Nikon compatibility

Hi all,

Newb question sorry. I am buying a BM Pocket 4K and have a number of Nikon lenses. These are all quality Sigma or Nikon lenses but are a few years old. Can anyone tell me please whether these will be compatible with the BM4k? I will be buying other lenses but want to make use of what I have if possible!

Scoobs

You may find it useful to look at this current thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106109

Others may chime in about adaptors that don’t result in an effective doubling of the focal length, which may or may not be an issue for you.

The type of Nikkor lens that you are talking about is important. The linked thread above is only about Nikkor F-mount manual lenses with an aperture ring.

Cheers

Nikon is a good lens donor. That is, the flange distance is longer than just about any other camera system, so you can adapt a Nikon lens to pretty much anything.

There are two types of adapters for Nikon F to M43. First, you have purely mechanical "tubes" that simply move the lens to accommodate the difference in flange distance. There's no glass in the adapter. Because the Pocket 4K has a smaller sensor (1.9 times smaller than Nikon FX) the field of view becomes narrower. Compared to a full frame camera a 50 mm lens would look like a 95 mm lens on the Pocket 4K (50mm * 1.9).

The other type of adapter is a focal reducer, which has optics to squeeze the image to the smaller sensor size and therefore gives a more familiar field of view. A 0.71x focal reducer paired with the same 50 mm lens would look like a 67 mm lens on a "full frame" camera (50mm * 1.9 * 0.71). Google "speedbooster" or "focal reducer" for more info.

Beware the cheap ones. I got the Viltrox speedbooster first. It was satisfyingly sharp, but I had ugly flaring problems and finally bought the much more expensive Metabones XL 0.64. Buy cheap, buy twice.

If you have lenses without a manual aperture ring, like robedge mentioned, make sure that the adapter has manual aperture control. Most, but not all adapters, have that. Oh, and manual control is all that you will have with Nikon lenses with the Pocket 4K! There are no electronics in the adapters.

Nikon is a good lens donor. That is, the flange distance is longer than just about any other camera system, so you can adapt a Nikon lens to pretty much anything.

There are two types of adapters for Nikon F to M43. First, you have purely mechanical "tubes" that simply move the lens to accommodate the difference in flange distance. There's no glass in the adapter. Because the Pocket 4K has a smaller sensor (1.9 times smaller than Nikon FX) the field of view becomes narrower. Compared to a full frame camera a 50 mm lens would look like a 95 mm lens on the Pocket 4K (50mm * 1.9).

The other type of adapter is a focal reducer, which has optics to squeeze the image to the smaller sensor size and therefore gives a more familiar field of view. A 0.71x focal reducer paired with the same 50 mm lens would look like a 67 mm lens on a "full frame" camera (50mm * 1.9 * 0.71). Google "speedbooster" or "focal reducer" for more info.

Beware the cheap ones. I got the Viltrox speedbooster first. It was satisfyingly sharp, but I had ugly flaring problems and finally bought the much more expensive Metabones XL 0.64. Buy cheap, buy twice.

If you have lenses without a manual aperture ring, like robedge mentioned, make sure that the adapter has manual aperture control. Most, but not all adapters, have that. Oh, and manual control is all that you will have with Nikon lenses with the Pocket 4K! There are no electronics in the adapters.

I found this helpful myself, great summary of the situation.

Great, that's nice to hear!

I use Nikon F lenses (the new Z SE lenses are not adaptable) on all my BMD cameras (except the Broadcast), including the Pocket 4K. I have both a Metabones Speed Booster Pocket 4K MFT to NikF (focal reducer) adapter to get a wider angle of view from my 28mm f/2.0 and I also use a nice Novoflex adapter that just mechanically adapts the lens, no focal reduction or optical changes. Both are well made and very accurate. Less expensive adapters are hit and miss with quality and accurate FFD alignment.