Repair: 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2

31 Aug 2025 4 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! Have you ever eaten a “Dubai Chocolate“? They are sold as luxury sweets, which makes them expensive and rare for a time. Influencers and marketing have sold it as a “Louis Vuitton” of candies! I have never seen sweets go for that much, it’s ridiculous! I’ve eaten a few myself but I couldn’t get why it is so expensive, especially considering that ingredients are mostly cheap like sesame paste (mostly). It felt like a scam in many ways, pretty much like Leicas in the past few decades. It’s all just to make a statement or for laundering money. Today, I’ll show you something of a scam but it’s from Nikon this time. You will also know why I made that statement and I am sure many people will agree with me and back me up.

Introduction:

The 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 was sold from 2013 and was produced up until the Nikon 1 system’s death. It’s a very expensive lens for that time (and even today), it was marketed as the pinnacle of the system like the Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct is for the Nikon Z is today. It boasts impressive stats, engineering, and style. Many people lusted for it because of its very bright f/1.2 maximum aperture. It will surely compensate for “Little Peter“, enabling one to magically take amazing photos while using it. To me, it’s merely vanity and a flex just to show people that the system can also be for serious photographers. During its time there were lots of people discrediting the Nikon 1 system as being cheap, and for amateurs. They were not wrong for saying that, but they weren’t exactly correct, too. Unfortunately, what sealed the system’s reputation isn’t anything I’ve mentioned, it has more to do with the stupid choices the engineers took to save money. It’s going to be a very expensive mistake for Nikon since many were sent back for servicing. Customers were obviously upset, like I am today. I’m just sick and tired of repairing cheap 1 Nikkors at this point. Doing a lot of replacements for the fucking plastic gear can be tiring.

Unlike all of the 1 Nikkor lenses that we have feature to this point, the 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 sports a metal shell. That makes it feel more like a “premium” product which makes it stand out from the rest. It also has a real focusing ring that actually does something, not the fake ones that the other1 Nikkors primes have. I seldom use it because it doesn’t feel right as it’s electronic. It has no helicoid from what I can see. It’s very heavy, even heavier than many similarly sized F-mount Nikkors despite having a smallish objective (but it’s still large for 1 Nikkor!). This made it require a huge 52mm filter size which is good because I have lots of them around, plus the accessories!

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Repair: Cine-Nikkor 25mm f/1.2

13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment

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

Hello, everybody! Do you know the song “Baby Shark“? It’s an annoying song from a few years ago and I hated it because it’s so monotonous and people kept on singing that nonsense. It’s a form of brain-rot, a phenomenon that happened recently thanks to the prevalence of ultrashort media. These things are best avoided at all cost especially by young children whose minds are in development. There’s no educational value in these at all. Unfortunately, I just have the antidote for it and it’s called – “Baby Noct“. This is what it sounds like – a tiny Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 Ai-S. I made that connection because it somehow reminds me of the amazing Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 Ai-S with its very bright maximum aperture, together with the somewhat close field-of-view it’s easy to think of it that way. Please read the article so you will know more about this amazing and tiny masterpiece.

Introduction:

The Cine-Nikkor 25mm f/1.2 is the fastest of all Cine-Nikkors made in any mount. If you read my article on the special Nikon Museum exhibit for Cine-Nikkors, you’ll see more information there which mentions that it was made in 1956 to replace an older Cine-Nikkor 26mm f/1.2 from the previous year which didn’t meet the required standards of the company, that lens may have just been a prototype while this got produced. It’s unknown how many of these were made but it’s certainly not a lot. Nobody even knows when the last one came out from the factory either, there’s not a lot of information about this little gem anywhere apart from what you see in my Nikon Museum exhibit for Cine-Nikkors article.

It has a really wide barrel for its size. It’s mainly made up of brass and aluminum alloy but isn’t heavy at all considering its size. It looks and feels like many D-Mount Cine-Nikkors of the time so people mistake it for something else. Despite its size, the engravings are easy to read. Ergonomically, it’s tricky to operate since this is so tiny. There will be instances when you would accidentally turn the wrong ring when operating it.

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Repair: New-Nikkor 18mm f/4

02 Aug 2025 Leave a comment

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

Hello, everybody! Do you know that the Soviets had some of the most ambitious space programs? There is something called the Venera program which sent unmanned probes to the planet Venus. It’s probably the most ambitious and difficult feat man has ever attempted in space exploration because Venus has a very hostile environment that will easily crush and melt everything that went past its atmosphere. There are some people who will claim that it has the harshest environment in the solar system. The probes that the Soviets sent looked very unique, they are true masterpieces of engineering and science. Some of them have large discs that look like very wide photos, this is the most distinctive feature of the probes. I know a lens in my collection that looks like that. Like the Venera probes, it’s also an optical masterpiece in its time and it’s regarded by some as a high point in optical engineering. Read this article to know what it is.

Introduction:

The New-Nikkor 18mm f/4 was produced from 1974 to 1977, it was replaced by the Nikkor 18mm f/4 Ai, a similar lens with a few insignificant external differences. At that point it’s the widest Nikkor that allows any filter attachments in the front and is the most compact of all the ultrawide Nikkors. It sold well so it had a moderate run together with its successor and it was replaced by the Nikkor 18mm f3.5 Ai-S in 1982. It’s a popular lens so it has somewhat of a following despite its flaws such as not being sharp at the extremities, a susceptibility to internal reflections, and displaying a complex distortion profile. We shall examine how it really performs in this article to settle things once and for all.

The barrel is robust and typical of many Ai/K Nikkors when it comes to build quality. No compromises were made and it definitely feels like a premium product. The focusing ring has a short throw, typical of many wide lenses of this type and period. It is not a big deal because the focusing scale is easy to read and we usually use the scale instead of the viewfinder to determine what’s focused in the photo when it comes to shooting with wide manual lenses.

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