Sony NEX-6 plus old Ai-S Nikkor 105 micro: Samples

My best guess is that this Nikkor Ai-S lens is 20 years old.  They just don't make them like this anymore:  metal construction;  useful markings;  manual aperture ring; mechanical focus.  On the other hand, the lens plus Nikon-to-Sony adapter weighs 21 ounces.  I am likely not the only one to find this creates a balance issue when attached to the 12 ounce NEX body.

Pictured below, the old Nikkor 105mm Micro lens is attached to a new NEX-6 via a $20 adapter. One end of the adapter fits the Sony E mount.  The other end fits the Nikon mount.  There is no electronic or mechanical connection between the camera and the lens.  The adapter simply creates the necessary space between the sensor and the lens to allow correct focusing.

Due to the cropped sensor (2/3 the diagonal dimension of a sensor on a full frame camera), a 105mm lens has an effective field of view of about 160mm (105 is about 2/3 of 160).  I need to get a little closer to the subject with this combo than I do with this lens on my Olympus EM-5 because the Olympus uses a sensor that is 1/2 the diagonal of a full frame sensor, so there is more magnification. (Therefore, you don't need to be physically as close to the subject with the Olympus.)

The pictures below came out nicely.  However, in the field this lens is too big and heavy
for the diminutive NEX 6 body. Perhaps that's because the body weighs 12 ounces
and the lens weighs 21 ounces.

I spent about 30 minutes yesterday shooting with the lens indoors (hand held, natural light only) at a nearby botanic gardens.  Being November, there's not a lot going on yet.  But I did find a few blooming plants.  I have read all kinds of things about these old, non-concentric lenses not working so well on the new cameras.  That's not been my experience with this Nikon micro lens.  I think these images are definitely sharp enough.

I can't remember the f-stop I used, but it was either F8 or F11.  Unfortunately because the aperture is set manually on the lens, there is no record in the image file as to what f-stop was used.  To maintain a 1/focal length shutter speed I shot these at 1/160th. This was fast enough to eliminate camera shake and subject movement.  Had I been outdoors I would have opted for 1/250th.  Even on calm days there is likely to be air movement.

I used Shutter Priority and auto ISO.  Frequently, I did have to use the EV compensation button to get the desired exposure.  For some reason the Sony exposure meter frequently wanted to underexpose the images.  Sometimes this was as much as three stops.  EV compensation changed the ISO, which is what I wanted, because I did not want to change the aperture (F8 or F11) or shutter speed (1/160th).