Author Topic: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?  (Read 7132 times)

Harald

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Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« on: May 21, 2016, 23:39:31 »
Hi,

i need your help. I am actually looking for this lens. You can often see a yellow lens element inside which should be be caused of containing Thorium. Is this a real problem for IQ or just cosmetic? I am not afraid of radioactivity.... ;) Thanks for your input!

Harald
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pluton

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2016, 10:47:41 »
I expect that the pale greenish yellow tint, once corrected in processing, might lead to a slight case of desaturation.  It'd be an interesting experiment to do an A-B test with one of the yellow ones and one of the non-yellow ones.  Probably, digital color-correction is so powerful that both could be made to look identical.
Keith B., Santa Monica, CA, USA

Harald

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2016, 12:31:31 »
Hi,

that is the question. ;) As far as i know: They are optical all identical from 1971 until 2006. But the price is actually very high! But i will not buy a "cheaper" Pre-Ai if this yellow lens might cause a problem, which can not be correctet in pp.

Harald
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chris dees

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2016, 12:37:02 »
I have this lens and it's from 1971 and has 9 blades. I think it's from the first batch.

The yellow cast can be pretty heavy (not always), but I have a lightroom preset for it (made by Buddy).
Chris Dees

the solitaire

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2016, 13:21:14 »
Glad to hear you still use that preset Chris :)

Harald, the earlier batch of lenses has 9 aperture blades opposed to 7 which result in a more rounded aperture when stopping down. That might be worth considering.

The yellow cast can be corrected in PP as Chris has shown in his example. I think that after applying the preset I would have personally added a bit of warmth again through moving the WB slider in LR a +5 to the left. That however is a matter of personal opinion. The lightroom preset was made to render a neutral color from a few test pictures Chris sent me and I am glad to see it still does that when used with the Df. A different camera will need a different correction of course so a new preset would have to be made.

In this preset I adjusted pretty much every single slider in LR that effects color, starting at the camera calibration down to the HSL adjustments, white balance and saturation. The main goal behind that was to not only remove the yellow cast but also retain detail in the reds and greens and find a neutral to cold looking blue without blowing out details on any of the colors. because of the amount of sliders to change I offered Chris to send him the preset I created for his files, which gives a nice starting point or baseline for further PP
Buddy

Harald

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2016, 13:37:06 »
Hi Chris,

did i test your sample in Utrecht? I might still have three or four photos. I will have a look. So your lens is also "yellow"? Any other diffenrence to the version you sold to Frank?

Hi Buddy,

i would not buy the Ai-Version just because of its seven blades. Can i ask for this profile...? :) Looks good and i also have a DF. (And i love the photos your are posting of your wife AND dog: Very nice picturestyle! :) )

Harald
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zuglufttier

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2016, 13:57:23 »
I do process every picture I take but I wouldn't like the idea of having a not so cheap lens that always requires a special treatment in Lightroom.

Even though this preset for lightroom does produce a good result, I'd always wonder if there is something wrong about the colors... I wouldn't have this feelings if this was a cheap lens, I might even admire it's very own color rendition ;)

the solitaire

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2016, 14:19:17 »
Hi Chris,

did i test your sample in Utrecht? I might still have three or four photos. I will have a look. So your lens is also "yellow"? Any other diffenrence to the version you sold to Frank?

Hi Buddy,

i would not buy the Ai-Version just because of its seven blades. Can i ask for this profile...? :) Looks good and i also have a DF. (And i love the photos your are posting of your wife AND dog: Very nice picturestyle! :) )

Harald

Thank you Harald. Of course you can have the preset. I still host it on dropbox. Should be available under this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6yyu3ctj5lunmwq/AACP-Dj2tScWlu17-XFo4wVLa?dl=0

Thank you for the kind words on my current processing style. I'm still working on a uniform look but at the moment I kind of like this processing for the pictures I have made in the past few weeks. As with many things, photography is a way of learning. Kristina (my girlfriend) inspires me to try new thinsg and improve the quality of my photographs. She is very talented with a camera and I normally let her use the more exotic glass I own because I really lik ethe magic she can perform with it and with her little D800.

The preset I made for Chris does not do anything fancy however. It really just deals with the color cast as well as a fe wdetails regarding luminosity, contrast, saturation and color balance.
Buddy

chris dees

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2016, 14:24:04 »
Hi Chris,

did i test your sample in Utrecht? I might still have three or four photos. I will have a look. So your lens is also "yellow"? Any other diffenrence to the version you sold to Frank?

Hi Buddy,

i would not buy the Ai-Version just because of its seven blades. Can i ask for this profile...? :) Looks good and i also have a DF. (And i love the photos your are posting of your wife AND dog: Very nice picturestyle! :) )

Harald

The one I sold to Frank was the 34/1.4 AI-s and according to the serial number from later than 2006.

Yes, I had the 35/1.4 N with me in Utrecht
Chris Dees

John Geerts

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2016, 15:29:01 »
Chris sent me and I am glad to see it still does that when used with the Df. A different camera will need a different correction of course so a new preset would have to be made.

In daylight, the Df has a green overcast. I need to correct the white balance tint in ACR +25 towards the violet slider.

Roland Vink

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2016, 22:03:01 »
As far as i know: They are optical all identical from 1971 until 2006. But the price is actually very high! But i will not buy a "cheaper" Pre-Ai if this yellow lens might cause a problem, which can not be correctet in pp.
Very similar, but not identical. The early Nikkor-N and N.C models with the metal scalloped focus ring uses glass which is slightly radioactive (which causes the glass to turn yellow over time). The New-Nikkor (K) version has a revised optical design:
Quote
changes were also made to the optical system at the time when the lens barrel design was changed to the NEW-Nikkor. Though the basic lens construction remained unchanged, the glass material and the lens curvature were changed by Teruyoshi TSUNASHIMA, to improve the performance at open aperture.
See: http://www.nikkor.com/story/0027/
The new glass material is no longer radioactive, so the newer models don't turn yellow.
The yellow colour can be reversed by exposing the lens to UV light (so I heard...)

Edgy01

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Re: Nikon 35mm f1.4 Pre-Ai - Yellow lens?
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2016, 20:59:02 »
I have several Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 lenses, including the early Thorium glass version.  It is quite radioactive.  With my Geiger counter aimed at the lens it really gets going!  I, too, have read about the theory that you can restore the clarity of that lens by putting it (at length) in a heavy UV light source.  I tried it for awhile (leaving it in the sun for many hours) but it didn't seem to help.  It a great sunset scene lens, now, adding a lot of color to what could be an ordinary shot!

Dan