Pictures taken with the non-AI Soligor 135mm f/2.8 acquired on Nov 14th 2007. I got this lens, posted at Nikonians.Org and Fred Miranda, for only 20 bucks with shipping (!!). As it is pre-AI, it was made sometime before 1977 (when Nikon-mount lenses became AI) and since it isn't "AI-modified" it will not fit Nikon d-SLRs that cannot take pre-AI lenses. My D50 thus will not work with this lens, but my D40 will, hence my listing this lens under the D40 section.

I got this lens for use with portraits with the idea of the f/2.8 maximum aperture allowing me to create a stronger blur to the background, the resulting "background bokeh" would really help such shots as the subject would be more "set-off" from an otherwise distracting background. Of course I have to manually focus this lens and also meter manually, I've been using my Sony point & shoot as a "light meter" of sorts and it's worked out ok. I actually have fun taking portraits this way.