UV-Nikkor 105 to a reasonable price

[ulf]

I just found this:

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/t1094153733?conversionType=service_page_search

It is a lot of money for just any lens, but a good price for an UV-Nikkor 105 if anyone is searching for such lens

I bought my Focotar-II 100mm via this site and it worked well

[colinbm]

Thanks Ulf
They won't let me join & bid 
" Unfortunately, our team has reviewed the auction details and found that we cannot allow you to bid on this auction through our service. "

[ulf]

Sorry to hear that Colin!

[photoni]

I signed up, I saw a pair of lenses at a very low price.
To see if it works I made an offer for an EL-Nikkor 80 f5.6 old metal version.
I offered 1010 Yen ~ 6 euro + shipping and commission Tot ~ 12 euro

.

# 781 - Auction ID - b1108744603

It seems like an impossible figure to me :-)

[colinbm]

@ulf, @nfoto

 

This is supposed to be a UV-Nikkor 105, it is supposed to be brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging.
This looks like it is an original UV-Nikkor, not Rayfact, but it seems to have wear on the metal flange & the black plastic looks like a deep scratch or cracked ?

 

 

[Andrew Dayer]

20 hours ago, ulf said:

I just found this:

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/t1094153733?conversionType=service_page_search

It is a lot of money for just any lens, but a good price for an UV-Nikkor 105 if anyone is searching for such lens

 

 

Similar price level (USD 3 -4k) to the two copies sold via eBay in the UK in 2022.

 

12 hours ago, colinbm said:

Thanks Ulf
They won't let me join & bid 
" Unfortunately, our team has reviewed the auction details and found that we cannot allow you to bid on this auction through our service. "

 

I think that Buyee.jp is a proxy site. In this case the underlying auction is with Yahoo Japan. They give me 

a message that they don't accept business from EEA and UK countries. This might be a localised message and other countries eg Australia might likewise be excluded.

 

35 minutes ago, colinbm said:

This looks like it is an original UV-Nikkor, not Rayfact

 

For the above reasons, I can't see the details but the serial on the Buyee.jp site is 20[2/3?]... so later in the original Nikon production.

[Andrew Dayer]

Switched to a PC (last post was made on a phone but needed editing...). Can see more detail on the buyee.jp site

This is serial 202435, also offered on eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225635858387 at US $6,372.55 Buy Now or Make Offer

 

@colinbm's photo is not on eBay... caveat emptor.

[colinbm]

9 minutes ago, Andrew Dayer said:

Switched to a PC (last post was made on a phone but needed editing...). Can see more detail on the buyee.jp site

This is serial 202435, also offered on eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225635858387 at US $6,372.55 Buy Now or Make Offer

 

@colinbm's photo is not on eBay... caveat emptor.

Thanks Andrew
This one looks a bit messed up in the black plastic mount area too ?
I wonder what causes that, I am not a Nikon user, yet.

[Andrew Dayer]

12 minutes ago, colinbm said:

Thanks Andrew
This one looks a bit messed up in the black plastic mount area too ?
I wonder what causes that, I am not a Nikon user, yet.

 

Dropping it I'd guess but I'm not prepared to try and replicate 

 

 

[nfoto]

Replacing the F mount is very easy.  Other than that little can go wrong unless you treat the lens with a hammer!!!

 

The original UV-Nikkors are really robust designs that last for decades. Perhaps one needs to relubricate once every 20-30 years? (I have had my UV-Nikkorse for a total  ownership length of 55 years and once had one of them relubricated, which leads to the mentioned figure).

[ulf]

For most mirrorless cameras, with their short back flange distance, there are mount adapters for Nikon F mount lenses. 

It works well with my Sony A7III.

[Andrea B.]

I think the yen is down against the dollar. That is rather an amazing price for anybody who can pay in dollars. 

 

added a moment later:  Same comment holds for the Euro. Good price if paying in Euros also.

 

 

[Andrew Dayer]

18 hours ago, ulf said:

For most mirrorless cameras, with their short back flange distance, there are mount adapters for Nikon F mount lenses. 

It works well with my Sony A7III.

 

At the risk of going off topic, is the Sony A7III the camera of choice for full spectrum conversion right now.?(I'm sort of aware of other threads that I need to read up inc. @JMC's on a Sony v's Nikon D850 MaxMax de-Bayered). The Sony's I've used have produced great images but are not user-friendly, imho.

[ulf]

I think there are several alternatives, all with potential advantages and disadvantages.

 

As I have the A7III only, except for my first FS-converted old Canon 60D.

I cannot compare with other modern alternatives.

The A7III was my choice when I got mine some years ago. Not sure if it is the optimal one today.

 

The minus for the A7III is

• The complex and confusing user interface.
  • You can configure many things to suite your needs. 
• The PDAF banding that sometimes becomes visible when you push the contrast, especially for deeper NIR images.
  • Most modern mirrorless cameras have that problem.
• The tiny camera body size.
  • I solved by adding a L-bracket to get a better grip, when hand holding
• The AR-coating on the sensor's cover window, that limits the deeper UV-reach. JMC showed that in his tests.
  • Most modern mirrorless cameras have this problem. It is a problem only if you go rather deep and normally you will need a proper really UV-capable lens like an UV-Nikkor 105mm to fully take advantage of the deeper reach. With my A7III I can still see a dramatic difference between a UV-Nikkor and my best deep reaching accidental lenses like the Focotar-2 50mm and EL-Nikkor 80mm. My conclusion from that is that this AR-coating is not that damaging for the image result when using good accidental lenses.

I chose the A7III because it has a very low sensor noise and a great dynamic range, comparable to the older A7S.

I also wanted a mirrorless camera with a short back flange distance and less no problems with leakage through an optical viewfinder.

 

The FS conversion I got, removed the stock BG filter and the dichroic dust shaker window.

That made the sensor cover window directly exposed, making dust on the sensor more visible as it sits closer to the sensor pixels.

It also improved the performance of older lenses with an optical design optimised for film.

 

The other positive things with my A7III is that the IBIS works with any lens.

You have to set the focal length manually then.

I am quite happy that many of my old Canon FD lenses can be used again (with a BG-filter), and now they benefit from the IBIS.

I use this camera mostly in full manual mode and for me it works quite well.

[Andrew Dayer]

@ulf thank you for such a full answer. I have a lot of thinking to do before spending significant money but I'm sure I need to improve on the Nikon D3200 FS I'm using.

[ulf]

Much depends on what is important for you with your FS camera.

I like to discover the beauty of things and like to play around with colours to see if I can dig out interesting things.

When shooting flowers and insects it is it is interesting to explore the borderland you see with BUG-vision stacks and similar.

I am not that interested in the deeper UV like UV-B and UV-C where you need monochrome converted cameras and very special filters.

I do not see any beauty in such images.

 

I am afraid I am a pixel peeper and prefer a modern back-illuminated sensor with low noise and a good dynamic range.

Some of the stacks like the one with BG3 and BG25 are extremely blue before WB and get quite noisy with my old 60D.

 

I liked the A7III so much that I got a second used body that I have not gotten converted.

I used that body when taking many photos of the Bee Eaters this summer. 

The reason for staying with the A7III was that I wanted the same user interface on both bodies even if that is improved with later models.

Two similar bodies with completely different user interface would be too much for my old brain. ;-)

 

One thing I have been missing with the A7III is a fully articulated screen, but for my stationary setup I used a small external screen via the HDMI-port.

 

 

[Doug A]

The same lens is also listed on US eBay. The price is $6000+ dollars. Why is the buyee price so much cheaper? 

Thanks,

Doug A

[Andrew Dayer]

2 hours ago, Doug A said:

The same lens is also listed on US eBay. The price is $6000+ dollars. Why is the buyee price so much cheaper? 

Thanks,

Doug A

 

The Buyee one is an auction so that's just a starting price.... unless there is only one bidder and no reserve, I suppose.

[Andrew Dayer]

I had a day with an Sony A9 and an A7R with 135mm 1.8 and 200 - 600 zoom. Lots of fun but I certainly didn't feel I'd mastered the camera and came away with sores and blisters from the A9. Battery grip is a must with a heavy lens. For normal spectrum macro, I like to zoom in on a big monitor but that facility is not available on the Nikon D3200 so I have to tolerate a small screen, poor resolution and poor noise.

 

Anyhow, sorry that I've dragged this off topic too much, I think