chulster

There are at least two ebay sellers of metal replacement M-A rings for the AF 80-200mm f/2.8D two-ring. I bought one and it works great. I don't know if anyone sells them for other lenses, or if these will fit any other lenses.

I had an MX. Loved that camera.

That was quite a costly victory, but congrats!

Would you like to sell me your 28-70mm for cheap? I could either try to fix/replace the AF motor or just use it as a manual-focus lens.

At f/5.6, most split-prism focusing aids go dark. I can imagine many amateurs would have been surprised to see that and then returned the lens.

Lens arrived today. This copy is a turd. The focus mechanism is faulty: it "catches" at about 10 feet focal distance, refusing to go past that mark, whether in autofocus or manual. I can "flick" the focus ring past the sticking point, but then it just sticks again from the other direction. Worse, when it sticks, the camera goes dead. Viewfinder lights go off and controls become unresponsive. I have to cycle power to restore functionality. This dud is going back to the seller. It's a damn shame, because in my limited testing (below 10 feet), the image quality of the lens was very promising. At f/2.8, sharp across a generous central area. At f/4, tack-sharp edge-to-edge. Easily sufficient for my modest needs. Alas, this being my second faulty copy out of two tried, my interest in this lens may have dried up for good. Just as well. Perhaps I'll spend the money on a 28mm f/2 for my newly-acquired FE.

Thanks for tending the fire, Matt!

It will fit. Were you aware that it's a manual-focus lens?

I think not. The guidelines make no mention of any concern for users' IP rights; they only talk about saving users' bandwidth and reducing the time it takes to load this page over a slow connection. If the mods (@Matt Laur) are serious about this, however, they should change the guidelines to simply: "insert thumbnails, not full-size images."

D810 + 50mm f/1.8 Ai While I'm here, may I make a suggestion? There would be no need for the rather restrictive 1,000-pixel, 300 KB limit guidelines if people would insert their images "as thumbnails" using the provided option in the user interface. That way, cake can be had and eaten too, as only the lightweight thumbnail is loaded with this page, while anyone who wants to view an image at higher resolution need only click the thumbnail.

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on a 28-70mm f/2.8. (Still not man enough for a 24-70mm, probably never will be.) It should arrive by Thursday. Exciting! Hope it's good!

Yes. That's less than I expected, but more than what most 28-70mm f/2.8D sell for these days. Considering the obvious fungus this 28-80mm had, the respectable ending price indicates the bidders knew this is no run-of-the-mill lens. But perhaps it's not as special as I thought it was.

Shouldn't the FM3A be in that mix too? Personally, I'll always love the F3 the most. Just the feel of it in the hand...still unparalleled for me.

I regret selling my copy. Just one of a litany of bad decisions.

I was reminded of that lens as soon as i saw this one. I dare say the would-be Nikkor would have been quite a bit better than the Tokina!

Someone on another Nikon forum pointed out a listing for this lens on Yahoo Japan Auctions. I've never heard of it, and neither, it seems, has the English-speaking internet! Here are a few pictures from the auction listing: My guess is it was a prototype for a lens that Nikon never brought to market. It shares the exact design language of the AF 80-200mm f/2.8D two-ring lens. Perhaps it was intended to be the normal-zoom complement to that lens, but then development of the AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8D finished ahead of schedule and management decided to just launch that lens instead of this one. Again, just a guess! Anybody know anything about this fascinating lens? I'm actually tempted to place a bid on it, but I feel certain the price is going to wind up in the stratosphere—despite the obvious fungus!

I've had the Ai and the Ai-AF versions; didn't like either enough to keep it. Also tried a Sigma 24mm f/2.8 Super-Wide, which has a good reputation but which I found worse than the Nikkor. Right now I have no 24mm prime, contenting myself with a Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 zoom. Take the N.C lens apart and regrease the helicoids. Richard Haw gives instructions here.

You can disassemble the lens from the front to the point where you can remove the focus ring and see what's going on. It's fairly easy to do, although there are a couple of tricky parts. Here is a download link to a repair manual for the 80-200mm f/2.8D. This manual is actually for the second one-ring version, but the disassembly procedure for the front part of the lens, above the focus ring, is the same as for the two-ring version. The disassembly instructions begin on page 21 (as printed on the page itself; this is actually the 29th page of the PDF). Follow the steps on that page and the next one; do not proceed beyond these two pages. Since the Nikon disassembly instructions use pictures only, like an Ikea assembly manual, here is a quick verbal description of the steps you need to do. Proceed only if you're willing to risk destroying the lens! Like President Trump, I take no responsibility for anything. For tools, you will need: a blow dryer or heat gun a plastic spudger (a thin, narrow wedge, basically) a small, cross-type screwdriver (ideally JIS 00) a flat screwdriver with a 3mm-wide head for removing a cam roller (see step 5 below) a very small flat screwdriver for removing a tiny set-screw Before starting, put the lens on the camera and focus in to the minimum focus distance. This will ease one of the steps of the disassembly. Take the lens off the camera before proceeding. You'll need to remove the nameplate to gain access to a screw under it. In order to be able to remove the nameplate without bending it beyond repair, you will need to apply heat to soften the adhesive that holds it in place. A common blow dryer on the high-temp setting will do fine. Then insert the tip of a plastic spudger under the edge of the metal nameplate and lever it off. If it doesn't come off easily, apply heat longer and try again. Once the nameplate is off, unscrew the small screw in the bottom right edge of the space where the nameplate was. Also unscrew the two identical, non-hidden screws that are located 120 degrees apart from this screw on the front barrel. Now you will have to contend with the fact that the front barrel is screwed into the, um, step-up ring directly under it. You need to unscrew these two pieces apart. However, first you have to remove a set-screw located just above the step-up ring. Once that's gone, you should be able to unscrew the front barrel off the ring by grabbing the ring with one hand (you may need to wear a rubber glove to get enough friction) while you turn the front barrel with your other hand. Actually, if i remember correctly, it is not possible to turn the front barrel 360 degrees because of some obstruction. So once you've loosened the barrel from the ring, you'll have to finish by turning the ring (not the barrel) until the two things finally come apart. Then you can lift the front barrel up and off. (This is potentially the most difficult step of the disassembly.) You will need to remove the front lens element. To do so, you first have to unscrew the cam roller (a screw with a white plastic collar, which appears under the infinity symbol in the repair manual pictures). You'll need a flat screwdriver that is thin enough to fit the slot on the cam roller's screw, but wide enough (about 3mm) to provide sufficient leverage to remove the screw without damaging the soft metal. If the head of the screwdriver is too thick to fit in the slot, file it down until it barely fits. Note: It is possible the screw will be on too tight to remove without destroying it. On one of the two lenses that I worked on, the screw was on too tight and I just couldn't get it off. Once it started to deform, I gave up. If you manage to unscrew the cam roller, say a prayer of thanks and proceed with removing the front element. You will simply screw it off (I think it's counterclockwise if you're looking down at it). If the lens was focused to the MFD, it should be relatively easy to grab the edge of the element with your fingers and start turning it. Go very slowly, because you don't want the element to suddenly drop out and onto the floor. Take note of the exact position at which the element becomes fully unseated, and mark that position on the element's helicoidal thread and on the housing in which it sits. Later, when putting the front element back in, you will align the two marks to ensure the element screws in at the right orientation. If the round brass washer under the element didn't come off with it, remove it now. (This step is optional, but performing it will reduce the chances of damaging an important component.) If you look at the top picture on page 22 of the manual, you will see there is a part labeled B112. This is the "distance brush", which enables the lens to know roughly what distance it's focused at. Unscrew the two screws holding this part down, and remove the part. Now unscrew the six screws depicted in the bottom image on page 22, and lift the front element housing assembly straight up and off, first noting its exact angular position so you can put it back correctly. If you didn't remove the distance brush in the previous step, be very careful while lifting the housing assembly up so you don't bend the brush bristles. Now you can remove the step-up ring (the piece that the front barrel was screwed into), and, finally, remove the focus ring. I don't really have any advice on what to do once you've removed the focus ring. Hopefully, by fiddling with the focus ring and the M-A switch ring, you'll be able to see why the focus ring is not engaging with the teeth of the focus "gear" underneath it. Good luck.

I'm quite prepared to take your word for it that this lens has better corners than the 180mm f/2.8 ED (although personally I never noticed that the latter lens had weak corners—probably because I don't pay attention to corners). That said, if you want to show off the lens's sharp corners, you should upload a much higher resolution sample. You can insert a thumbnail in the post if you don't want to blow anyone's bandwidth budget for just viewing the post.

Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 @ f/2

That's quite alright. I'm glad you like it!

Ben, I see that your newly-acquired 35-70mm f/2.8 didn't make the cut. Do you want to sell the lens to me? I just don't want to spend the money on a 24-70mm, as astounding as it may be—not unless the government comes through with another stimulus check.

I picked up a copy of this manual-focus item recently, having read that it is an excellent 1:2 macro and portrait lens. I was especially curious how it would behave if I installed a Dandelion CPU chip and controlled the aperture from the camera: would it stop down accurately to the set aperture? I was encouraged in this by the presence of the AI-S "divot" in the Adaptall-2 N/AI lens mount. I reasoned that the lens should behave like an AI-S lens in terms of aperture control linearity since the mount had the AI-S divot. So I installed the Dandelion to see what I would see. I had to remove some material from the light baffle to make room for the Dandelion. In the process, I messed up by marking the position where the chip would go while the adapter was off the lens. I had forgotten that the light baffle rotates by a few millimeters when the adapter is mounted on the lens. Thus, the initial position of my cutout was off by the same few millimeters. I messed up again by glueing the chip into the cutout without first checking the cutout's position with the adapter mounted. I nearly destroyed the chip while removing it, and you can see in the picture below some of the damage to the chip's housing that I inflicted. Fortunately, the chip was still functional, so I re-glued it in the correct position and carried on. The result: As it turns out, this lens, together with this mount, does NOT behave like an AI-S lens in terms of linear response of the stop-down lever. As you can see in the following series of pictures taken from f/2.8 through f/16 at one-stop intervals, the lens exposes correctly only wide open; it overexposes progressively worse with increasing f-number. Thus, I am forced to use the aperture ring to set aperture. At any rate, it is a very nice lens. It's very sharp even wide open, and the bokeh is beautiful: I'm happy with the purchase.

Ai-Nikkor 28mm f/3.5s @ f/8