Repair: AF-Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8

22 May 2018 4 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! We had some Japanese-style steak tonight for dinner. It’s a fusion dish, a new take on a classic by adding some elements of Japanese cooking to make it more interesting and familiar to local palates. While it is arguably delicious, this is still a new thing. I estimate that it is probably only less than 2 decades old. While that was delicious, it was built on established cooking techniques and dishes, I feel that there’s still a lot of room for improvement. While we’re on the topic of fusion and improvement, I’d like to introduce to you an interesting lens, it’s an early attempt to fuse 2 paradigms. While it’s a good start, it still has lots of room for improvement but the lens had plenty of potential and that’s what’s most important if you ask me.

Introduction:

Today, we are going to talk about the AF-Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8. This lens is not known by a lot of people due to its rarity. It’s only made a few years before it was replaced by a superior design. This is one of the original lineup of AF-Nikkors introduced in the mid-1980s for their new AF cameras like the Nikon F4, these gained an underserved reputation amongst hardcore Nikkor fans due to the use of plastics. Nikon at that period in time was experimenting with AF lens designs so as a result, many of these suffer from awkward handling characteristics which annoyed those who are used to using classic Nikkors.

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The AF-Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 is a rather boring-looking lens. It looks like a tea cup or a salve pot depending on who you ask. But appearances can be deceiving, this lens is a great performer throughout its range until you reach f/11-f/16 where diffraction begins show. This lens can also go to a maximum reproduction ratio of 1:1 without the use of any accessory, it’s the first lens in the 55mm Micro-Nikkor line that’s able to do this natively since the Micro-Nikkor 5.5cm f/3.5 from 1961. It achieves this feat by using a long-telescoping set of barrels to extend the lens to about twice its length. If it all sounds familiar to you that’s because this is the predecessor of the amazing and still in-production AF-Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D. While both lenses feel similar, they’re different mechanically and optically. Both can extend their barrels using 2 totally different methods.

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Repair: Nikkor-H 300mm f4.5 Auto

13 May 2018 6 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! Hope you are fine, I had a painful back yesterday because I slept in the wrong position. Back pain has always been a problem of mine for years and it comes back occasionally. It’s probably due to the nature of my job where I am required to sit for long hours at work. Repairing lenses and cameras isn’t much help too because I am spending a couple of hours a night sitting with a bad posture. Speaking of back pain, I’ll show you guys a lens that will certainly make your back ache if you are carrying one for too long and that’s the reason why I seldom use this lens.

Introduction:

We are going to talk about one of Nikon’s earlier telephoto lenses and it’s no other than the Nikkor-H 300mm f/4.5 Auto! This lens succeeded the Nikkor-P 300mm f/4.5 Auto. They are nearly-identical to each other except the older one only has five elements. It was a unique lens when the Nikkor-P 300mm f/4.5 Auto was released in time for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. It was then updated with an additional element in 1969 but its design remained nearly-identical. In fact, it can be hard to tell the difference when you have the two together in a picture. I don’t have the earlier one but people claim that it’s a decent and well-balanced lens even wide-open. This lens is supposed to be the improved version but I cannot do any tests to back it up and my copy of this lens suffered from terrible damage in the rear element which seems to be somewhat common with this lens for some reason.

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This is a big lens and it can get longer when you extend the built-in hood. It balances well with my Nikon D750, I can imagine that it can be even better with a bigger camera like the Nikon D4. It’s not something that you’ll want to use today for sports and wildlife or in situations where you’ll need very fast AF performance and super-sharp images but it can be an enjoyable lens to use when you’re just playing around.

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Repair: Micro-Nikkor-P.C 55mm f/3.5 Auto

02 May 2018 7 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! Today is the start of my 4-day weekend! I’ll have enough time for my recreation and self-healing. As you know, I’m busier now at my new studio, finding time to do what I love can be very difficult. I often find myself sleeping really late and it’s beginning to take a toll on my health. It’s great that I can recharge myself after all the work in the past few months at work and at home. Speaking of refreshes, we’ll be talking about something great that came out even better after being “refreshed”. This will be a very good example of how a good design can be pushed even further.

Introduction:

Today, we will be looking at the Micro-Nikkor-P.C 55mm f/3.5 Auto! This isn’t just a cosmetic upgrade of the Micro-Nikkor-P 55mm f/3.5 Auto which came before it as many people would tend to believe but this lens’ optics has been tweaked a bit. Apart from the newer coatings (hence, the “C”), this lens was revised a bit so it can render objects further into the frame sharper. Nikon did this thinking that not many people are using this lens for close-up work. While that may be true statistically, people buy these things because of their performance for close-up work. It turned-off many but to be frank, I did not find this lens to be any-less sharp than the previous one. In what I do which is shooting bugs and sometimes slides, they’re really as sharp as you can get them to be from f/5.6 to f/8.

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The Micro-Nikkor-P.C 55mm f/3.5 Auto is a beautifully-built lens. This lens is a little gem for people who love to shoot small objects and it also serves as a great walk-around lens due to the 55mm focal length. The new rubber ring is a welcome update to some but I like the feel of metal focusing rings more to be honest but that’s just me because I prefer durable things.

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