Repair: Zoom-Nikkor 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 Ai-S

19 Jul 2020 2 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I went to the $1 shop to buy some supplies. It’s incredible what you could buy for just $1, it’s surely helpful for my savings. What can you buy for $1? Not much, a burger from McDonald’s, perhaps? Cigarettes? I don’t think so, too. Well, maybe a loaf of cheap bread? How about a lens? Yes, a lens. I was lucky enough to find one for $1! It was sold as junk and the state was utterly poor so it was sold for just that much. I didn’t even have a second thought and I just caught it as soon as it was placed in the basket by the shop owner. Today, I will share with you my lucky find and I will show you what makes it even more special.

Introduction:

The Zoom-Nikkor 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 Ai-S was introduced in 1983. It’s one of the new designs from Nikon to accompany their then-new flagship camera, the Nikon F3. Designing this was difficult since it had to use 52mm filters, it was important since it was conceived to be a lens for daily use. It had to be compact, too. Through great hardships, the designers eventually produced a lens that would define a new class of Zoom-Nikkors.

This is a lovely, little lens. It’s not as compact as a prime lens but for a zoom it is quite small specially considering its focal-range. It’s the first Nikkor for this genre, a general-purpose zoom-lens with a focal-range that’s more-than double, most of these lenses have the now-familiar variable-aperture. It was important to have a fixed-aperture for zooms back then, it affects metering but that’s not such a big deal in the 1980s when TTL metering became more reliable. Of course, professional lenses will mostly have a fixed-aperture but most won’t mind this at all, the most important thing is that it zooms and it takes decent photos.

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Repair: Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 Ai-P

12 Jul 2020 1 Comment

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

Hello, everybody! I was looking at reviews of The Ten Commandments. This movie is one of my favorites, it’s the original movie that will make you pee at the seat because it’s too long! What many don’t realize is that this movie is a remake, a re-imagination of an earlier film with the same title. It was so good that people forgot about the original movie. This is rare because many remakes these days pale in comparison to the originals like Ghostbusters. It is such an entertaining film that I never get tired of watching it. Since we’re talking about remakes, I’ll show you a lens that’s a re-imagination of an old design, a modern remake of a real classic, and it’s better in many ways.

Introduction:

The Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 Ai-P is a modern take on a classic lens design. It was sold from 2001-2006 to compliment the Nikon FM3A. When this debuted, it kind of confused and excited the market since both it and the Nikon FM3A are re-imagination of old, manual equipment. People were used to seeing a new, modern design coming out each month at that time, but this? It has an appeal that and many people fell-in-love with this combo that they will not part with their setup. This was making a big statement, film isn’t dead. This was a time when people were selling all of their film cameras to buy digital cameras. Could it get any bolder? Hats-off to Nikon and the engineers!

It’s a really tiny lens, so-tiny that it can be annoying to use at times. Cameras with large, over-hanging prisms can be problematic since it can obstruct the view and you can’t see the aperture scale well. You can also get confused, its rings are so-thin and spaced closely-together you can accidentally turn any of them. These are sacrifices that we all have to make just so we can use the tiniest F-mount Nikkor.

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Repair: Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 Ai-S

04 Jul 2020 3 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I was watching some old basketball matches and I saw a familiar face, Muggsy Bogues. He’s tiny by NBA standards, certainly not the typical player in this league. I always admired him since he held his own in a game dominated by giants. He showed determination and drive, that was his biggest asset and that made him very entertaining to watch. There were many people who were surprised back then at his performance and he was and still is an inspiration for a lot of people who play ball. Today, I will show you a lens that’s tiny but it packs a huge punch. It’s unassuming and people poo-poo’d it on the internet but I’ll demonstrate just how nice it is specially considering its humble origins as a “kit-lens”.

Introduction:

The Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 Ai-S was made from 1984-2005. It’s what Nikon had to counter what its competitors were making at the time. It was a time when cheap, compact and competitive zoom-lenses were replacing the normal 50mm prime lens as part of a beginner’s kit. They have to be cheap, small and good in order to attract would-be photographers. Consider these as entry-level drugs to photography the same way as 18-55mm zooms were for photographers from the mid-2000s up to this day.

This is a really cheap-looking Nikkor, even the grip is plastic. Despite that, it can handle a lot of abuse as you can see from my sample. I got this for a low price because of its condition. I wouldn’t bother with it if it costs more. This is one of the bottom-shelf Nikkors that were made for the budget-conscious. Many people confuse this with the Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.5-4.8 Ai-S, the names sound similar and they look nearly-identical, too. The latter is what many people use to reference with this lens, they may have been confused, too. And that also contributes to this lens’ bad reputation.

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