Old, elusive, and surprisingly good

[nfoto]

The title reflects the impressions made by the legendary Nikkor-N 5 cm f/1.1 lens for Nikon rangefinders of the late '50s. Thus it certainly qualifies as 'old' most remaining items now would push 60+ years. 'Elusive' is guaranteed by a production run of < 3000 units, of which lenses with external bayonet, the version most desirable, makes up about one-half. The lens was a pinnacle in optical design for Nikon at the time, so not surprising it was regarded as good. However, uncountable photons have struck Earth since the late '50s and optical development since then has been amazing. Thus can such an old item be of any value today, except as a collector's item?

 

When I purchased the Nikon Z fc some months ago, I found it handled superbly with the old Nikkor rangefinder lenses and at least some were surprisingly good performers in optical terms. True, you get 'character' -- often, a lot -- instead of edge-to-edge perfection, but is that the end of the story? So when the opportunity arrived to get a 5cm f/1.1 Nikkor in excellent shape, and my banking account had sufficient depth to it, time had come to get this lens. Which I did and it arrived very quickly thanks to being whisked across the globe by carrier.

 

The old Nikkor complements the Z fc nicely.

 

 

 

I had in mind using the lens on the Z fc, plus for more edperi,mental use, on my full-spectrum Primaluce Z5.

 

First test in IR showed a remarkable 'glowing' performance which instantaneously endeared the lens to me.

 

 

This is at f/1.1 so shutter speeds almost went out of range on the Z5.

 

Manual focusing on moving subjects isn't easy when one gets lazy by all the AF wizardly available to us today, but is doable in a pinch. And 21 Century Mothers move slowly lest they miss a subject on their mobile. 100% crop to show the impressive sharpness even if focus wasn't perfect.

 

 

 

Being able to do well in IR wasn't as surprising as going to UV and learn the lens performs there too. The next example is a test with Baader U and the lens on my monochrome Sony NEX-5N. Despite a dull, overcast day, and a low 200 ISO setting, getting UV hand-held was a breeze. Shutter speeds  could get up to 1/100 sec.

 

 

Apparently I no longer have any excuse not to post excellent images. Oh well, to paraphrase our commander-in-chief. Just wish the ambient temperature to go above the freezing point, as I no longer can stand the cold.

[colinbm]

Nice lot Birna
If you can't stand the cold, perhaps you could sit down....

 

[nfoto]

Pun is fun.

[Guest]

So, you front mounted the Baader to get  infinity and no vignette or what?

[nfoto]

Not on the APS-C/DX format NEX-5N. The lens vignettes which is part of its appeal, but going to a smaller format removes most of this anyway.

 

Infinity focus is OK.

 

I might modify an RF(S)-Z adapter to provide rear filtering, but this is not my first priority right now.

[Bill De Jager]

Lovely images, Birna. 

 

We see the same thing in the U.S. - people walking along looking at their mobile phones.  Too bad the lens is so rare.  I see one on eBay where the asking price is over $5K US.