Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! I was watching “Blazing Saddles“, and I realized that the dialog Bart told Lili is gone! It went like: “I hate to disappoint you, ma’am, but you’re sucking on my arm…“, or something like that. It is in the scene where she unzipped Bart, eager to learn about how Bart’s people are “gifted”. Maybe that joke is too “raw” for modern taste, but for us who were not born recently, we don’t give a damn. I do not care for other men’s anatomy, as the character Lili Von Schtupp was with Bart’s, but I have something that will make you curious. And just like the common notion, this thing is just as long, black and thick, when you hold this in your hand, you will surely say: “It’s twue! it’s twue!“.

Introduction:

The Cine-Nikkor 100mm f/2.8 is an oddity in its family, it’s easily the longest one. Nobody knows when it was introduced, but I can guess that it was sold sometime around the mid-60s or the early-70’s, and was probably sold until the 1980s. There’s no data about when they were on the market, but just like most, if not all Cine-Nikkors, this wasn’t sold in your usual camera shop. I was told that these can only be bought from special retailers, which were sold in low-volume. Anyway, Nikon had to make this lens because of the need to have a long, telephoto in C-mount.

This is the longest of all C-mount Nikkors, it has an impressive barrel that handles quite well. It also has an informative depth-of-field scale, which I do not find all that useful. It is the only thing you will have when you shoot with a 16mm camera because you won’t be able to view through-the-lens. There is a finder for framing but that separate accessory won’t help you focus at all.