Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! Some people couldn’t seem to appreciate things that are considered “obsolete”, “vintage” and simplistic. I understand that they want something that is state-of-the-art and near-perfect in nearly everything. It’s not a bad thing to always want the best, however, it’s not good to put-down something just because it was of an older standard. Vintage equipment is a lot of fun to work with, it can also how if the person using it is skilled. New equipment can only take you so far but fundamentals mean everything. It’s what separates the good artists from the talented ones. Today, I am going to one such vintage lens that still has its place today. I will show you that gear means nothing much when you know how to use it correctly.

Introduction:

The Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Auto was sold from 1962 to 1974. This was made in order to provide Nikon F users with a 50/1.4 lens, something that Nikon had for their rangefinder system. It was difficult to make since optical engineers back then hadn’t perfected the techniques required to calculate such a lens. What made it difficult was the then-new SLR systems need lenses that could provide sufficient clearance at the rear to avoid the flapping mirror. It was such a difficult feat, Nikon and the others used a slightly-longer focal length to compensate for it and that resulted in the Nikkor-S 5.8cm f/1.4 Auto being designed as a stop-gap in Nikon’s case.

It took Nikon a few years to get it right and that resulted in this lens. It was a big hit and it continued to be in production with the last version coming out in 1974 as the New-Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 (version 1) and was sold until 1976. It is a nice lens to use and I enjoy using it with my Nikon Df.

The new 7-elements-in-5-groups design is huge, resulting in a fat barrel. It is about twice the size of the contemporary Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 Auto. This was such a significant lens for the Japanese industry as it’s the first true 50/1.4 of its kind for SLR’s. The Nikkor-S 5.8cm f/1.4 Auto is great but this lens is even better in my opinion and it became one of Nikon’s best-selling lenses. It was one of the reasons why many photographers jumped to the Nikon camp. It’s difficult to focus accurately with a 50/1.4 using a rangefinder but a Nikon F made it trivial, you could accurately focus and compose with it even if your lens has a razor-thin depth-of-field.

This picture is from Nikon’s 1967/68 catalogue showing people assembling a batch of Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Autos. It was selling really well, Nikon made a couple of versions in order to update this lens throughout its production.

Here are its major variants. There are a couple of minor variants but I won’t mention them here since they’re insignificant. I’ll give a brief description in the next paragraph from left-to-right.

Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Auto (early): The earliest one has a lot in common with the Nikkor-S 5.8cm f/1.4 Auto in terms of construction. It doesn’t have screws on the bayonet mount, its focusing ring has external screws. A couple of the screws are situated differently compared to the later versions. The internal construction of this one is different from the later versions, the objective is secured differently and there are rings that are absent in the later models. I won’t mention them all here. It couldn’t be adjusted, its parts were made-to-fit so tolerances were precise. It has a amber-tint which made it nice for use with monochrome film. The distance scale is either in meters or feet but the later ones have both. The aperture ring has the older, fluted-pattern, it looks similar to the Nikkor-S 5.8cm f/1.4 Auto. Those with late serial numbers have the “scalloped” type aperture rings. Its iris is usually 6-bladed but later ones have the 7-sided ones.

Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Auto (mid): The version featured in this article. It’s the most common variant. It feels more-modern and you could at least adjust it for precise-focus. The distance scale now comes in both meters and feet. Its aperture ring has the the hill-and-dale pattern with deeper ribs unlike what you see in the older one which has a fine-pattern. It doesn’t have the bluish-tint. These have screws on the bayonet mount, the focusing ring screws are now hidden under the bezel, giving a clean-look. Some of these come with a factory Ai-ring. These are the cheapest, I got mine for around $10.00, it was sold as junk for-parts-only.

Nikkor-S.C 50mm f/1.4 Auto (last): The last version is multi-coated. These are nearly-identical to the previous version but you’re more-likely to find these with the factory Ai-ring. This is the best one if all you wanted is to take nice photos. These easy to identify because they have a black front barrel. These all have a 7-bladed iris and cross-type screws. These are the most expensive but still relatively cheap.

Do note that the differences that I outlined above are merely general and it isn’t unusual to find versions that have a mix of features between them. It’s exciting to collect these because these small and subtle differences.

The earlier ones have a 6-bladed iris which have a peculiar shape. Note that the coating has an amber hue.

Here’s a closer-look at the Nikkor-S.C 50mm f/1.4 Auto. The coating is bluish, the earlier ones have a deep-amber one. It’s a lot more-resistant to flare and ghosts which I will illustrate in the next slide. Note that it has a 7-sided iris.

How effective is the new coating used on the Nikkor-S.C 50mm f/1.4 Auto? It is certainly a lot better than the older, single-coated one specially when you are shooting against bright lights. See the next slide for a comparison.

The earliest version performs the worst in terms of flare and ghosting. The last one shows the best overall resistance.

The large rear element is exposed so handle this with care. Any damage will show up in your bokeh balls. Read my article on damaged lens artifacts and see how it could affect your photos.

The factory Ai-ring is essential when you wan to use it with a modern Nikon or else you won’t be able to mount it safely. This enables it to communicate with the camera and tells it what aperture it’s at. Without that, the Nikon F6 won’t be able to meter correctly, wouldn’t even be able mount it, too.

Learning about how your lens performs is key yo maximizing it. You’ll able to know its strengths and its weaknesses, this knowledge helps determine if you should use this for an assignment or just leave it for later.

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Vignetting is really high wide-open, this will certainly be obvious when you are shooting against an even-colored background. Even if you’re not, this is going to be a problem. Stopping it down to f/2 alleviates it but it’s still really dark at the far-corners of the frame. It improves considerably by f/2.8, your frame looks a lot clearer and only the extreme-corners will show a little bit of vignetting. You’ll only see traces of it by f/4 but it should be gone by f/5.6. I think you should shoot with at least f/2.8 if the situation calls for a bright or even-colored frame. There’s some barrel-type distortion that is observable, I don’t think it’s bad at all but this is more than what I’m comfortable with.

These were shot with the earliest version. While the the improved coating is a huge factor it’s too-similar to the mid-production variant so I’ll use this to illustrate what it could do at its worst.

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These were shot directly against the sun. The left one was shot wide-open to exaggerate the effect. We get terrible flares and ghosts as expected. The iris was stopped-down to f/8 on the photo on the right. Flaring is nearly-gone, it also exhibits more-defined ghosts in the form of polygonal-blobs. You’ll also get nice sun-stars with it. While it looks terrible wide-open, the one with the iris stopped-down looks rather nice and you could use this to your creative advantage if you want.

Wide-aperture lenses are sometimes judged by their bokeh quality, let’s see how this lens performs in this regard.

It’s really-sharp when stopped-down, it’s able to resolve the leaves well. It’s also worth noting that the foliage at the background looks nice. If this has a terrible bokeh character the branches at the back would look smeared. This is not the best lens when it comes to bokeh quality but it’s quite good.

Stopping the iris down to f/5.6 should reveal if it has terrible bokeh quality or not. It’s able to render a painterly-look, I like how it’s able to do this but I could also see some signs of smearing. It’s not bad but it’s something that is preventing it from performing much better.

Shooting it wide-open turns everything into a wash of colors. There are few instances where you’ll see clumpy-looking artifacts but it’s not bad at all.

Flare can help add a unique look in your photos, making them look dreamy. This photo illustrates the outlines of the discs better, it looks harsh here. It’s kind of distracting here in my opinion. Chromatic aberration can be seen in areas with overblown highlights, spherical aberration can be observed, too. I don’t mind having both in this case, they make the picture look unique.

It’s able to produce pin-sharp photos wide-open when you nailed the focus properly. The background looks nice, the clutter is gone as it dissolves into a blurry-mush. You’ll see some outlines in the discs but it’s not harsh at all.

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Here are more photos for you to observe. It’s quite pleasant and I like how it is able to deliver clean-looking bokeh. It’s certainly not mediocre for its time but it won’t be able to match later lenses in terms of giving a “clean-look”. I like it a lot to be honest as it makes the photos look more organic.

I shot the following from f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8 and f/4, we’ll see the most changes in these apertures. I also assume that people will want to shoot with it at these apertures, too.

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It’s quite sharp wide-open but the resolution is not there yet. Set it to f/2 and the center looks really sharp as resolution has improved considerably. You’ll get better contrast by f/2 as the frame appears clearer. Its center appears to be performing at near-peak resolution by f/2.8, it’s be able to resolve details quite well and the corners look a lot better, too. Stopping it down to f/4 will make the corners look a lot better but it won’t make the center any sharper. This is quite nice in my opinion as you’ll be able to get usable photos using wider apertures. Stopping it down further to get better corners and deeper depth-of-field is something that you should consider if the situation calls for it. It does change its character as you change the aperture. You’ll get surreal results with it at wider apertures but it could still retain some of it even by f/4 which is remarkable.

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Its ability to focus quite close makes it a versatile lens. It’s sharp wide-open as you can see in the cropped versions but things start to pick-up from f/2. I love how the center looks by f/2.8, this is a nice lens if you ask me.

It’s able to focus-down to 1m. The wooden owl’s eye is sharp, you’d think it was shot at f/2 but this was shot wide-open. The depth-of-field is shallow it’s able to isolate your subject really well.

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These were shot at f/2.8, you can see how sharp it is. I love its character, the subtleness of its rendering and tones. It’s what many call the “vintage-look”, something that people either love-or-hate.

Let’s now see some film photos. It’s good to see how a lens renders with film since it has a unique look that is difficult to replicate using a digital camera because of grain. Since this was originally designed to be shot with film, we should judge it with its intended medium. I used Fujifilm Industrial 100 and I had these scanned with a Fujiflm Frontier SP-3000 at my favorite lab.

I took this at f/4, I think. The depth-of-field is deeper and that will enable me to get more things in-focus. It’s very sharp at this aperture, which is saying a lot for a Nikkor that was made in 1962.

Another picture that was taken using smaller apertures, probably at f/5.6 or f/4. There’s a bit of barrel-type distortion that’s observable since I have lines that are parallel to the edges of the frame. It’s tolerable in this case, nothing terrible and you won’t even see it unless you looked for it.

Not sure if this was taken at f/5.6 but I’m sure that this wasn’t taken at faster apertures. I love how natural the look of the photos are, some people call it “outdated” but it’s the reason why many prefer to use vintage lenses today.

This was probably taken at f/2.8. Sharpness is nice and I don’t see chromatic aberration at the important parts of the scene where things are in-focus. We do see some of it in the wires. This level of chromatic aberration is tolerable for me but some people won’t be pleased.

Focusing can be difficult wide-open due to the shallow depth-of-field. Even tracking a slow pedestrian can be challenging. What I do is pre-focus on the part where I anticipate my subjects to be and click when they’re at the same plane. I missed my focus here, I should be shooting with a smaller aperture in order to get more things in-focus.

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Here’s the rest of the set. I’m liking the vintage-look that I get, I now see why some videographers like using it. This is certainly a lot of fun to shoot with specially with film. It’s difficult to simulate this look with a digital camera, it isn’t easy trying to mimic the organic-look that film grain gives.

These are great lenses in their time and you could own one for not a lot of money these days. You could buy one for as cheap as $10.00 if you’re lucky and they can go as high as $150.00 even for a nice, mint condition sample. I love these lenses, they provide a lot of value in terms of performance, they will also provide a lot of fun and creative potential. Be sure to buy one that has a factory Ai-ring so you could safely use them with modern Nikons. The early non-Ai ones are a lot cheaper but you won’t be able to use them safely with Nikons that don’t have an Ai-coupling tab that could be lifted-up. These are best paired with older manual Nikons. When looking for one be sure its rings all turn properly, the iris should be dry and snappy when actuated. It’s also important to check the rear element and make sure that there’s no sign of abuse like scratches or anything. I think everybody should own one, they are a lot of fun to shoot with and they could still perform beautifully under the hands of a skilled photographer.

Before We Begin:

If this is your first attempt at repairing a lens then I suggest that you check my previous posts regarding screws & drivers, grease and other things. Also read what I wrote about the tools that you’ll need to fix your Nikkors.

I suggest that you read these primers before you begin (for beginners):

• Essential tools
• Best practices 1
• Best practices 2
• Best practices 3
• Ai conversion
• Working with Helicoids

Reading these primers should lessen the chance of ruining your lens if you are a novice. Before opening up any lens, always look for other people who have done so in YouTube or the internet. Information is scarce, vague and scattered (that is why I started this) but you can still find some information if you search carefully.

I highly recommend that you read my working with helicoids post because this is very important and getting it wrong can ruin your day. If I can force you to read this, I would. It is that important!

For more advanced topics, you can read my fungus removal post as a start. This post has a lot of useful information and it will be beneficial for you to read this.

Disassembly (Lens Barrel):

The barrel isn’t difficult to dismantle as its of conventional design but there are a few things that you should be aware of and I’ll show them to you later in the coming sections. Like most lenses, we’ll extract the objective first so it won’t get damaged while we work on the barrel.

In case you have the early version, the Nikkor-S 5.8cm f/1.4 Auto is closer to it in terms of barrel construction. It’s similar, you can use it as a reference.

Do note that the lens shown here is the last, multi-coated version. It has the same construction as the common mid-production variety so you could use this for that version, too.

Carefully unscrew the bezel of the focusing ring. It may be tough to remove if it’s sealed so apply some alcohol to its threads to make it easier. A rubber tool is necessary for additional grip.

Locate and extract this set screw.

Unscrew the front barrel, it shouldn’t be difficult to remove at all.

Carefully remove the objective from the barrel and store it in a safe place so it won’t get damaged.

Extract these but leave one of them intact, it’s the one at the 12:00 mark. It’s not safe to remove it as you’ll damage the stop-down lever’s spring. Look at the inside of the barrel so you’ll know which screw that is.

Many people strip these by not using the correct type of drivers. In order to avoid that, read my article on how to remove bayonet screws. Follow what is written there and you should be fine.

Remove the bayonet mount once the screws are gone. You can see how the end of that screw is attached to the spring in this photo. Extracting it isn’t a good idea as you’ll damage the spring or snap the screw.

Before you can remove the aperture ring you must extract this first. This is a pin that couples the aperture ring to its fork inside the barrel.

Once the screw is gone you can safely remove the aperture ring.

Carefully extract these and make sure that your drivers fit perfectly. If they are larger you’ll damage the surrounding metal, a smaller one will strip the slots.

The sleeve can now be safely removed.

Carefully extract these to remove the focusing ring. These are usually sealed with cement, soften the seals with solvent before you extract them. You can adjust the distance scale by loosening these and turning the focusing ring.

Carefully remove the focusing ring.

Extract these to remove the helicoid key. It keeps the helicoids synced so it’s able to extend-or-retract when you turn the central one. This is also a good time to take notes and photos so you’ll know how the helicoids should align and operate. I usually make small scratches at this point.

Carefully remove the key and don’t forget to note its position so you’ll know how to put it back later properly.

Separate the central helicoid from the outer one. Don’t forget to note where they parted since this is also the place where they should mesh. Forgetting it will result in plenty of wasted time guessing where these should mate. Read my article on how to work with helicoids so you’ll know how to do it right.

The helicoid stop prevents the helicoids from turning beyond their range. It has to go so you could separate the helicoids further.

Heat the screws well before extracting them. The stop itself is always sealed with cement so it can be difficult to remove. Don’t forget to note which side should be facing the top so you’ll know how to put this back later.

Separate the inner helicoid from the central one, don’t forget to note where they parted.

The adjuster ring is usually sealed and can be difficult to remove safely. The best way to work on it is to pickle this assembly in an alcohol bath for a few hours, maybe overnight. Before you unscrew it, make sure that you make a few marks to serve as keys so you’ll know how to align it later. Loosen these and then unscrew the adjuster ring carefully. The threads are thin, they can be easily cross-threaded.

Clean these properly since grease usually collect underneath them. You can adjust your lens’ focus by turning the adjuster ring.

Carefully extract the brass ring to remove the aperture fork and its ring.

Remove the aperture fork and its ring, clean this very well.

Clean everything well, do not any leave residue. Scrub the helicoids using a stiff-bristled brush and strong detergent. Soaking them in an alcohol bath is helpful in softening any hardened gunk. Polish them threads with cloth and dry them carefully. Use a grease that is not too-light so it will turn smoothly, a grease that’s too-thick will make this difficult to turn. A thin film is all you will ever need, excessive grease will create a mess, the oil will also migrate towards the iris which creates an even bigger problem.

Disassembly (Objective):

The objective is simple to service if you have the right tools. Only clean what you need, don’t open anything if it works properly. The iris mechanism was left alone since it’s still clean. If you need to service yours read my article of the Nikkor-S 5.8cm f/1.4 Auto since they’re similar.

The rear optical assembly can be easily accessed.

You can further dismantle this by unscrewing the rear cover to clean what’s inside of it.

The front optical assembly can be unscrewed from the objective’s housing.

The collar is sealed with lacquer, apply a small amount of alcohol to soften the seal before you unscrew it.

You could dismantle everything further from here on. If a group is glued to its collar or housing, leave that alone and don’t separate them.

Clean the glass very well. If your lens has fungus, read my article on how to remove lens fungus. Don’t use the solution at full-strength, you’ll damage the coating in no-time, thin it with distilled water. Avoid soaking any cemented groups into the solution for a long time, just dip it and remove it as soon as you could and wipe the glass well so it won’t damage the optical cement.

Conclusion:

I have serviced many of these throughout the years so I’m familiar with it. I don’t even take notes but that’s just me. It took me about 2 hours to clean it, maybe a few more if it’s filthy. Despite being boring to service it’s always an interesting chance to document the minor internal differences within each lens that I dismantle.

This is an easy lens to service but it’s not something that a beginner should be tackling as their first-attempt. It still requires specialized tools and skills in order to service it correctly. If yours needs repair, send it to a repairman and make sure that he is reputable.

Before you put everything back, leave the focusing ring so you could adjust its focus. Once you’re satisfied with your results, adjust the distance scale. I have written an article about adjusting a lens’ focus, read that to know how it’s done in a DIY setting. Seal the screws with a small drop of nail polish to prevent the screws from loosening.

Thank you very much for following my work. If you enjoyed this article, do share it with your friends, this site earns $0.30 a day from views alone. You and your friends can help spread the word about this site. Downloading my content won’t help anybody. You can also support my work, it helps me pay for hosting and maintenance. You’re also helping me purchase, process and scan film. This site promotes the use of film so it’s all for a good cause. Come back again for more articles and see you again next time. Ric.

Help Support this Blog:

Maintaining this blog requires money to operate. If you think that this site has helped you or you want to show your support by helping with the site’s upkeep, you can make a small donation to my paypal.com (richardHaw888@gmail.com). Money is not my prime motivation for this blog and I believe that I have enough to run this but you can help me make this site (and the companion facebook page) grow.

Helping support this site will ensure that this will be kept going as long as I have the time and energy for this. I would appreciate it if you just leave out your name or details like your country’s name or other information so that the donations will totally be anonymous. This is a labor of love and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can. Ric.