The first 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom (SHB first 300/2.8)

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Left hand side seen from above the index mark, thus the same as on your sample.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

A few examples with the 80-200/2.8 ED AIS to show its quality.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The out-of-focus behaviour of the 80-200 mm f/2.8 ED AIS is exemplary. Although its near limit is just shy of 2.5 m, quite tight environmental portraits of larger flowers and plants are feasible with the zoom extended towards its 200 mm setting.

This is Anthemis tinctoria on a timber storage area, where it thrives on the sandy soils. It is not strictly a 'weed' though, merely a coloniser of dry calcareous ground.

[Hugh_3170]

The Image in #18 is well worth viewing large - quite delightful and the flowers are complete with insect life (pollinators?). 

[Bill De Jager]

My 80-200/2.8 AIS came with the original hood HN-25, but otherwise no auxiliaries. Serial number 182268 thus only 50 units away from your lens !!

The number of 80-200/2.8 ED AIS units in the NG community now has climbed to 3. Not bad for such a rare lens. Any more of them out there?

I have one that I haven't used yet.  I was going to do some shooting with this obscure lens and do a post here but others beat me to it.

When I bought it the cost was reasonable, certainly much less than some of the new lenses being discussed on this forum.  It appears that the supply is small but so is the demand.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Yes, please do Bill. The more the merrier.

Apparently the number of these lenses held by NG members now stands at 4.

What is the serial number of your sample?

[Bill De Jager]

Yes, please do Bill. The more the merrier.

Apparently the number of these lenses held by NG members now stands at 4.

What is the serial number of your sample?

I just came downstairs and went to NikonGear with the unit sitting in my lap for this very purpose!

182238.  Now checking out the lens and cleaning it.  Initial alarm over a spot was due to poor perception on my part

[benveniste]

Back in 1984, I elected to get one of these instead of either of the Nikkors.  Years later, I picked up an 80-200mm f/4 AI-s just to see what I missed.

https://books.google.com/books?id=iX8DD7NGeiwC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=tokina+80-200mm+f/2.8+1984

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I just came downstairs and went to NikonGear with the unit sitting in my lap for this very purpose!

182238.  Now checking out the lens and cleaning it.  Initial alarm over a spot was due to poor perception on my part

Fantastic ! NG members have 3 such lenses within a 50 unit range of serial numbers That is concurrency for sure.

[Roland Vink]

I'm pretty sure member AndyE also has an AIS 80-200/2.8 ED.

Getting back to the original question, what David describes sounds very similar to the original 300mm f/2.8 ED lens.
Read about it here: http://www.nikkor.com/story/0011/. It matches pretty much everything described except it is 300mm not 80-200

I've tried to find a paragraph I think I read at The Thousand and One Nights - Nikkor. It was not what the primary article was about. It was a detail about a particular lens designer. Here are the details as I remember them...

80-200mm f/2.8
Designed specifically for the Olympic Games (year?)
About 100 copies made
Never in the catalog

No auto-aperture!
Full manual aperture as the lens would be used for sports photography at f/2.8 to f/4.0

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Funny, I also immediately had the prototype Nikkor 300/2.8 (non-ED and ED, both with pre-set aperture) in mind. I believe a small series of them was ready for the 1972 Olympics?

[RonVol]

Funny, I also immediately had the prototype Nikkor 300/2.8 (non-ED and ED, both with pre-set aperture) in mind. I believe a small series of them was ready for the 1972 Olympics?

LOL, I did the same thing................I actually posted about the 300mm and even gave a link to Matthew Lin's site...............but ended up editing the post when I realised the mistake! It was the reference to the Olympics that threw me.

[Bill De Jager]

A few from a Japanese garden:

Japanese Garden 3 by Bill de Jager, on Flickr  f/5.6

Japanese Garden 2 by Bill de Jager, on Flickr  f/5.6

Japanese Garden 1 by Bill de Jager, on Flickr  f/8

And one from the hills:

Wiedermann Hill by Bill de Jager, on Flickr  f/8

These taken with a Nikon D810 and were downsized to 16%.  No cropping or sharpening, and just minimal adjustments on the pond image. 
Too bad about the glitch in the lower right on the last one, but I wanted to show the entire image.

[Bill De Jager]

[EDIT: This post appears to have two errors.  First, I didn't achieve full sharpness in the center and I don't think this is due to the lens.  Second, when comparing edges and the center on a high-resolution camera, it's not enough to just have them at *about* the same distance.  Even a small difference in distance can affect sharpness.]

100% crops from the hills image in my previous post.  There were taken from the left, center, and right of the same ridge, respectively, at about the same distance from the camera. The center of the center crop is where focus was made, at about 1250 meters.  Focus was done in live view.  Shutter release was done by remote with the mirror up.  Aperture was f/8.

Hills Left Crop by Bill de Jager, on Flickr

Hills Center Crop by Bill de Jager, on Flickr

Hills Right Crop by Bill de Jager, on Flickr

[David H. Hartman]

Mystery solved: the lens was the first 300/2.8 Nikkor not the first 80-200/2.8 Nikkor.

Dave