Lens: Nikon 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 AIS
Vintage: 1984-2005.
Lens Mount: Nikon F-Mount.
Needed Adapters: 52mm reversing ring.
Preferred Mounting: Reversed.
Filter Thread: 52 mm.
Street Price: $50-$70 in good used condition. Prices vary a lot online, shop around.
Controls: Aperture and focus settings.
Aperture: 7 blades.
Basic Function: Direct reverse mounting on dSLR.
| Setting | Magnification | Working Distance |
| 70mm far focus | 0.20 | 375 mm |
| 70mm near | 0.74 | 95 mm |
| 50mm far | 0.82 | 99 mm |
| 50mm near | 1.34 | 62 mm |
| 35mm far | 1.65 | 61 mm |
| 35mm near | 2.19 | 50 mm |
Appearance:
Resolution vs. Aperture:
This is a somewhat complex graph, but I chose to perform all tests on three focal lengths 35 mm, 50 mm, and 70 mm.
At 70 mm the lens is sharpest and resolves the most detail at f/5.6.
At 50 mm lens is sharpest between f/5.6 and f/8 and resolves the most detail at F/5.6.
At 35 mm the sharpest aperture is f/8 and resolves the most at f/5.6.
In general, you will want to use f/5.6 at longer focal lengths and f/8 at shorter focal lengths.
Corner Sharpness vs. Aperture:
With this lens, corner sharpness is all about focal length, and thus about magnification. The shorter the focal length and the higher the magnification, the better the corner sharpness.
At 70 mm, the corner sharpness at f/5.6 is not so hot and you may want to bump the aperture up to f/8. You will lose a little resolution, but not too much.
At 50 mm, the lens has decent corner sharpness at f/5.6, so no adjustments are necessary.
At 35 mm the corner sharpness is very good across the board.
Sharpness and Resolution vs. Magnification:
At lower magnification, the resolution and sharpness in the center is pretty good with the resolution slightly outperforming the detector. The problem at lower magnification is that the corner sharpness isn't so hot.
At 1:1 magnification, this lens performs pretty well in the center of the field, as good as many macro lenses although to get to 1:1 you will need to get the focal length down in the range of 50 mm. That means relatively limited working distance. Adequate, but limited.
Around a magnification of 2:1, the sharpness and resolution is good, but not as good as a good bellows lens. The working distance is actually pretty good because of retrofocus design required to work on an SLR. At this magnification, the corner sharpness is very good.
Performance: Sharpness vs. Magnification:
I have 4 lines that represent levels of performance from outstanding (top) to fair (bottom). This shows where this lens fits into the hierarchy that I have created.
The Nikon 35-70 rev show sharpness performance that is very good at 70mm, very good to good at 50mm, and good to fair at 35mm
Performance: Resolution vs. Magnification:
I have 4 lines that represent levels of performance from outstanding (top) to fair (bottom). This shows where this lens fits into the hierarchy that I have created.
The Nikon 35-70 rev show resolution performance that is very good at 70mm, very good at 50mm, and good at 35mm.
Resolving Power vs. Magnification:
This graph represents the smallest details that are able to be resolved by this lens at various magnificaitons. If the number doesn't get smaller as the magnification rises, there is little benefit to going up in magnificaiton with this lens. This situation is also called empty magnification.
Good to very good resolution, no problems.
Chromatic Aberration:This lens show minimal color fringing in the center (about 0.10 - 0.60 pixel) and fairly severe on the periphery (2.3 - 3.4 pixels). Anything below 1.0 pixel is good.
Image Contrast: Image contrast is good.
Flare: There is no significant flare associated with this lens. There is a problematic reflection evident when working at 70 mm. It seems to be related to light reflecting off of the bright metal mounting ring. It shows in the periphery of the image. This can be fixed by adding a Nikon BR-6 ring that has a matte black finish. If using this ring, the aperture will be defaulted to open and the aperture control lever on the ring will need to be deployed. The BR-3 ring will also work.
Distortion: This lens shows no significant distortion during testing.
Image Samples:
About 0.74:1 magnification, f/5.6, 70mm, resized:
Pixel level crop from the image above:
There is very good pixel level detail, no problems.
About 1.34:1 magnification, f/5.6, 50mm, resized:
Pixel level crop from the image above:
There is good pixel level detail, no problems.
About 2.19:1 magnification, f/8, 35mm, stack of 8 images, resized:
Pixel level crop from the image above:
There is good pixel level detail, no problems.
Conclusion:
The Nikon 35-70 mm f/3.3-4.5 AIS works pretty well as a macro lens when used in reversed configuration. The zoom provides variable magnification without the addition of extension or a teleconverter. It provides a magnification range from 0.20:1 to about 2.2:1.
The center field sharpness and resolution is pretty good across the range. The corner sharpness is not so hot at low magnification and quite good at higher magnification. There is quite a bit of chromatic aberration present across the range. This level of performance seems typical for non-macro lenses when drafted into higher magnification work.
The working distance is OK at lower magnification and actually pretty good at higher magnification.
This lens shows that older zooms lenses are a relatively cheap option for macro work. They won't replace a good macro lens, but for the price, are a pretty decent substitute. You will need to get one with an aperture ring as newer lenses don't always have one. The brand doesn't even have to be that of your camera body, most any one will do.