Metal Lens Body

[Zehn Ziegen]

Good-day,

I was wondering if anyone knows of a lens manufacturer that makes Nikon compliant lenses which have a completely metal body (i.e., NO plastics).

Alternatively, if anyone knows of a specific lens with a metal body that would go up to 200 mm that would be great.

Thank you for your time.

Auf wiedersehen,

James

[Michael Fanelli]

May I ask why? Nikon glass is excellent, why settle for less quality to get "all metal"? Will you be using this lens for some special purpose or situation?

[Zehn Ziegen]

May I ask why? Nikon glass is excellent, why settle for less quality to get "all metal"? Will you be using this lens for some special purpose or situation?

Good-day,

For a complete description of the situation I will be using the camera in, please see my other post "Macro->Nikon, Canon, Pentax->Bodies, Lenses" in this forum (Digital SLRs).

In a nutshell, my subject is inside a 700C (1300F) furnace. The furnace is insulated well enough to essentially be room-temperature on the outside, but I will be cutting a hole in the furnace wall to put in a quartz window to photograph through. Though I will have a cooling system for the camera system, I am still looking into if it is possible to get a completely metal lens body.

Auf wiedersehen,

James

[another view]

I've been reading your posts but really haven't had any advice to help you with - other than thinking that whatever you go with probably won't last too long! I have a Nikon 80-200 f2.8 (there are several versions of this lens, mine is still made but the least expensive of the two available). It has a metal body, and is very well made. It's built to handle the punishment that a photojournalist would give it on a daily basis.

But it's not all metal. There are a lot of plastic parts on it: the aperture ring, the auto/manual focus selector ring, the focus limiter switch, the front rim of the lens, the hood - and probably some internal parts too. I don't think any 3rd party manufacturer would have anything with more metal in it either. Maybe some of the older manual focus lenses have more metal in them, but the camera won't meter with them which probably won't be a big deal in your situation.

[Photo-John]

I'm not exactly sure what the compatibility issues are, but older, manual focus Nikon lenses shoudl do the job. They used to be made completely of metal. And for your purposes, you don't need autofocus anyway.

[Michael Fanelli]

Good-day,

For a complete description of the situation I will be using the camera in, please see my other post "Macro->Nikon, Canon, Pentax->Bodies, Lenses" in this forum (Digital SLRs).

In a nutshell, my subject is inside a 700C (1300F) furnace. The furnace is insulated well enough to essentially be room-temperature on the outside, but I will be cutting a hole in the furnace wall to put in a quartz window to photograph through. Though I will have a cooling system for the camera system, I am still looking into if it is possible to get a completely metal lens body.

Interesting project. Here's my take on it. Polycarbonate (plastic) starts deforming at between 400-500 degrees F. If you camera equipment came close to that temperature, you'd have an unuseable camera and lens regardless of material! Also, metal will transmit that heat to the camera internals much more efficiently than polycarbonate. That's a bad thing for stuff such as sensors which can't be metal!

I have only been in "furnace territory" twice in the past, both times while developing software for Bethlehem steel. Although it got pretty hot, even relatively close to the open pits it was bearable, albeit extremely uncomfortable. I'm sure my skin would burn much much faster than polycarbonate.

The only potential big problem I see is the sensor. As sensors heat up, image noise goes up fast. That might be important.

Good luck and let us know what you ultimately choose.