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Using a bellows on a digital camera: • Using a Nikon bellows ...
Using reverse adapters for macro photography: • How to use reverse ada...

[@hurleygreen927]

BIG THUMBS UP FOR THIS VIDEO! I picked up this vintage lens while looking for a backup lens for my Nikon 750, and paid only $30, so the price was right! It took me awhile to get used to the manual focusing, but after that I found myself LOVING the sharpness and macro capabilities of this lens...Thanks for your informative tutorial! HG from Chicago

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@hurleygreen927 Thank you HG. I originally bought the 55mm 3.5 back in the 70’s and sold it when I got the 60. Got the 55 2.8 about 5 or 6 years ago and I love it. I will be comparing the 55 2.8 to the 3.5 in the future.

[@russseuffert803]

Nice Vid Jules! You featured my absolute favorite lens, the 55mm Micro. It's sharpness is AMAZING! Thanks for posting thi. I always enjoy your presentations. Russ from NJ

[@musiqueetmontagne]

Thanks for a great comparison Jules, all my questions answered. I have the 60mm, it's a very sharp and versatile lens, now in 2024 it costs almost nothing, what's not to love. I use it on F and Z mount cameras perfectly..

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@musiqueetmontagne Both are excellent and yes, you can pick them up for a very good price. Thanks for watching.

[@schen5921]

Forty-five years ago, I bought the 55mm 2.8 at the hotel gift shop during an overnight layover in Tokyo. I have been using it and loving it. Recently, I started taking pictures of moving subjects, moths to be exact. I acquired a 60mm 2.8 AF. I love the autofocus when using it with a DSLR in AF-Continuous mode. The autofocusing is a bit slower at the macro range but beats my manual focus skill by a long shot. When using it at longer distances, the Limit switch speeds up focusing and reduces the hunt.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

I agree that for moving subjects using the AF 60 with continuous focus is much more accurate than trying manually focus. Thanks for watching.

[@meandmyarrow]

The 55mm f2.8 AIS is optically spectacular, but be careful if buying a used one. There is a very common problem with oil getting on the aperture blades with this model. This makes the aperture act erratically and it can eventually stick wide open. It is fixable but the lens must be disassembled. Just something to be aware of. I think it's worth finding a good one.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

Thanks for that information.

[@efreutel]

Sage advice 👍👍👍

[@efreutel]

Plus oil on the aperture blades also indicates vapor deposition oil on the internal lens surfaces…

[@lensman5762]

The oil on the aperture blades ruined my beautiful copy of this lens.

[@CTBLAS]

I have a 55 micro that had the same problem. Bought a set of jls screwdrivers from amazon, turned on a you tube video and fixed it myself. Wasn't hard just need to concentrate.

[@pedrova8058]

The AF60 is basically a 55 with an internal TC, it's the same optical design with an added multiplier (just 2 extra, fixed elements) that allows you to reach 1:1 without extension tubes. That's why it has just a little less sharpness and contrast. Some reviews say that it's less sharp than the 55 at infinity. It makes sense, the 55 runs its CRC system over the entire range; the 60, having 2 extra fixed elements, it cannot compensate so well for infinity (Of course the 60 has the same internal CRC (2nd group) but it's the fixed group (multiplier) that complicates things Nice video !

[@MarkCarr-t4t]

Thanks for the video. I've owned both the 60mm f/2.8D AF and 55mm f/3.5 pre-ai lenses. Optically speaking, I found the 55mm superior. It is also smaller, lighter, and easier to manually focus. The 60mm performs well on macro subjects, but is terrible at infinity focus. I sold the 60mm and kept the 55mm, and never regretted it. Unfortunately, I upgraded to a Nikon D7200 body, which won't mate with pre-ai lenses, so I'm in search of a replacement. From what I've read, the f/3.5 is better than the f/2.8, but not by much. I own several prime Ais lenses (35mm f/1.4, 50mm 1/8, 105mm f/2.5), and prefer them to the newer AF versions. For what they cost, they're a bargain.

[@efreutel]

Superb professional review. Learned much! Thank you. 🙏

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

Thank you for your comments and for watching my video.

[@dfigphoto]

Theeee comparison I needed in my life! Thank you! Appreciate the detailed comparison.

[@khanscombe619]

Awesome video. I have these & loved them each. I used the 55 on PB-4 bellows or the P-105. Even the 60 did nice. But I ended up using my EL 50/f2.8N as U suggested. Its amazing & cimpact for what it does. Can U compare or review the P-Nikkor 105mm f4 bellows lens? Its pretty cool but not much on here about it. Your input!

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

I don’t have the bellows lens, but I understand that it’s excellent. Thanks for your comments.

[@terrygoyan]

The effect you are seeing with the aperture changing is simply the inverse square law. A lens that uses only extension to get to life size magnification requires a doubling of the focal length to get there. The 55 micro by it's self extends 27.5 mm to get to 1/2 life size. That combines with a PK-13, which itself is 27.5 mm achieves an extension of 55 mm. The inverse square law states that doubling the distance by a factor of two decreases the amount of light by two stops. The 60 mm lens uses a combination of extension and shifting elements to achieve its magnification, which explains why you lose a bit less than two stops of light i.e. f/5 instead of f/5.6.This results in a slight loss of working distance compared to solely using extension to get to life size. In theory if you put the 55 on your camera with a PK-13 and focus to life size, the camera should indicate an aperture of 5.6 when the lens is set to 2.8.

[@efreutel]

That 55 a gem. Benchmark lens.

[@jimmywhitecloud7063]

Thank you for information

[@twoblink]

I have the 55mm f3.5 Ais, the 55mn f2.8 AIS, and the 60mm micro. I prefer the 55mm f2.8 for eBay work off a tripod as the manual focus is better. Otherwise everything else I prefer the 60mm. I don't use the 55mm f3.5, but I bought it so cheap I'm not going to sell it. I think it's optically sharper than the 55mm f2.8, but the brighter aperture is slightly easier to focus. All 3 are great lenses. If I were to get a nikon Z camera though, I'd probably use the 55mm f2.8 on it over the 60mm just because the 60 won't auto focus on the Z camera so in that case, the Ais manual focus is superior.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

I agree. I use the 55 2.8 with my Z cameras for the same reason, the manual focus is much better than the 60.

[@JaredTremper]

I have the 55mm f2.8, so based on this I would see nothing really compelling to look for the 60mm f2.8 micro (I’m shooting on D850). Re: depth of field on the 55mm, it makes sense that even a mere 5mm difference would be a significant impact at that short distance.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

The 60 would autofocus on your D850 plus because it has a cpu the camera would record aperture info to the EXIF data.

[@JaredTremper]

@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 true, but I find the focus confirmation to be pretty accurate for manual focusing. At this focal length it hasn’t been too difficult. I do have my eye on a used Nikon 105mm f2.8 micro VR, for which I can see wider uses including portraits and events. Our local camera store has one. If they don’t sell it later this fall I might pull the trigger.

[@ryanbeer5262]

Nice vs showdown. 2 of Nikon's best. I found a great deal on a 3.5, never leave home w/o it

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

Also an excellent lens. Bought one in 1978.

[@jb-xc4oh]

You cannot go wrong with these lenses, I own both. My 55mm lives adapted on a Sony A7 and is my go to camera for everyday use, the images are superb and the 60mm I use on my D850. The results you get for the money spent is outstanding, these lenses are a bargain. I got mine out of Japan in mint condition, the 55 cost $180 and the 60mm cost $205. Considering what lenses cost these days, this is almost a joke.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

You are correct. You are correct those lenses are a bargain. Thanks for watching.

[@danielfraga]

I have a D850 and i would like to buy a lens for digitizing 35mm films, the 60mm 2,8 G ED its so expensive... do you recommend the 60mm 2,8 AF micro? Waths the difference between 60mm 2,8 AF D and the model whitout "D"?

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

The D transmits distance information to the camera helping to give better exposures especially with flash. For your purpose either the 602.8 AF or AF D should work fine. Since you will be focusing manually the 55mm 2.8 micro Nikkor will be fine as well. See my video on digitizing 35mm negatives and slides using the Nikon ES-2 digitizer. It works great with the D850.

[@olavringdal6423]

Hi, thanks for informative video. Is 1:2 focus/magnification range good enought for scanning 35/120/4x5 negs ?

[@jimmywhitecloud7063]

Great explanation 🎉

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@jimmywhitecloud7063 Thank you Jimmy. Do you own one of these lenses?

[@jimmywhitecloud7063]

@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 I have the 60 mm lenses. I have used with high speed camera for photographing and filming of Bubblé generation in the flow channel.

[@fubar4fpv]

a like lens test charts, yup sure do

[@anthonyocarroll5630]

What is price of these two lens

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

You can find the 55 2.8 for under $100.00 and the 60 will cost a little more.

[@anthonyocarroll5630]

@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 thankyou jules

[@alexanderpopov4691]

The problem with this video like with most of comparisons, they all fall basicaly into pixel peeping.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

True. But I prefer the 55 because manual focus is much smoother than manually focusing the 60. Usually in the macro range you are manually focusing.

[@alexanderpopov4691]

@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 You can witness, looking at your own samples, that 60mm lens shows noticeably better light transition. At the same aperture images are simply brighter and this has more value than splitting a hair in sharpness. Also typical for Ai-s lenses much colder Color temperature in comparison to Af-d lenses (at least "made in Japan"), this makes impact mostly for film photography and most noticeable in the rendition of red Color. Those are both optically stunning performers but 60mm has them so much more to offer and 55mm mechanically is not great, helicoid oil gets sticky over a short period of time.

[@efreutel]

Mint from Japan about $250 including shipping and taxes.

[@raymondchan3587]

The 60mm looks brighter by one stop.

[@efreutel]

The 60mm a Ford. The 55mm a Rolls.😊

[@MrMiles-gi1hl]

I have the whole family.

[@KNEEDEEP760]

imo the 60mm takes it.

[@rtljaja]

bokeh is better on the 55

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

Thanks for watching

[@makemystronger..freemegapi6800]

The winner is?