Repair: Zoom-Nikkor 28-50mm f/3.5 Ai-S

28 Feb 2020 3 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! The Covid-19 outbreak is becoming a serious problem, it’s disrupting everything here and everybody’s lives are affected by it. It’s hard to find masks and even toilet paper in recent weeks. This is something that I have never seen since SARS. I hope that people will find a cure for this, it’s a huge problem and it will only continue to spread if not checked. We should never lose hope because doing so is accepting failure. This blog is all about hope as we restore old, broken equipment. Today, I’ll show you something that I found at the junk box. The previous guy who worked on this lost hope in this lens but I won’t give-up on this because I am all about fixing Nikkors.

Introduction:

The Zoom-Nikkor 28-50mm f/3.5 Ai-S is a unique lens. It’s unique because of its compact dimensions and it has a fixed-aperture when zooms at that time normally have variable-apertures unless you opt to buy the expensive ones that were made for professionals and they’re never as compact as this. This is such a lovely lens but it was only made for 2 years after it debuted in the mid-1980s, which is a shame because it’s such a practical little lens. This is a great partner for the Nikon F3 and some other smaller Nikons.

The appeal of using this lens is it’s compact and light. With a fixed-aperture, it was aimed at the advanced amateur and professional. Professional-grade Nikkors are usually fixed-aperture lenses with a decent speed of no-slower then f/3.5. This also has a practical zoom-range of 28-50mm, making it more useful for the working photographer. It’s a “pumper-zoom” wherein you’re treated with a comfortable piston-action focusing and zoom ring in one unit for easy and quick focusing and framing changes. I prefer this type of setup over the usual 2-ring option that has become normal these days.

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Review: Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Millennium

23 Feb 2020 8 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I went to a hobby shop this afternoon and I found some plastic models on sale that were reissues of classic kits from many decades ago. The original models were considered vintage and valuable when I was still active and working as a scale modeler several decades back. These ones are new, made with new molds and technology and they have new parts or fittings to go with them. They don’t make the original kits any cheaper but it is nice to be able to build the classics without having to actually build one if you get what I mean. Reissues serve a purpose and they’re always welcome sight to every hobbyist who can’t afford the original. Today, we are going to talk about a reissue of a legendary Nikkor, a lens so legendary that the older design even rivals what’s for sale today from any manufacturer but since I don’t have the resource to buy the original lens I’m going to review the new reissue instead.

Introduction:

The Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Millennium edition is a reissue of the famous, rare, and exquisite Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 “Olympic Edition”. The latter lens gained that nickname because it was released around the same time as the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. It’s a famed lens because it’s the best 50/1.4 from Nikon, it remained to be so until this day depending on who you ask. This lens shares the same as the Nikkor-S•C 5cm f/1.4, both were made for the older Nikon S-mount for rangefinder cameras but the “Olympic Nikkor” was sold very late into the rangefinder Nikon era, long after it went obsolete with because of the revolutionary Nikon F. Despite the similar-sounding name, the lens isn’t a variant of the the Nikkor-S•C 5cm f/1.4, it’s a completely-different lens. It’s a new lens made using 1964 manufacturing techniques compared to the old one which was from the early 1950s.

The Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 Millennium is beautiful. It’s one of the best-looking rangefinder lens from Nikon. The design is elegant as it is practical, there is nothing that will get in your way. The aperture ring feels precise and there’s no play in any of its parts. Compared to the “Olympic Nikkor”, this lens uses better coatings and the glass was made using modern materials. I assume it had its optical formula tweaked a bit but it remained the same as the older one in nearly all aspects.

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Repair: Zoom-Nikkor 28-85 f/3.5-4.5 Ai-S

02 Feb 2020 4 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I love underdogs. In fact, I always cheer for them in every sport. Underdogs aren’t expected to win but they usually do and even if the other side won they usually exhibit admirable traits that you could say that they have won the game in the hearts of everyone watching the game. They are usually held in great esteem by both sides due to this trait, you can even say that they are crowd favorites. Today, we’ll talk about such an underdog, a lens that many people don’t expect to perform well just because it’s an old, variable-aperture zoom but it does its job, it does it better than expected. It’s also cheap these days and that adds to its appeal.

Introduction:

The Zoom-Nikkor 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 Ai-S debuted in 1985 but it was still for sale new up until 2005, 20 years after it was unveiled. It’s a practical lens, it has a useful focal range and a useful gimmick wherein it can extend itself at 28mm, giving it the ability to focus even closer, like having a built-in macro extension ring. The maximum speed is merely f/3.5 at 28mm and f/4.5 at the 85mm end. While a 28mm f/3.5 lens is acceptable, an 85mm f/4.5 lens can be a bit awkward to use. This limits its usefulness at the long-end but this is an industry-standard these days for cheap zooms.

Unlike many Zoom-Nikkors of its time this one isn’t a “pumper-zoom”, it has a proper zoom ring and a separate focusing ring like most modern zooms. It also has a 3rd ring near the aperture ring that enable you to extend it just a bit more at 28mm so you can take close-ups. There are 2 more lines near its centerline indicating the centerlines for infrared photography. There are 2 dots indicating the real aperture of the lens at either end of the focal range, green for 28mm and orange for 85mm. I don’t like variable-aperture zooms, it makes manual exposure a bit more difficult since you have to factor-in its real aperture when taking an exposure.

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