NikonGear'23

Gear Talk => Lens Talk => Topic started by: Toby on June 15, 2018, 21:08:18

Title: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Toby on June 15, 2018, 21:08:18
I managed to find one of these guys in excellent shape, with the front conversion element, and was lucky enough to get a Nikon F adapter for it from Michio. It is crazy sharp. Here are a few pix I did with it. Luckily it is optimized for 1:20 (or 1:40 with the front element), so it seems to work well at longer than normal macro distances. The water drop falling into the Japanese fountain was a lucky shot (obviously), but what is amazing is that this is about a 4-5x crop, just so you can gauge how sharp the lens really is.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Akira on June 15, 2018, 21:28:34
The water drop shots are all breathtaking...  Thank you for sharing!
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: pluton on June 15, 2018, 21:56:33
Great shots, with an interesting rendering from the lens.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Toby on June 15, 2018, 23:22:51
Here's one more that I like, as long as we are doing water. Magnified the images from this lens are a revelation, and these are all shot wide open.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: arthurking83 on June 16, 2018, 05:42:46
the solitary water drop image is amazing!

But the water splash(crown shaped splash) shot, looks to have a slight amount of aperture set. You can just see the aperture blade pattern in the blur circles, whereas the last falling water drop image shows a fully wide, open round edged blur circle shape
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Toby on June 16, 2018, 10:18:47
Right you are! I must have turned it slightly by accident while handholding.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: timh on June 16, 2018, 15:51:38
The water drop shots are all breathtaking...  Thank you for sharing!

+1

The flower shots are great too!
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: bobfriedman on June 16, 2018, 22:14:02
nice water shots.. cool.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Macro_Cosmos on June 18, 2018, 18:13:21
I really like the bokeh orbs, nice pics!
I've seen this lens pop up periodically on ebay asking for ridiculous prices.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Toby on June 18, 2018, 22:31:58
I made a casual bid on this one for $1700 and actually won it. It's quite a piece of work--huge. At first I thought it was a bit bland, but seeing the incredible sharpness and precision of the images made me realize that there really is something to these lenses.
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Macro_Cosmos on June 23, 2018, 16:17:15
I made a casual bid on this one for $1700 and actually won it. It's quite a piece of work--huge. At first I thought it was a bit bland, but seeing the incredible sharpness and precision of the images made me realize that there really is something to these lenses.

$1700? Whilst being a ridiculous price, it's not at all bad! You can easily flip it for $2500+, or just keep it. There's natural fluorite inside  ;)
Title: Re: Ultra Micro Nikkor 165mm f4
Post by: Toby on June 23, 2018, 20:40:37
And the glass is perfect. There is a small amount of wear on the barrel, but not bad at all and it also comes with the front conversion element and I got a lovely custom made adapter to F mount from Michio too. I had originally thought of possibly reselling it, as I am most enamored of lenses with strange bokeh, but seeing the results, the absolute sharpness and clarity and lack of distortion, made me realize that it is really a gem. I have not even tried it except at f4. And the fact that it is optimized for 1:20 or 1:40 makes it quite useful in general photography too.