Found a Noct...

[Erik Lund]

Congratulations, enjoy working on it

[richardHaw]

Thanks! is there anything that I should be aware of for this thing?

[Erik Lund]

I would not open the rear optical cell on this one if only has a couple of small specs inside,,, the tolerances on this one are tight,,,

Also take care when chipping it with one of Bjørs CPU's - There is not much room for it,,,

[richardHaw]

Thank you very much. I will try with a vacuum cleaner if that is the case (it works sometimes. but can be risky).

the helicoids are dry and thirsty

[Akira]

Hey, Rick, just to remind you of this thread: "Brain Salad Surgery" of Noct Nikkor by Erik.   

http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,276.0.html

[richardHaw]

yes, i saw that a couple of months ago

finished overhauling. surprisingly, it is an easy lens to disassemble to it's bare parts 　(scotch tape, if you see it)

i got rid of some of the junk inside by blowing them away but when i closed it, i reintroduced new junk! now there are a little bit more specs than when i started! 面倒くさい！

the weird feature of this lens is the 2x helicoid keys and the unusual helicoid by nikkor standards. the central helicoid is 2x threaded i guess the 50mm f/1.2 is the same.

wide open, my 50 1.2 is sharper than my noct. my 50 1.2 is exceptionally good even when compared to most of what's available out there because i forced nikon to make it that way by being annoying and persuasive

noct has no CA wide open at infinity wide-open.

still pretty sharp. HS-7 is a must

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Try HN-6. It's for the 55/1.2 and fits the Noct perfectly as well. This hood will even reverse over the lens

[richardHaw]

Try HN-6. It's for the 55/1.2 and fits the Noct perfectly as well. This hood will even reverse over the lens

what's the merit of the HN-6 over the HS-7?

i read it here once. somebody said that the Ai-S performed a bit better than the Ai.
i back read everything here but i cant find it

[richardHaw]

by the way, having owned the 50,55&58 i can say that each has it's own unique signature

at 1.2 (my observations):

50: clinically sharp (my sample is a freak). the most boring of the 3. has a nice character. clean but dreamy.
55: sharp where in focus. very dreamy results. surreal. watercolour-like. dreamiest of the 3.
58: sharp but some veiling flare will negate that. beautiful. not as dreamy as the 55 but very "unique". probably the best balanced one. middle ground of the 50&55

lady in bike: f/1.2, this was hard to focus. good thing i hone my focusing skill everyday on the street
bldg: no CA at infinity wide open
umbrella: this is going to be an awesome lens for pre-nuptial photography as it can isolate the couple

some samples of the 55mm f/1.2 inn real world shots to give you an example of what i mean when i say that it's the dreamiest (in my collection, your mileage may vary).
https://richardhaw.com/2016/02/06/repair-new-nikkor-55mm-f1-2/

goldilocks (i am "baldilocks") would choose the 58 in my opinion out of the 3.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Snap-on hoods sooner or later will fall off, usually at an inconvenient time or in a way that means it is lost forever. The HN-6 screws into the threads and stays put.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

...
i read it here once. somebody said that the Ai-S performed a bit better than the Ai.
i back read everything here but i cant find it

There is a slight, but recognisable difference between the two Nocts (AI, AIS) I currently own. The AI has more curvature of field and of course a slightly different bokeh because of its 7 aperture blades vs the 9 of the AIS. The bokeh difference is minimal if existing at all at f/1.2, though. at f/5.6 they behave virtually identical, though. They both are very sharp at f/1.2 in the centre of the frame, however, and mostly lack the veiling so typical for the 50/1.2 and 55/1.2.

However, as I only tried a handful of Noct-Nikkors over the years and just a few of them more in depth, whether these differences are related to the Noct generation (AI/AIS) or are caused by sample variation is hard to tell.

Food for thought is I just retrieved an old Nikon F to test it with the F-36 motor drive and an early S-type battery pack, and let the Noct (AI) stay on the camera. Even without proper dioptre correction  in the finder, focusing the Noct with this camera was a breeze. The image literally popped in and out of focus. Something is definitively lost in the transition to digital technology. The heft of the camera + motor drive added to the superb handling as well.

[Tristin]

Even without proper dioptre correction  in the finder, focusing the Noct with this camera was a breeze. The image literally popped in and out of focus. Something is definitively lost in the transition to digital technology. The heft of the camera + motor drive added to the superb handling as well.

 

I fail to understand why modern VFs are such rubbish. 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The Df is OK, the D500 on occasion.

Blame AF technology and the knee-jerk response to modern inventions.

[Akira]

Even F3 was inferior to F2 in terms of easiness of manual focusing on the matte.  One of the reasons would be the reflex mirror of F2 reflects 100% light into the pentaprism.  F3 had many pinholes for the light to pass through them to be reflected by the sub mirror and guided to the metering SPD.  The mirrors of F4 and later SLRs and DSLRs are all half-mirrors which don't reflect the light 100% either.

So far as I remember, FM2 was easier to focus manually than F3 or F3HP.

[bjornthun]

To further make things difficult, viewfinder magnification is lower on modern DSLRs than it was on old film SLRs. My Sony's offer 10x viewfinder magnifier so precise MF is always at hand.