I recently bought a F65 28-80mm G kit here in Paris, but when testing it with a 50 mm 1.8 Nikkor AF, I find that the shots are slightly over-exposed compared to the 28-80 lens. I was only using the auto camera function as to keep everthing homogene, all shots taken with FP4 film. Is this because of the lack of D technology with the 50mm? Doesn't the F65 meter the same way with this lens? Should I not use auto with this lens? As you can probably guess, I'm relatively new to SLR photography, but keen to learn more...

-- rob (robertdunsmore@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002

Answers

What is "slightly overexposed"? How do you measure/assertain this?

From the film? Machine prints? Please clarify and state the rate of overexposure.

-- Frank Uhlig (uhligfd@auburn.edu), March 17, 2002.

Slightly overexposed with FP4 is probably a good thing since a great many knowledgable photographers normally rate it at from 80 to 100 instead of the 125 on the box to improve shadow detail. But then there as pointed out a great many variables involved with b&w photography. The question is does the 50 meter the same as the zoom at similar f-stop shutter speed combinations in a controlled test? Good luck.

-- Don (wgpinc@yahoo.com), March 17, 2002.

Well, slightly overexposed means that going by what I can see on the contact sheet, for the same shot taken with both lenses, the 50mm has a lot less contrast, more of a washed out aspect (higher in the gray tones) whereas the 20-80 appears correctly exposed.

-- rob (robertdunsmore@hotmail.com), March 17, 2002.

How were the contacts made? Better to look at the film and try to make prints off both lenses and see ... Time will tell. And I bet all is alright. The non D lens should have nothing to do with it. D only affects flash readings.

-- Frank Uhlig (uhligfd@auburn.edu), March 17, 2002.

Hi, Results on the contact cannot be considered as the final results. The negatives should be checked in detail to ascertain the exposure. Further, prints should be made at a good manual lab to ascertain their exposures. Bye Dinesh

-- Dinesh Hukmani (x34@sify.com), March 19, 2002.