Nikkor 24mm f/2.0 AIS for UV: No

[Andrea B.]

A quick snapshot in my back yard followed by a Raw Digger analysis immediately shows that this nice old Nikon AIS 24/2.0 is not suitable for reflected Ultraviolet photography. (The lens is also not quite up to the 47MP of the S1R, but that is a story for another day.)

 

Reason: The 24/2.0 AIS transmits UV mostly on the right side of the BaaderU's bandpass.

Things are very violet looking as you will see below in the raw color photo.

 

I'm not going to test further with the 24/2.0.

 

Camera: Panasonic Lumix S1R Full-spectrum Conversion

Lens: Nikkor 24mm f/2.0 AIS

Visible Filter: Baader UV/IR-Cut + BG38 x 2.0 mm

UV-Pass Filter: BaaderU

 

 

Visible Reference Photo

Conversion and resize only, no edits. Nice color!

Some normal vignetting from a wide angle lens.

f/8 for 1/2500" @ ISO-100

 

 

Ultraviolet Photo:

Shot in Monochrome to better enable exposure assessment in LV.

Conversion and resize only, no edits.

Bit of porch shadows there, my bad.

f/8 for 1/400" @ ISO-3200 (woo! I never shoot that high of ISO!)

 

 

Ultraviolet Raw Photo:

No white balance has been applied.

This very purple photo does *not* show the typical oranges/reds/magentas

which we typically get from a non-white-balanced raw BaaderU file

when the BU is used with a UV-capable lens that can reach at least 350 -360 nm.

 

 

Ultraviolet Raw Histogram:

And here you can see that the raw data has an obvious overload in the blue channel.

Using the BaaderU on a UV-capable lens would never produce a "leading" blue like this.

You would get leading red, then green and lastly blue OR have green/blue matched.

This is the logarithmic view.

[nfoto]

I could have told you, if you had asked ... the 24/2 also has a hot spot in IR.

[diant]

Very predictable result, Andrea. 11 elements in 10 groups, 1980s and later years issued.

[Andrea B.]

Well of course you two (Birna, Anton) would know this.

 

But I have a responsibility to a gazillion readers out there who also might like to learn

that the 24/2.0 AIS is not suitable for reflected UV

by seeing an example of what happens when the lens is used for hat.

 

Old Saying: A picture is worth a thousand words.

New Saying: A raw data histogram of a purple photo is worth a few thousand more words. (heh-heh....)

 

Also this is an opportunity for readers to learn one way of analyzing a lens.

And for the readers to see a raw data histogram which supports the conclusion.

 

I do love Raw Digger and wish I knew how better to use it.

With the new camera and various other time consuming tasks, I have not had time to study it further.

[diant]

But I have a responsibility to a gazillion readers out there who also might like to learn

that the 24/2.0 AIS is not suitable for reflected UV

by seeing an example of what happens when the lens is used for hat.

Oh, if the goal was such - it is worth to do it, of course!

[Andy Perrin]

Old Saying: A picture is worth a thousand words.

New Saying: A raw data histogram of a purple photo is worth a few thousand more words. (heh-heh....)

Somehow you always have the picture, the histogram, AND the thousand words!

[Andrea B.]

oh yeah !!!

Belt *and* Suspenders.

[Christoph]

Does anyone have experience with the pre AI version of the 24mm 2.8 (the N-Nikkor without Multicoating)?

[Andy Perrin]

I own it but have not tested it in UV. 

[diant]

10 hours ago, Christoph said:

Does anyone have experience with the pre AI version of the 24mm 2.8 (the N-Nikkor without Multicoating)?

If AI version 2.8/24mm (and later) has 9/9 design, pre-AI N-Nikkor has 9/7 design, unfortunately.

[Christoph]

What about IR performance and sharpness?

[nfoto]

The 24/2 hot-spots in IR. The various 24/2.8 models are better and the 24/3.5 PC-E is the best of them all for IR.

[Christoph]

Thanks!

[Christoph]

Was I lucky here? I recently bought the Pre-AI Nikkor 24mm (2.8-16) and expected to have to convert that to fit (on the Nikon D700). But apparently this has already been converted or ...? Strange.

 

[nfoto]

Oh, that was my favourite lens for almost a decade !!

 

Many of these were "updated" or AI'd according to jargon by the once-upon-a-time freely available factory kits.

[Christoph]

Nice — great! So far I like it, it has some very good IR performance!

[Andrea B.]

Looking forward then to a nice IR topic from you, Christoph!