What a stunning instrument!!! Breath-taking images from an awesome lens.... Thank you for sharing these images and pearls of practical wisdom.
I am now determined to acquire either the 105 or 135 DC.
Given my professional background in the sciences, and not least systematics and taxonomy, I have been doing quite some research into these models and the other superb Nikkors. And here follows a couple of nuggets that some readers may not be aware of. These design factors (that include at least one patent) also have a direct bearing on the Noct-Nikkor legacy that fortunately still persists in Nikon (hence I also posted overlapping info in the thread on the 58mm f1.4):
Last month, in the thread on Old School Nikon Primes, I mentioned the enduring legacy of the Noct-Nikkor in a book I'd just acquired....And, well, latterly I found some interesting insights into the 58 f1.4 that interface with these DC Nikkor primes. This book being 'Eyes of Nikon. Art meets Technology makes History' Published 2014 for 80 Anniversary of Nikon ISBN 978 4 904959 12 1
This book devotes quite some copy [pp 34-39] to the goals, and not least artistic passion, motivating the design of the specialist Nikkors. They try and accommodate 3 dimensions of the imaged subjects into 2-d Flat-Land (coopting the term of graphic designer Edward Tufte). Which matters here can be summed up in Sato's words of "an entirely different method of appraisal" of the optical performance of a lens; it extends beyond its sharpness at a singular point of focus, and includes colour rendering (an ability we all know where lens differ). This philosophy underlies the quest to refine the prowess of a lens in its defocus envelopes bounding the plane of focus, i.e. bokeh. The attributes underlying the 58mm f1.4G are not alone WRT this quest. This philosophy also underlies the 35 f1.4G and reaches its prowess in the Defocus Control Nikkors, which use a patented mechanism that allows one to manipulate spherical aberration. The design challenges centred on changing parameters of spherical aberration - alone - but without increasing any other aberrations. No small feat!! And it just so happens this is US Patent No 5 841 590 to Nikon Corp (filed 27 August 1997, awarded 1998) which spells out the inventor as one Haruo Sato. And Sato is the principal historian of One Thousand and One Nights devoted to origins of key Nikon innovations [with the essay on the 135 f2AF-D DC written by Kouichi Oshita
http://www.nikkor.com/story/0032/ ]
To quote on the status of the Defocus methodology - "Finally, the currently available Nikon's range of medium telephoto lenses is to be brought to perfection. The successful development of a similar lineup as in the age of manual lenses owed much to the innovative rear-focusing design in AF 85mm f/1.8. This innovation was combined with a function for controlling the defocusing characteristics in the DC 135mm f/2 as the first attempt, which helped to successfully make the high-speed medium telephoto lens much more attractive. In the tale of Noct NIKKOR (Tale Sixteen), I explained the Noct as "the only NIKKOR lens that added values to the imaging characteristics" but this lens would take the concept even further, I'm sure." cf Tale Thirty-Two
Moreover, "When an optical designer friend ran simulations and analyses on the design [WRT to R&D of these DeFocus Nikkors], he discovered another clever trick: Nikon designed the red end of the spectrum to focus in a slightly different plane to make skin look even better." cf
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/135mm-f2-dc.htmAnd so thank you all for kindly sharing of images and tests and photographic passions in these fascinating threads on NikonGear about the special lenses. in my naivete, I have come to humbly appreciate that there's so much more to the optical prowess of a lens besides its MTF curves etc :-) Long live these De-Focus Nikkors
