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.

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.