NikonGear'23

Gear Talk => What the Nerds Do => Topic started by: richardHaw on October 10, 2025, 03:38:40

Title: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: richardHaw on October 10, 2025, 03:38:40
https://richardhaw.com/2025/10/10/repair-nikkor-o-2-1cm-f-4-s-mount/ :o :o :o
very rare!
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Birna Rørslett on October 10, 2025, 06:52:56
I remember this lens fondly. It's true the much more "recent", (from approx. 2005), Voigländer Skopar 21mm f/4, is superior, but the ancient 2.1cm had its charm and helped me love the Nikon rangefinders back in the film days.

Long gone now, like my dog of that old time. He was a German Shepherd, excessively fond of water (free-dived to 5m!!), and very curious as to what I was doing at all times. Thus his snout intruded in a lot of my photos in those days :)

Nikon S3, 2.1cm f/4 Nikkor
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: richardHaw on October 11, 2025, 01:44:00
shared :o :o :o
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: golunvolo on October 11, 2025, 03:18:01
Birna, beautiful, emotional and strong image!
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Øivind Tøien on October 11, 2025, 07:54:35
Birna, beautiful, emotional and strong image!

And dog freediving to 5m, that is certainly something special!
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: pluton on October 11, 2025, 08:00:53
I had a copy of the F mount version in the mid-1980's.  The relative absence of distortion was one of my favorite qualities of the lens.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Birna Rørslett on October 11, 2025, 10:27:33
The dog's name was Lobo. My friends thought he should be called 'Loco' as he went mad just seeing a water body.  He made his first dive at the age of 4 months and very quickly discovered what not to do under water - the first dive ended with him emerging coughing and gasping for air. Never gave up though, and became better than me !!

I'm sure he considered himself being a seal with legs instead of fins. He could swim for hours and had a fascinating ability of using his tail as a rudder when he swam in tight circles -- wating for me to jump into the water and join him.

The image by the way was taken almost exactly 50 years ago today.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Øivind Tøien on October 11, 2025, 20:39:21

Thanks for sharing the story! I would have loved to free-dive with Lobo the diving dog. Do you have any under water images of him in action diving?
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Birna Rørslett on October 11, 2025, 20:46:53
No, sorry -- only of my girl friend ...
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Birna Rørslett on October 11, 2025, 20:56:10
This is Lobo 1 year old and now really thinking he is born to be in the water. You literally had to drag him onto land.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: golunvolo on October 11, 2025, 22:33:19
Super cute.

 
 Lobo is a Spanish word for "wolf", interesting name choice.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Øivind Tøien on October 11, 2025, 23:06:27
Super cute.


+1, thanks, Birna for posting.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: John Geerts on October 12, 2025, 10:24:28
I remember this lens fondly. It's true the much more "recent", (from approx. 2005), Voigländer Skopar 21mm f/4, is superior, but the ancient 2.1cm had its charm and helped me love the Nikon rangefinders back in the film days.

Long gone now, like my dog of that old time. He was a German Shepherd, excessively fond of water (free-dived to 5m!!), and very curious as to what I was doing at all times. Thus his snout intruded in a lot of my photos in those days :)

Nikon S3, 2.1cm f/4 Nikkor
Great story and image !
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Birna Rørslett on October 12, 2025, 11:19:02
One more of my dog, where he circles impatientely waiting for me to jump into the water with him ...

Taken with the Nikon S3 + 10.5cm Nikkor, seen below with the Voigtländer Skopar 21mm f/4 that replaced the old 2.1cm f/4 Nikkor some years ago.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: richardHaw on October 13, 2025, 05:21:35
i am looking for a junk skopar  :o :o :o
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: paul hofseth on October 14, 2025, 15:49:51
As I recall the 21mm which I used on my LeicaIIIc, it gave very good sunstars and not many disturbing reflections. The rear eyepiece iof my viewfinder succumbed to my usual rough treatment of photo equipment, so eventually I gave up on that combination and got a substitute.

Lobo was excessively fond of fetching thrown twigs and branches. However since he was quite strong, he sometimes fetched small logs which he wanted thrown and a jump was necessary to save ones legs from colliding with the onrushing enthusiastic game partner and his offering of object to throw.

p.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: richardHaw on October 15, 2025, 03:13:40
i want to buy that lens from you :o :o :o
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: paul hofseth on October 15, 2025, 13:55:48
years since i got rid of ithe 21mm and bought one of the M mount Hologons. which i did not like although it had reasonable perspectibe with no distortion, but not quite sharp enough corners for landscapes.A suitable sum plus a very rare Alpa replaced it.

p.
Title: Re: Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 S-mount
Post by: Birna Rørslett on October 19, 2025, 08:34:51
I found more 2.1cm f/4 photos after a dive into the archive. It was the widest lens at my disposal until I got the first of the 15mm f/3.5 Nikkors, and since exact framing wasn't possible, my pre-perception of the rendering increased. A very valuable lesson for a budding photographer.

The near limit of 0.9m, typical for rangefinder lenses at the time, was overcome using a close-up lens. If memory serves this was the 3T Nikon achromat.

Both images with Nikon S3.