Repair: New-Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 (Early Ai)

02 Jun 2019 7 Comments

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

Hello, everybody! I was hungry for some Taiwanese food so I went looking but I found that most of them were ran by the mainland Chinese people and there was nothing Taiwanese about them apart from what’s written in the sign. This is unacceptable, I hope that this practice ends because it’s unfair to the peaceful Taiwanese people. If you do not know any better then you’ll get the wrong impression about the Taiwanese because the people running these shops are mainland Chinese. Speaking of being confused, we will talk about a confusing subject today in Nikkor land but this time, you will get an excellent lens whichever one you end up and unlike the example that I just gave, it is not some shoddy knock-off trying to deceive people but it is just Nikon being lazy and will show you why I said that and how you will know which version you’re looking at.

Introduction:

We are going to showcase the New-Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 lens today, a lens that is usually mistaken for its successor, the Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 Ai since they’re almost identical apart from some insignificant details. This lens replaced the beloved Nikkor-S 35mm f/2.8 Auto in 1974 and it’s a total re-design from the optics to the barrel. From the old 7-element design it now sports a new 6-elements-in-6-groups design and a new barrel that’s more in-line with the New-Nikkor line of lenses. The successor to this lens (Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 Ai) is essentially the same lens with an Ai-ring and a slightly-different rubber grip pattern. To the untrained eye, they look identical specially if the New-Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 sports a factory Ai-ring upgrade. The parts can mostly be interchangeable as far as I remember so I lumped the two lenses into one. Why did Nikon do this? To save money, because in just a few more years the later Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 Ai was sold and that’s what I believe is what Nikon really wanted to sell as the Ai version but it probably didn’t make it in time, that’s just my theory but it’s very likely to be the case.

IMG_0612It’s a wonderful little lens that not a lot of people know about but the few who do know it for a special reason which I’ll mention several times in this article so pay attention. Some people poo-poo this lens but it’s a great little lens if you know how to use it. More

Repair: Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Ai-S

15 Feb 2016 29 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Hello, everybody! Smart phones are getting bigger these days. It used to be opposite, I remember how phone brands were trying to make smaller and smaller phones each release. I sometimes think that it may be time for the smart phones to get smaller for portability. The downside is it will be hard to read my blog so it may be better to leave them the way they are. There’s something that we can miniaturize without losing any functionality. Wrist watches, wallets, etc. Today, I’m going to show you one of those things that gets better as it gets smaller. It’s not my favorite but I certainly like it.

Introduction:

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Ai-S has a big following because it is Nikon’s smallest 50mm lens. It was made from 1980 to 2005, it had a long production run. It’s preceded by the short-lived Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Ai-S (long-nose). If I recall, its optical formula is different and that allowed it to be more-compact. Despite being small it could perform quite well so it soon became a favorite of many photographers.

IMG_0882

I remember that you could still buy these brand-new some 12 years ago. Its price has remained steady since there’s always a demand for it. Despite the hype and novelty, I don’t think of it as extraordinary apart from the fact that it’s small. It’s dwarfed by the Nikon D4 which can make handling awkward as you can see in this photo.

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