Repair: Nikon 70-210mm f/4 Series-E

30 Oct 2020 4 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! In recent years, youngsters have discovered “City-Pop”, It is an obscure genre of music from 1980s Japan and its revival owes much to Takeuchi Mariya and her song “Plastic Love” which has been everywhere in the internet. It’s nice that young people are finding value in what we had in our younger days. They could learn a lot from the experience and take a lot of inspiration from what the songs of yesteryears. Speaking of “Plastic Love” and the 1980s, I will show you something made of plastic that you will love. It was made in the 1980s and proving quite popular with many new young photographers these days the last time I checked several years ago. What is this lens? Stay with me and find out more about it.

Introduction:

The Nikon 70-210mm f/4 Series-E was sold from 1981-1985 to compliment its other siblings in the Series-E line which were made to be sold with the little Nikon EM. This line of lenses were made with budget and weight in mind so they could be sold to those who were just starting in the craft, students and women. The latter statement is controversial today but 4 decades ago it was not considered to be something that was done in bad taste. Nikons and their lenses had the reputation of being durable, heavy, precise, expensive and a bit unfriendly for beginners since they were made for professionals. People who wanted a fun, simple system had to look elsewhere so Nikon made this big decision to “dumb-down” their products for the masses. These lenses do not even carry the tradename “Nikkor” for that exact reason. This lens is an oddity since all Series-E lenses were made to be compact but this one is just as big as its Nikkor counterparts, I guess there’s not much you could do if it’s physics that’s involved.

Despite its cheap origins it’s a good fit with Nikon’s flagship cameras. This is a long lens but it balances quite well with most cameras, even ones that are bigger. Smaller cameras like the Nikon EM that it was made to partner with may feel awkward with it unless you use it with its special motor-drive just to prevent the setup from being too front-heavy.

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Repair: Nikon D3 (Foggy LCD)

29 Oct 2020 15 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I have been sleeping a lot better these days since I gave my resignation letter. I have been dreaming of things that could have been such as my high-school sweethearts. I felt like a teenager again but when it is time to wake up I am reminded that the women I just dreamt of were all married like me and they now look like Mama Fratella in Facebook! Today, I am going to show you a dream of mine that did come true, unlike the girls I dreamt of, it’s still just as pretty as the day I set my eyes on it in 2007.

Introduction:

The Nikon D3 was introduced in 2007, it is Nikon’s first full-frame DSLR and it created a big wave with its then-amazing image quality. It was considered to be the best that Japan could offer in terms of high-ISO performance and it challenged the status-quo of the time which was to go for higher-MP count. I remembered how much of an impact it created, suddenly, Canon is not the only company that has a professional-grade full-frame DSLR. Not only that, I also remembered how many professionals were talking about going back to Nikon just because of how well it performed. It was an exciting time. It was all thanks to the hard work of the engineers at Nikon. That was in 2007 and it’s almost 2021 now so how does it compare to today’s cameras?

This is a masterpiece, it’s certainly one of the most important cameras to be ever sold. I said that because the trend back then was to go for high-tech at the cost of other things that actually matter such as good dynamic range. It challenged that trend, mostly set by Canon by being both high-tech and also being able to give files that still hold pretty well to today’s standard. It has a great image processor, something that I always go back to even today.

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Repair: Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 Auto

24 Oct 2020 5 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I had to quit my job since it does not bring me happiness or satisfaction anymore. The situations and difficult people I had to endure wore me down as it’s unprofessional and toxic. This means that me and my family will have less food to eat for the moment but I also see this as a good chance to start anew since other opportunities open-up and new challenges will enable me to grow more. This and the prospect of making new friends are what’s keeping me optimistic about the future. While we’re on the topic of new beginnings, let’s talk about a lens that signaled a new beginning for Nikon, at least for the F-mount.

Introduction:

The Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 Auto is Nikon’s first 85mm lens for the F-mount. It debuted in 1964 and it took Nikon roughly 15 years to come up with another lens of this class, why it took that long is anybody’s guess. It’s probably due to a couple things, one of those was the unfamiliarity of designing lenses for SLR cameras wherein adequate clearance has to be obtained in order for its rear not to obstruct the flapping mirror’s movement. Whatever the reasons are, this lens is surely significant since the last Nikkor of its class is the older Nikkor-P•C 8.5cm f/2 which was made for rangefinder-coupled cameras. It’s release meant that Nikon F users could finally enjoy shooting with an 85mm lens again for portraiture and other things.

This is the earlier version wherein the information is engraved on the bezel and the walls of the front barrel is plain. Later ones have the engravings at the walls instead of the bezel. Light could reflect from the white paint and it could cause some unwanted artifacts in the photos at extreme cases. I don’t know how much of an impact that could cause but it does make sense. This is a bit rare and it took me a few years to get one that’s cheap. Many of them are in terrible state so I am lucky to get one that’s worth restoring.

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Zoom-Nikkor 50-135mm f/3.5 Ai-S

14 Oct 2020 4 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! Do you remember the B-52s? They sang some of the most unusual songs ever written such as “Rock Lobster“, which is basically just a collection of nonsense. Nothing made sense but I liked the song a lot. That’s just an odd song but people seemed to enjoy it. Odd things make for plenty of fun since they’re a break from the usual pattern. I think that modern pop could learn a lot from this so it could break-off from the monotony of what’s making it sound boring. Today, I am going to show you an odd lens, this is a lens that’s a one-off for Nikon and they never made anything like it again.

Introduction:

The Zoom-Nikkor 50-135mm f/3.5 Ai-S was sold from 1982 up to 1984, a short production run by any standard for a mass-produced lens. This was due to a lot of factors and one of them was the big shift towards autofocus back in its day. Despite this, it proved to be quite a nice lens for its time. It’s what I call a “compromise zoom”, a lens that doesn’t quite excel in anything but it has a lot of what’s important in a zoom and does everything pretty-acceptable. It’s quite a good lens for its class, too. It has a constant maximum aperture and that alone made it worth mentioning as one of the better zooms of its time. I have used many zooms from the era and most of them were so-so at best or unusable at worst.

I got the lens for a cheap price since it was sold as junk. Nobody wanted this because of the fungus, the Nikon FE2 was equally dirty so the whole setup is cheap. It’s quite heavy, certainly not your usual plastic lens but it balances quite well with most Nikons except for the smaller, plastic ones.

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