Hi Aliquis,
You are right, Nikon is very expensive. The quality is there but you can find quality in a lot of other camera makers too like Pentax. You seem to be interested in primes. If you do not need dedicated flash support Pentax DSLR's can handle older Nikkor lenses very, very well and the results are excellent. I have a collection of Nikon Nikkor lenses (pre-Ai, AI & AI-S). The Nikkor AI & AI-S lenses were the best lenses Nikon ever made. Pre-AI mount easily, but with the AI and AI-S lenses you will need to Dremel the indexing notches down on the lens mount to make it smooth and even allowing it to mount.
After that, the lens will attach to a Pentax DSLR without the need for an adapter. Depending on the lens you may get it to clear the Pentax mount's locking pin. You will need to have the Pentax DSLR in AV mode to read available light from the lens. If you want to use flash you will need a flash meter and some trial and error adjusting the shutter speed and aperture. The sad thing about Nikon is that you can use these old Nikon lenses much easier on a Pentax DSLR than you can a modern Nikon DSLR.
Check out the Nikon Lens Club here on this forum:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/60225-nikkor-lens-club.html
If this is something that interests you here is the holy grail for Nikon lens information and production numbers:
Nikon Lens Serial Nos
If you attach a pre-AI lens to a current Nikon DSLR (except the motorless D40) you will seriously damage the camera. The AI & AI-S lenses cannot be used in a true AV mode on a Nikon DSLR because the older Ai & AI-S lenses are not computer chipped. So you have to set the Nikon DSLR to display a histogram, read the levels and set the shutter and aperture accordingly. What a pain and slow!
When I was still shooting Nikon film cameras I bought the the 50mm 1.4 D (D was the computer chipped version introduced in the early 90's) in 1992 or 1993 for around $225.00 from B&H. Fast forward to digital and the current Nikon 50mm 1.4 G (G for digital) will set you back almost $500.00! The performance of the new G lens isn't that much better than the older D lens. Some people still prefer the D lens.
Here's a comparison:
Nikon Nikkor Lens Comparison 50mm f/1.4D vs. 50mm f/1.4G
There is another comparison on the web comparing the new Nikon G 1.4 50mm to the much older pre-AI Nikkor 50mm 1.4 from the late 1960's or early 70's. The results might surprise you. I thought I bookmarked the page but I can't find it now and I can't seem to pull it up through Google. The older Nikkor primes are sharp and very well built. Check them out!
I believe when Pentax unveils its FF DSLR at Photokina or early next year there will be some great new D-FA primes. Pentax has a lot to offer, and more is coming!
Originally posted by aliquis Well, since I'm looking at all systems I must say that Nikons current prime setup seem to suck, at large.
Canon got much more to choose from and often at better prices.
The 35mm canon and nikon primes don't seem that impressive and nikon have removed their 28 or whatever it was. They have very little to choose from.
Also looking at macros canons are much cheaper because the 100mm can be bought without is and with is and L-class. The nikon 105mm only with VR.
Similar I think Nikon may only have 70-200/2.8 but no /4, while Canon does.
But then again I don't know if I should are for primes. They seem popular around here but it gets expensive with all the lenses and maybe zooms would be sufficient, less to carry. But I like the out of focus backgrounds :/
I think that Pentax may have a better prime selection than Nikon. Lacks glass compared to Canon though.
And Olympus zooms seem to own but the sensor is small and they cost more than everything else
But one can get 14-35 + 35-100 f/2 zooms from olympus