Old manual focus vs. New AF lenses

Noticed recently old lenses are so much smaller than the modern counterparts. Is that due to the lack of IS and Motorization?

How about the glass elements. Besides the coating, how much improvement and evolution have we seen recently?

rxjohn wrote in post #12326736
Noticed recently old lenses are so much smaller than the modern counterparts. Is that due to the lack of IS and Motorization?

How about the glass elements. Besides the coating, how much improvement and evolution have we seen recently?

Depends on which lens you are talking about. Some are better, some are not.

In reality, basic lens design hasn't really changed in decades, the physics of light is the limiting factor.

What has changed are the materials, manufacturing processes and the inclusion of AF drives.

I have a Nikkor AI-S 85mm f/2 which by today's standard is a small lens. This lens in one of the sharpest lenses I've ever used and will one day like to adapt it to my DSLRs..It's about 2/3rds to size of my EF 85mm f/1.8, has a 52mm filter thread but from what I can remember weighs about the same. BTW, this lens, plus my other Nikon film gear is in the hands of my niece who still shoots film.

yogestee wrote in post #12327081
In reality, basic lens design hasn't really changed in decades, the physics of light is the limiting factor.

What has changed are the materials, manufacturing processes and the inclusion of AF drives.

I have a Nikkor AI-S 85mm f/2 which by today's standard is a small lens. This lens in one of the sharpest lenses I've ever used and will one day like to adapt it to my DSLRs..It's about 2/3rds to size of my EF 85mm f/1.8, has a 52mm filter thread but from what I can remember weighs about the same. BTW, this lens, plus my other Nikon film gear is in the hands of my niece who still shoots film.

What are you waiting for. I have 3 Nikon lenses all fitted with Nikon-EOS Adapter which costs about $14.

rxjohn wrote in post #12326736
Noticed recently old lenses are so much smaller than the modern counterparts. Is that due to the lack of IS and Motorization?

How about the glass elements. Besides the coating, how much improvement and evolution have we seen recently?

AF and IS mechanisms do seem to add to overall size of lens designs. But some MF lenses are quite large. My 28/2 dwarfs the canon 28/1.8.

As for improvement, it's a toss up. Older lenses may use materials that aren't "eco friendly" but offer better light transmission or control of LoCA.

One nice thing with the Canon EF mount is that you can mount a wide array of MF lenses. These lens have some unique rendering characteristics that cannot be replicated by modern lenses or at least not without significant post production work.

Take a look at Zeiss's initial release of non-electronically coupled ZF lenses vs. the ZF .2 and ZE lenses. The initial lenses had a nice slim look to them vs. barrel like and thats just with an electronically coupled aperture mechanism (no AF mechanism).

And I'm not that informed on the technicals side of lens manufacturing but I believe one of the bigger advancements for lens size and maintaining good light gathering is the proliferation of the Aspherical Element in various modern lenses. This glass type is used to great effect in many modern Leica lenses.

rxjohn wrote in post #12327295
What are you waiting for. I have 3 Nikon lenses all fitted with Nikon-EOS Adapter which costs about $14.

My Nikkors are back in Australia, in the hands of my niece who (hopefully) is taking good care of them.

Yeah, some people mainly use old lenses on modern DSLR cameras - for instance me
Some tests show very good results for the manual old lenses. AF lenses need focussing elements that need not much force to result in fast focussing - for manual lenses that is not needed. This could result in lower tolerances and better quality. Older lenses have much lead inside the glas, or even radioactive thorium and such. So there are glasses which are not avialable today for consumer lenses.

Asperical lenses are much cheaper today, but not sure if they are of the same quality as the old aspherical lenses? But with such elements one could creat better lenses - they are in many fine lenses like Canon 85/1.2.

I regret that I sold my Nikkon 28/2.8 AIS. I would suggest to test and use the old gear. Sometimes they are better, or equal than modern lenses. Sometimes thesy are bad.
And some lenses are special