chulster

Roy, Thanks for the advice—i had already read somewhere that another user had looked under the focus ring grip and seen nothing. That, combined with the fact that the grip is stuck on exceedingly securely, persuaded me not to remove it. My version of the lens is actually the Vivitar 100mm f/2.8. It is indistinguishable from the Kiron, unlike the Viv Series 1.

Thanks, Dave. I had already seen the thread you linked to. But i will look for youtube videos as suggested.

I'll try twisting the other way. Maybe after i receive the 3M VHB tape that i ordered yesterday. The VHB will allow me to torque the ring even harder than the common Scotch double-sided tape did. Also, since i received a pair of the filter wrenches, i'm going to try using both of them in concert—one on the branding ring, and the other on the rest of the barrel—so i can use leverage bidirectionally. I've already dripped acetone into the gap. No help. About the soldering iron—what would it do to enamel? I believe the barrel of this lens is unpainted, anodized aluminum... but i'm not 100% sure of that.

Thanks. Removing that screw has no effect on the ease (or impossibility) of unscrewing the branding ring. Rather, it seems to be involved in the infinity focus hard-stop. When the screw is loose or removed, the focus ring does not stop at infinity but goes about a centimeter past it and stops with a "crunch" instead of a "snick".

I've now tried wrapping the ring with double-sided tape and using the filter wrench. The tape allowed me to apply much more torque before any slippage occurred. It still was not enough to budge the ring, despite applying more torque than i've ever applied to any task of this type. I think this is more torque than i could achieve using a lens spanner, so i see no point in drilling the holes to use one. I can't think how i could increase the force any more. And i can't believe how tight this branding ring is screwed on! Maybe if i had a filter wrench with a much longer handle.... I think i'll have to be satisfied with the focus action as it is.

Yes, it works very well.

I received the filter wrench from Amazon this morning, a rubber-coated, metal-core affair. It didn't work. The branding ring is too damn smooth for the wrench to get ultimate purchase on it. I'm going to try Dave's suggestion of applying liquid rubber to the ring and letting it dry first—although i only have rubber cement. Later, after work. If that doesn't work, i'll try drilling two small holes in the ring and using a spanner.

Thanks, John. That's a good idea as a last resort. I even have a Dremel to drill the holes with. There indeed are no pre-existing slots or holes to help with removal.

Thanks, Joe. I've ordered a rubber-coated filter wrench that i hope will do the trick, but while waiting for that i'm going to try improvising with a length of insulated lamp cord and a stick to twist it around.

Well, Ian, now it seems that the Nikon engineer that designed the optics of most of the IX lenses copied your idea and adapted his own lenses to the Z system, as documented in the latest Nikkor 1001 Nights story. Nikon | Imaging Products | NIKKOR - The Thousand and One Nights No.75 If i were you, i should be very cross with him.

I've been trying to disassemble my copy of this cult-classic lens in order to redo the lubrication. I think i need to remove the branding ring before i can separate the helicoids. But i can't get it to come off. Has anyone taken apart this lens?

Ah, the Buzz Lightyear of lenses!

Although, to be sure, if Nikon hasn't simplified the Ai mechanism from that Rube Goldbergian contraption in the FE, they absolutely need to be sued for engineering malpractice.

Question does not compute: alternatives not mutually exclusive.

It had occurred to me, but having neither a Z camera nor any IX-Nikkors i could not implement the idea. I'm glad someone here has done.

Mark III? Is that the first, Japan-only pancake version of the 50/1.8 Ai-S, with the 0.45m close focus and a rubber-clad focus ring? Or the second and last pancake version, with 0.6m close focus and a hard-plastic focus ring? I like the first one better.

Voigtlander 40mm f/2, this is the one you want. Far better than the 50mm Series E. Buy it used for less than $300 in mint condition—easily done. The Ai-Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P is even thinner. It has many fans of its particular optical qualities, but full-frame sharpness is not among them. The Voigtlander is much more competent, if less distinctive. Btw there is no 0.45m close focus Series E lens. That's the first pancake Nikkor Ai-S model. You're right that it's hard to find (outside of Japan). I think the optics are the same except for the coatings.

Nikon sells grip covers too, although not for anything as old as the D700. A few weeks after paying over $50 for a D810 main grip cover to a random seller on eBay, I found out to my everlasting regret that Nikon still sells all the grip covers for the D810, and very cheaply too.

It's too bad no entrepreneur has taken the opportunity to offer alternative grips made of some less-hygroscopic material that doesn't swell and become sticky. The treated leather that covers the steering wheel in my 14-year-old Honda Accord would be close to ideal. Its texture and appearance haven't appreciably changed in all those years.

My hypothesis is that Nikon calibrates the focus dot for accuracy at f/2.8 when a manual-focus lens is used. This represents a reasonable compromise in the face of focus shift—that is, the tendency of many lenses to focus slightly further back as aperture is stopped down. Because of this, if you go by the focus dot at f/1.2, you'll be front-focused. The workaround is to turn the focus ring slightly to the right so that the dot is blinking alternately with the leftward-pointing triangle (on the right side of the dot). You can tune focus fairly precisely by judging the blink rate of the dot: if the dot is lit more often than the triangle, you'll be focused ever so slightly closer than if the triangle is lit more often than the dot. Alternatively, don't use the focus lights at all when shooting at f/1.2, and instead use your eyes to judge whether the image on the focusing screen is in focus. I suppose a magnifying eyepiece can help there. Last resort is to use Live View.

On my camera (a D810), this setting is found in Custom Setting Menu -> Controls -> Customize Command Dials -> Aperture Setting. Setting this option to Aperture Ring should have the desired effect. Note that this setting will affect all of your CPU-festooned, aperture-ring-equipped lenses, not just the Voigtlander. If you will be toggling the setting often, add it to My Menu for quick access.

Here's a hail mary. It seems at least somewhat, if not very, likely that if the diameter or circumference of the M-A ring for one lens is the same as for that of another lens, the two rings are interchangeable. The M-A ring on my 80-200mm has an outer circumference of approximately 245 mm. (Approximate because I only have a tape measure.)

In the two middle shots, the focus is on the very close fence, while the background is much farther away. I would expect that degree of blur on the background at f/22.

You found nothing?

Um, try searching eBay for "nikon 80-200mm m a ring", substituting the focal length(s) of the lens you want the ring for.