Nikon Z lenses vs F lenses I can't sell!

James Blonde

James Blonde

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I've moved to Z mount on both my bodies, and have been trying to sell my old F mount lenses. The 2 I've not been able to sell, possibly surprisingly (possibly not) are my 24-70 F2.8 G ED, and my 70-200 F2.8 VR2. Yes, I know.

My Z lens collection is pretty healthy - 14-30 F4, 24-70 F4, 24-200 and 100-400 (plus an FTZ and a 2x teleconverter). I was aiming to sell all my old kit to help fund the new kit.

Given my inability to sell my 2 old F mount lenses, and given what they are, I'm half wondering whether to keep them and start using them again. I know they're holy trinity on an F body, but I'm under the impression my Z mount lenses probably match, maybe even run rings around them - even as F4s. Given I do mostly landscapes, I'm not tooooo fussed about F2.8.

Should I keep them? Or as well trying to persist in selling them?
 
I'm sure they'll sell at the right price, but that may not be palatable for you.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I'm sure they'll sell at the right price, but that may not be palatable for you.
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The irony is I understood my price on the 70-200 was under the going rate. Thought I was ok on the 24-70 as well :/ But the MPB offer price seemed ridiculously low now. Was much better at the back end of last year, but wasn't able to sell them then!

(but that would also tend to suggest I'm still better trying to sell them?)
 
How often do you use those lenses? If it's not that often, then keeping them and using them via the FTZ is probably way better than replacing them with Z versions. They will perform a bit better on the Z even if not quite up to the Z lens potential.
There are reasons to upgrade lenses to Z versions (fully integrated VR, programmable buttons, etc); but IQ is really pretty low on the list when you have the better F mount lenses. So far I haven't bought a single Z mount lens... but everyone who has converted to Z lenses is selling off their F-mount lenses and the market is pretty flooded with the more common lenses.
 
I hear the Z glass is meant to be really good. How much better than the good F-Mount stuff, I don't know. I must get my hands on my friend's Z9 one of these days :)

The was someone a while back selling a 70-200 a few miles down the road from me. I wasn't in a position to buy one at the time so I just watched it. I think he took an offer from MPB in the end, though I'm not certain if it was terrible or not. I've recently sold my AF 70-210mm f4-5.6 D lens with a view of replacing it with a VR II as I won't have to manually focus if/when I use it with my APS-C body.
 
I’ve sold off most of my F mount lenses apart from a couple of longer ones that I only use occasionally and can’t justify the cost of replacing with a Z equivalent. I’m very happy with the 3 Z lenses I’ve got, and as I’ve had elbow and shoulder issues over the past couple of years, the weight saving over a D810/D4 with the likes of the 24-70 and 24-120 has been welcome.

I do have an FTZ adapter but found that the ensemble became big and clumsy to use which defeated the purpose of moving to a smaller setup. For use with the longer lenses occasionally it’s tolerable but not for everything else.

I had Ffordes sell my stuff on commission - you won’t get as much as selling privately, but you’ll get more than you would trading in or selling to them (or any other dealer probably). But I’ve had my moneys worth out of the F mount lenses so I’m not going to hold out for an extra £50 here and there.
 
Interesting dilemma/question.

I went to 'Z' for the particular advantages/improvements that a mirrorless body gives, rather than a desire to improve lenses. My 2/3 of the holy trinity perform v well and I am quite happy wit them. Maybe if you sent me out for a day with a couple of 'Z' lenses I'd be more inclined to lust after them. For now I shall run the F lenses until they, or I, break.
 
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I sold my 24-70 to MPB last year for less than half of what I paid for it (used).... there seems to be plenty of them going for sale at the moment as people are mostly going for the Z-mount, which means that when the 24-70 VR comes for sale it gets snapped up very quickly, and the non-VR gets p-ex'd for it.

Similar situation for the 70-200 but not so bad...

If and when I migrate to Z mount I will keep my 70-200 VR2 as it is the one lens I have that I am totally happy with it ..
 
sk66 said:
How often do you use those lenses? If it's not that often, then keeping them and using them via the FTZ is probably way better than replacing them with Z versions. They will perform a bit better on the Z even if not quite up to the Z lens potential.
There are reasons to upgrade lenses to Z versions (fully integrated VR, programmable buttons, etc); but IQ is really pretty low on the list when you have the better F mount lenses. So far I haven't bought a single Z mount lens... but everyone who has converted to Z lenses is selling off their F-mount lenses and the market is pretty flooded with the more common lenses.
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I've not used these lenses on my Z bodies much - if at all. I wasn't planning on replacing these lenses like for like with Z mounts - was quite happy with the F4+ equivalents. in fact technically, I might have bought all of the Z lenses I want now with the caveat of maybe replacing the 24-200 with a 24-120, which should work with my infrared camera.

I went Z mostly for the weight and size advantages as I tend to shoulder carry both cameras all the time. But also to move to a single full frame format. I used to have an FX D810 and a DX D7100 infrared - now Z7 and Z5 full spectrum are both the same format - though not all of the lenses I've got work well in infrared - the 24-200 in particular is terrible, so lives on my Z7, which seems a waste given my other lenses!!

So were I to keep one or both of these lenses, they'd be my only F2.8s. The 24-70 F2.8 used to live on my D810 but obviously I've got a couple of lenses in this range for my Z bodies, The MPB price for this was ironically more palatable than the 70-200 price!

The 70-200 on the other hand has never been used that much and the MPB price plummeted every time I checked - to a point where I wondered if I'd be paying them to take it in a years time! :/ It didn't make sense. But again, I've got the range covered pretty thoroughly with Z glass, but of both of the lenses, this is the one I feel is more worth keeping. But I can't help wondering why...!

(and yeh, maybe I should have tried selling them on here too, but I just hate selling stuff)
 
James Blonde said:
I've not used these lenses on my Z bodies much - if at all. I wasn't planning on replacing these lenses like for like with Z mounts - was quite happy with the F4+ equivalents. in fact technically, I might have bought all of the Z lenses I want now with the caveat of maybe replacing the 24-200 with a 24-120, which should work with my infrared camera.

I went Z mostly for the weight and size advantages as I tend to shoulder carry both cameras all the time. But also to move to a single full frame format. I used to have an FX D810 and a DX D7100 infrared - now Z7 and Z5 full spectrum are both the same format - though not all of the lenses I've got work well in infrared - the 24-200 in particular is terrible, so lives on my Z7, which seems a waste given my other lenses!!

So were I to keep one or both of these lenses, they'd be my only F2.8s. The 24-70 F2.8 used to live on my D810 but obviously I've got a couple of lenses in this range for my Z bodies, The MPB price for this was ironically more palatable than the 70-200 price!

The 70-200 on the other hand has never been used that much and the MPB price plummeted every time I checked - to a point where I wondered if I'd be paying them to take it in a years time! :/ It didn't make sense. But again, I've got the range covered pretty thoroughly with Z glass, but of both of the lenses, this is the one I feel is more worth keeping. But I can't help wondering why...!

(and yeh, maybe I should have tried selling them on here too, but I just hate selling stuff)
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I had two systems - full frame Nikon, and a Fuji setup for when I wanted something smaller and lighter. I’d gradually accumulated a lot of lenses over 10-15 years and could rarely be bothered to sell them off. But I but the bullet and flogged almost everything and just have two Z bodies that use the same battery and three Z lenses (plus a few specialised F lenses as I mentioned earlier). I don’t miss any of the other stuff, but I’ve no emotional attachment to equipment, I just can’t always be bothered to sell it. And my old D810 has just been sold by Ffordes so that’s now more than paid for the change to Z mount, everything else that sells now pays off next years holiday:banana:
 
I'm thinking Ffordes might be the middle ground here....

the other problem is selling my infrared D7100 - but that's a different story. It's obviously worth more than a stock D7100, but that's all anyone prices for. Might check with Ffordes to see if they'd price that differently too
 
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