Move over, Mr. Hemmings.

When I wrote recently about early manual focus Nikon lenses, I suggested that the 50mm f/2 Nikkor standard lens was a competitor for Leica’s vaunted Summicron. That opinion was not exactly guesswork. I had used the Nikkor extensively as a kid and a succession of Summicrons over 35 years with Leica M bodies. Both optics were beautifully engineered in metal with performance to match. Plastic was not a concept. Nor was multi-coating, AF or VR/IS. That does not take away from the performance of either. My favorite 50mm Summicron was the first black version, and the last with the removable head, made by Leitz Canada. It took on more of the gutsy rendering offered by Nikon and Pentax at the time and deleted one element from the earlier design, making do with just six glasses, not coincidentally the same as the Nikkor addressed here.

With the intention of testing my ‘new’ 50mm MF 1971 vintage Nikkor, I took to the streets of San Francisco the other day with the D700, and had at it. I used the classic metal hood of the period, given to me for no charge by a nice person at Kaufmann’s Cameras in San Mateo, the same location where I had bought the 75-150mm Series E lens for a song. No filter was used. This 50mm lens is not the later “HC” version which was multicoated, and distinguished by a black front ring. This is the earlier single coated version, a classic symmetrical six element Gauss design. Apertures used in the snaps below were f/2 through f/5.6, and f/4 looks like the sweet spot, just like with those Summicrons of yore. Post processing in LR3 was minimal, and my standard Sharpness setting on import of 86 seems just right. Even at f/2 definition is more than adequate to permit large prints to be made, though micro contrast improves a couple of stops down.

Manual focusing proved easy, with the D700’s screen more than up to the task. While there’s always the focus confirmation light as an option, I found I rarely needed to use it, except in very poor light.

Here are some results:

Looks like a keeper to me. All in cost with AI conversion by John White for my mint specimen was $75. Conversion is required for ‘pre-AI’ lenses to permit mounting and metering on modern bodies. Thank you, John, for a job well done!

And if you absolutely must make out like David Hemmings, this lens may even get you a hot date – I suspect he is using the f/1.4 variant:

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