Category Archives: Nikon lenses

Some of the best optics ever

Nikkor 500mm f/8N AI Reflex lens

Nikon lenses, Photographs

Not easy to use, but with massive promise.

Warning: This article could end up costing you money. It debunks all the myths about a much derided class, the mirror reflex lens.

Background:

Name the two photographic themes which were overdone in the 1960s and most lists would prominently feature fish eye images and those taken with mirror reflex lenses. Opposite ends of the focal length spectrum – 8mm and 500mm. The distortion of the former is well known, though I suspect the peculiarities of the latter may be largely forgotten.

Indeed, read about mirror lenses and their objectionable out of focus ‘doughnuts’ in an age obsessed with ‘bokeh’ (The out of focus bits really matter that much? You paid how much for that?) and you have no reason to question Nikon’s decision to discontinue the last of theirs, the 500mm f8, in 2005.

And that is a massive shame, as the post processing wonders of digital have finally conferred the fix for what ails reflex lenses. And what ails them is poor contrast, a small fixed aperture, the need for high ISOs to avoid camera shake and modest resolution. Plus those doughnuts. Digital fixes all of those. f/8 is no longer especially slow, ISO 3200 is no biggie and sharpening in post processing is a given in the world of anti-aliasing sensors and Lightroom.

Doughnuts:

If you want to get those objectionable out of focus doughnuts prominent in your snaps, then be sure to photograph low key subjects against bright backgrounds. But it does not have to be that way. Select your subjects and compositions with a modicum of care and you can largely avoid the doughnuts with this compact tool, a 4″ long 500mm lens, weighing in at some two pounds in your gadget bag, challenging your skills to the utmost. What’s left of the doughnuts, if unwanted, is easily removed in Photoshop, as I show below.

Nikon’s offering:

The best known mirror lens is probably the 500mm f/8 Nikon Reflex-Nikkor. It’s small and light, with exceptionally good mechanical construction. The focus collar is feather light, the fit and finish as good as it gets and all the markings are paint filled engravings. The tripod collar has detents at 90 degrees – why aren’t all collars like this? – and I have fitted a Manfrotto QR plate to mine for use on a tripod or monopod. The latter is a recommended adjunct for street snapping as it takes out the major source of movement blur, vertical motion.

500mm Nikkor f/8 AI N Reflex lens.

Nikon made a few versions of these and the one to get is the last one made, the ‘N’, as it has ultra-close focusing and the lowest weight and bulk. It’s distinguished by an engraved orange arc (for the close focus range) on the focus collar. They usually sell for $650 or so, though prices seem to fluctuate over a wide range; mine came for about half that from the estimable Fred Miranda forum, the sole defect being a smudge of grease on the front glass, easily removed with a Q Tip, lightly moistened in isopropyl alcohol. It seems like most owners take a snap or two, conclude it’s not so good, and sell, making these abundantly available, most having seen little use. The earlier version, slightly bulkier, typically sells for half as much. I have not used it so cannot comment on definition, but I’ll bet that the build quality is comparable, meaning superb in every way. That version weighs a few ounces more, focusing down to 12 feet rather than 5 feet in the last model.

This lens is certainly not easy to use. If you do not use a support your snaps will likely be blurred. Further, even with focus confirmation in the D700, getting the point of focus right is not easy. Nikon says focus confirmation in the D700 needs f/5.6 or faster, yet it works perfectly with this f/8 optic, a lens with immense promise. A truly creative lens, well worth the effort of scaling the steep learning curve.

Processing:

I have found that my default Sharpness import setting of 86 in LR3 has to be increased to 125 with this lens, at which point the images start to perk up. Add some contrast and they start to sing. At ISO 800 and up a bit of luminance noise starts to creep in and is easily corrected in LR3. None of these options was available in the days of film when these lenses were sold new, nor was LR’s Clarity slider, which also helps greatly when more micro-contrast is called for.

As is common with mirror lenses, this optic suffers from ‘hot spotting’ wherein a central circular zone is brighter than the remainder of the image and also from light pincushion distortion. Download my tailored Lightroom lens correction profile here to correct for this, making a great lens even better.

The images in this article were processed without applying this profile and you can clearly make out the ‘hot spotting’ in one or two. In those situations where this detracts from the image, use my profile.

Some snaps:

I have never owned or used a mirror lens so what follows is literally from my first ‘roll’. These were all snapped handheld with ISO varying from 800 to 3200 on the D700. I left the monopod at home just to see what the lens could do handheld, and mostly used 1/500th or faster shutter speeds. Maybe 30% of my pictures were incorrectly focused or showed unacceptable camera shake. A monopod will greatly help to improve the success rate. Used in like conditions with my 300mm Nikkor I had no camera shake down to 1/60th. Without some form of support, it makes sense to use continuous shooting to take several frames of each subject, in the hope that one comes out best.


The magnificent Oakland Bay Bridge.


Viva California!


An artist sketches his subject.


Blurred, yes, 1/60th second handheld does that. But the passion is there.


Umbrellas. Face.


Hair!


Young love.


Tan.


Gandhi. I actually like the out-of-focus effect here.


Red.


San Francisco – America’s finest city.

Photoshopping the out-of-focus bits:

If the appearance of the out-of-focus area is not to your liking, a quick round trip from LR3 to Photoshop and the magic lasso and lens blur filter make things look more orthodox – and more boring:


Orthodox looking blur, conferred using Photoshop CS5.

Doughnuts be gone!

Debunking myths:

‘Experts’ have it that catadioptric lenses of this kind are inherently aberration free. This, of course, is pure rot. Ask the fellows at Hughes/Perkin-Elmer who cost the US taxpayer millions of dollars when their faulty Hubble telescope was blasted into orbit. The subsequent fix requiring replacement of the mirror and software enhancements did not do anyone’s reputation any good and likely hurt NASA’s dwindling prospects of surviving. That said, I have found no evidence of chromatic aberration when pixel peeping my snaps from this Nikon lens. This is not some warmed over, cheap aftermarket imitation. (Note to NASA: Have Nikon make your mirrors next time.)


1/500th, hand held, ISO 800. LR3 sharpening = 125, Clarity = +29, Luminance Noise reduction = +30.

Here’s a magnified version of the top left corner, consonant with a print sized 30″ x 45″:

In use:

The diminutive size of the lens makes it very ‘stealthy’ – here it is compared with the gargantuan 16-35mm current auto-everything zoom (I call the latter my cuckoo lens because it looks as silly on the D700 as a cuckoo does in a warbler’s nest):

The 500mm focuses past infinity – as here – to allow compensation with changing temperature.
The tripod collar, with my QR plate, is rotated 90 degrees in this photograph.

Closest focus is an astonishing 5 feet, or 40% of life size, at which point the length of the lens is a mere one third of an inch or so longer than at infinity. That focus distance is comparable to a standard 50mm lens at 6″. The focus collar rotates well over 360 degrees, but there’s sense in that. The long focus throw greatly aids in critical focusing, and that is a key dictate with this lens. Incredible engineering, thoroughly thought out.

Indeed, when I was snapping the other day on San Francisco’s beautiful Embarcadero, a fellow photographer, toting a Hasselblad no less, stopped to ask me about the strange looking lens on my D700. I gave him the camera and as he pointed it I suspect he was expecting a portrait lens kind of focal length. The look on his face was priceless, and I explained that two of the great motorcycling roads in America are those winding their way up to the mirror telescopes at Mount Wilson in Los Angeles and Mount Palomar in San Diego. The Reflex-Nikkor uses the same technology, though Palomar’s 200 inch mirror will not fit in your bag.

Use on a tripod and why MLU helps:

Another myth says that it’s not possible to properly steady this lens. In tripod use the critical shutter speed range is generally 1/8th to 1/60th, regardless of the lens fitted. That’s where the period of vibrations caused by the DSLR’s flapping mirror and shutter is the highest as a percentage of total exposure time. With shorter exposures the vibes don’t have much of a chance to have a say in the matter and with longer ones they will have long died when the bulk of the exposure time commences. It’s when and how long things shake that matters.

This is easily proved. Using my solid, cantilevered Linhof tripod with a good ball head, I pointed the lens at the Dow Jones chart in my office (Hey! A guy has to eat!) and after focusing using the focus confirmation feature, fired the shutter four times, varying the ISO to get two snaps at 1/25th and two at 1/5th second. In each pair of pictures I let the mirror operate normally in the first but used the Mirror LockUp (MLU) feature in the second. In all cases a wireless remote was used.

The results confirm two things:

  • That shutter speeds around 1/25th are the most likely to suffer definition loss
  • That vibration induced by mirror slap is very significant at these speeds

Without and with MLU at 1/25th second,

Without and with MLU at 1/5th second.

The lesson is to avoid speeds in the 1/8-1/60th range if possible, by changing ISO. Better sharp grain than blurred continuous tone. And if you must use these shutter speeds, use the MLU feature for best definition.

The above enlargements are from 30″ x 20″ print sizes. Pixel peeping the two sharp ones where MLU was used shows that, indeed, the one at 1/5th is the sharper of the two, vibes from the release of the shutter being a smaller percentage of the overall exposure time. The slower shutter speed delivers the sharper result. As the ISO used was 800 and 200, the essentially grainless nature of the D700’s sensor is not a material variable in the comparison.

But if anyone tells you that you cannot get sharp results from this lens on a tripod, you need to read someone else and make sure you use a solid tripod and a wireless shutter release. Proper technique wins every time when it comes to definition. In the two sharp originals taken using MLU, the very finest 6 point text on the chart is sharp and easily read in a photograph taken from fifteen feet distance, confirming the quality of the lens and the accuracy of the focus confirmation feature in the D700’s body.

Use with other makers’ cameras:

For all you envious Canon digital owners out there, adapters are available at very low cost for the current EF mount (EOS – 5D, 5D/II etc.) cameras, and as the lens is MF and fixed aperture, you will have the same operational issues as Nikon fans. I don’t know whether Canon’s focus confirmation beeper works with this lens on the body.

For those suffering from brand loyalty, Canon made a 500mm f/8 Reflex for the discontinued FD mount but even if you can find one, it will not focus to infinity on the current EF mount Canons with a regular adapter. Adapters which permit this interpose a poor quality negative lens element, which is guaranteed to destroy the definition of this fine Canon optic. The same goes for Minolta adapters for Sony Alpha bodies and Pentax K body adapters. Avoid.

Minolta/Sony used to list a 500/8 mirror with autofocus, but I can’t find it at B&H any more. Sony is expert at making a superior product and then discontinuing it before anyone notices. The next Kodak.

Adapters for use of Nikon lenses on Sony NEX and on Panasonic/Olympus MFT bodies are readily available and no negative lens is required, owing to the thinness of these bodies. On APS-C the effective focal length is 800mm, and 1000mm on MFT. One significant advantage of bodies using electronic viewfinders is that the small f/8 aperture will be automatically compensated, rendering the usual, bright image in the finder.

Zeiss once listed both 500mm and 1000mm reflex Mirotar lenses for their long discontinued Contarex bodies, but the cost of those exceeded Greece’s national debt and used copies remain exorbitantly priced and very rare.

Lens correction profile:

As is the case with most mirror reflex lenses, the Nikkor suffers from ‘hotspotting’ – the central area of the image is brighter than the periphery. Accordingly, I have made a tailored lens correction profile, for use with LR or PS, and you can see the fairly dramatic difference when this is applied in the pair of snaps below.

Before and after applying my lens correction profile.

Usage instructions and profile download can be found here. All the pictures above were reproduced before applying the profile, as is clear from those with continuous tone backgrounds.

Conclusion:

It’s ironic that now, when camera and processing technology exist to make the best use of the capabilities of reflex lenses, that all except a few crappy aftermarket brands have been discontinued. A used Nikon Reflex lens is a superb bargain for those willing to work at making it sing and easily the most exciting lens I have used in ages.

Installation and use of a CPU is addressed in a follow-up piece here.

Nikkor-H Auto 50mm f/2 lens

Nikon lenses, Photographs

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:


Umbria


Speakeasy.


Biker bar. I had to beat this guy up for a better view of the bike.


Self portrait. Unlike Mr. Hemmings, below, I’m holding the camera right!


Things go worse with Coke.


San Franciscan.


101.


Spotted!


Bubble Lounge.


Blue. At f/2 – definition is even across the frame.

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:


Click here to read A Fantasy.

Converting old MF Nikkors

Nikon lenses

Bringing classics back to life.

Nikon’s Nikkor lenses, made through the early 1970s, were strangers to plastic. Brass and alloys were the order of the day, right down to that gorgeous scalloped metal focusing collar. These come with the meter coupling prong used on the old Photomic metering heads on the Nikon F and Nikkormat bodies of the era, redundant on modern digital bodies. But, while Nikon made their later lenses ‘AI’ (Auto aperture Indexing), these old masters will not fit a modern DSLR. A sector has to be milled from the rear of the aperture ring to permit fitting and to index the lenses’ maximum aperture if the metering system is to work correctly.

You can get a sense of what I’m talking about by simply feasting your eyes on my latest acquisition, a 200mm f/4 Nikkor-Q lens, made in 1971. Simply gorgeous to handle and behold, with optical quality to match. Markings are engraved and paint-filled, and of very high quality. The whole thing is a beautiful, thoroughly engineered tool.

They simply do not make them like that any more. The lens hood is built-in.

Here’s the rear of a Nikkor of that era before AI conversion:


Arrow denotes lip.

As you can see, the small lip protruding from the rear of the aperture ring does so all the way around. It prevents the lens from mounting on a modern DSLR body.

And here’s a Nikkor which has had the AI conversion done:


The arrows show the limits of the milled arc.

I own two such classic Nikkors, a 50mm f/2 and the 200mm f/4 above, and had both converted to AI specifications by John White of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a highly regarded source for such work.


Click the picture to go to John White’s site.

The turnaround time is about a week, and the cost $33 including shipping. Mr. White is polite, answers emails promptly and is a pleasure to deal with. After conversion, lenses work perfectly on my Nikon D700 body, though you have to remember to dial in the right ‘non-CPU lens’ setting if you want correct EXIF data stored with the image file.

And the cost of that mint 200mm gem? Would you believe $29? Yes, twenty nine dollars. With conversion and shipping the total cost came to $75.

1972 50mm lens on a 2012 body.

It’s not easy to describe the sensual pleasure of using these old lenses. The best I can do by way of analogy is to say that, after using their modern equivalents, it’s comparable to the difference in telling time on a mechanical watch compared to a digital timepiece. Both serve identical purposes but there’s only one you return to with eager anticipation and that silent thrill that has you thinking “Wow! Do I really own this?” Form and function are one.

These classics are abundantly available and, if you can live without VR and autofocus, worthy of serious consideration. You can be sure of two things. They will outlive you and they go for the price of a sushi dinner.

Obligatory snap of the long suffering Bert, at f/5.6.

Some people use a brick wall to test lenses. Chez Pindelski the test chart is none other than Bertram, the Border Terrier.

For more snaps taken with the 50mm Nikkor lens, click here.

For DIY instructions on AI conversion of old Nikkors, click here.

Cheap, not nasty

Nikon lenses, Photographs

A few from the 75-150mm Series E lens.

The trade offs with these older, inexpensive Nikon lenses are simple. You give up AF and VR and save on cost, weight and bulk. It means that everything is slower in practice and only the user can decide if that matters.

But the one thing you most certainly do not sacrifice, based on my early experience with the budget 75-150mm Series E Nikon zoom, is definition. It’s superb.

Statuesque. D700, ISO 800.

Nap. Same data.

Cell call. Same data.

Window detail – 1895. Same data.

Burlingame station – 1895. At 150mm. Same data.

Station detail – in heavy shadow. At 100mm. Same data.

Enlarged section of the above. Taken at f/5.6. Definition
is the same across the frame. Flare is handled well.

Nikkor Series E 75-150 mm f/3.5 MF zoom lens

Nikon lenses

An absolute sweetheart.

Our son Winston does karate in a down-on-its-luck area whose great redeeming quality is the presence of Kaufmann’s Cameras, one of the few remaining camera stores in these parts, 57 years in business, the last 21 at the same location on West 25th Avenue in San Mateo.

They have half a dozen consignment cases full of old film gear, languishing sadly (they keep a 30% commission).

I swung by when Winnie was doing yet another of his never ending belt tests yesterday (it’s their annuity income stream) and spotted one of the bargain label Nikon-E optics, the 75-150mm f/3.5 for sale, in mint condition. Small, 52mm filter, trombone zoom, MF of course and a fixed f/3.5 maximum aperture. A quick check on the iPad disclosed it’s a highly regarded optic, all metal, and the one Kaufmann’s had on consignment was mint, complete with UV filter and rear cap.

As generally seems to be the case the zoom trombone will move with gravity; two minutes with electrician’s black vinyl tape saw a strip applied underneath and the problem was solved.


Series E 75-150mm Nikon lens.

Definition is super, with the merest hint of red fringing at 75mm, with slight vignetting at 150mm, both easily remedied in LR3. There’s no air pumping as you operate the trombone as the rear element is fixed – nice! That means no blast of airborne dirt in the direction of the camera’s innards as you zoom. The aperture ring is really close to the flange and takes some getting used to. Full click stops only with a fine solid feel. Zooming does not change the length, focus does, with a 3/4″ extension and a 200 degree rotation. It focuses to a very close 3 feet. At 150mm that’s pretty close. Both zooming and focus are wonderfully smooth and perfectly damped. Out of focus areas are nicely rendered. Both the front and rear glass elements are pretty much exposed, so a filter/rear cap make sense.

As there is no CPU in the lens to communicate focal length the D700 has to be told manually which length is in use if you want correct EXIF data. Up to nine various settings are allowed. The ‘Non CPU lens’ setting on the D700 does not have zoom options, so I set it at 86mm and f/3.5 and exposure automation is fine, with the usual focus confirmation. 86mm? It’s one of the strange options available and not likely to be confused with anything else when looking at EXIF data! Balance on the D700 is just so. Comfortable. All the markings on the lens are engraved and paint filled. Like they used to make them. No screen printing. I like that.

Cost? Would you believe $85 with filter and rear cap for a lightweight, high quality zoom with a fixed and fast f/3.5 maximum aperture? What’s not to like? It may have been Nikon’s ‘bargain’ line but there are no signs of cost cutting in either execution or performance. A wonderful adjunct to the 16-35mm ultra-wide zoom – similar length, much smaller diameter, similar weight. As I have no intention of carrying around a 70-200mm f/2.8 autofocus VR zoom weighing in at 3.3lbs and measuring 8.1″ in length (against 1.5 lbs and 5.2″ for the 75-150) I am happy to sacrifice AF, VR, the long end, the weight and the bulk. And did I mention this little sweetheart is some $2,300 less?


Brooding Bert, 75-150mm Nikkor Series E @ 150mm, f/4 at closest focus.

Higly recommended if you are OK with manual focus and a perfect companion to an ultrawide zoom as part of a ‘do (almost) everything’ outfit.


Someone needs to lose weight ….

The Nikkor 75-150 budget zoom is an absolute sweetheart and costs a lot less than any sweetheart ever will. And while you are spending wildly on one of these gems, throw in a new Nikon HR-1 collapsible rubber screw-in lens hood for all of $15, which makes sense given the flare-prone, exposed front element. The original metal 52mm screw-in hood, HN-21, is hard to find.

You can download my custom lens correction profile for this lens, best used once a CPU has been installed in the lens, here.

CPU installation:

My lens is s/n 1814651, early all black design, (Sept. 1980) and permits a simple glue-on installation of the CPU. However, after correspondence with a reader it became clear that somewhere in the first run of these lenses, the all black ones like mine, s/n 1790801-1860019, Nikon changed the design and started using a much thicker baffle in the area where the CPU has to be installed. This means that the baffle will have to be removed and an arc machined out to accommodate the CPU. I do not know exactly where the change in design occurred, but the lens already used the thicker baffle at s/n 1837859. If any other readers are converting this lens, please drop me a line with your s/n so that I can narrow down the change point, for future reference. The later version with the chrome ring, s/n 1890001 and up appears to use the thicker baffle.