Nikkor 35-80mm f4-5.6 D

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When talking about vintage lenses, everybody will tell you to avoid plastic lenses from the 80s and 90s because build and image quality are terrible. So obviously, I had to try them myself.
The lens is made of plastic, it weights around 170g, it is 67 to 84mm long and it has an external diameter of 66mm, with a 52mm front thread and the from element turns when focusing.
The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4 to f22 plus auto.
The focusing ring is textured, it turns 70 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 35cm.
The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46,5mm.
This lens uses the screw drive autofocus system and the focusing ring is very narrow and not really meant to be used; nevertheless it is precise.
Sharpness wide open is very good with slightly softer corners and by f8 it gets very sharp all over the frame. There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the two ends of the zoom range.
Chromatic aberration can be spotted wide open in high contrast areas, but it is barely noticeable.
Contrast and saturation are on the low side and colors are fairly neutral.
Specular highlights are small with hard edges and backgrounds can occasionally feel busy.
Flares and ghosting are very well controlled, even when shining a light directly into it.
As you saw in the samples, this lens is actually pretty good. Sure, it’s not fast or fancy, but you can get one of these for 5 bucks and they make for great casual walk around lenses.
I know I’ve already said this, but I do believe that in the near future we’ll see a resurgence of these plastic lenses. They were mass produced, easy to find for dirt cheap and still have some of that older, imperfect charm.


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