In article <6h3m3e$4oo@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>, Sandy.Sanders@worldnet.att.netSanders says...

>In order to reduce weight/clutter, I've been thinking of acquiring a
>25-50 f4 Nikkor AIS zoom for use with an FE2 and an F3. This would
>be a replacement for the 24/2.8 and 35/2 that I'm currently using.
>
>Excluding the loss of max aperture, would this be a switch I'd be
>likely to regret?

The 25-50mm f4 Nikkor was an excellent WA zoom, but in the end
I sold the several I have owned. I find the relative inconvenience
of zoom use (the more difficult focusing, the extra step of selecting
a FL, and the need to use a smaller stop for good performance) compared
with primes not worthwhile. The 24 is really excellent by f5.6, and
the 35mm f2 (AIS, good sample) by f2-2.8 - the zoom is good at 25mm by
about f8 or so, very good at 35mm by f4-5.6, and generally not as good
as primes at 50mm even by f8, and it is far slower. Why bother for this
short zoom range? I sold even the excellent (stopped down to about f11...)
Nikkor 24-120mm zoom (though this zoom had the added negative feature
of the variable aperture...). BTW, you may find my Nikkor evaluation list
on my web page under "I babble" interesting...
David Ruether
http://www.fcinet.com/ruether