Nikkor 28-85mm f/3.5~4.5 ai-s

[Birna Rørslett]

The button is to allow the focusing go into 'macro' mode.

[mxbianco]

Thanks Roland.

Funny, it's a complete piecemeal then.

The box serial number (230364) is older than the lens serial number (231461) ... so that means the dude pieced together a very old box with a somewhat newer lens ... but instead of the instructions of yore ... pieced them with the more modern, thin instructions.

Seems like a lot of work for a $100 profit over just a bare lens (less $20 shipping), so $80

The lens is in good enough shape to justify a $125 price tag, by itself, which is at the high-high end of street value.

Anyway, all is fair in love and war (and Ebay), and the financial expenditure is basically a good bar tab among friends, so no biggie.

Worst case scenario: I over-paid $75-$80 for a clean lens ... or I have to waste my time re-packaging a misrepped item, send it back, and get a refund.

Best case, dude agrees to refund me $75, so I get a super-clean version of the lens at the high-end of what it's worth.

Jack

PS: Thanks for the insight.

Looks like that Romanian eBay shop has a truckload of such lenses from that period: in the past months they were selling at least two with very close serial #s, one numbered 232461, exactly 1000 more than the lens you bought, and another one numbered 231872, in between the two. But this time the boxes' serial numbers match the lenses'... This time the listings (both sold out) said "Minty, used" and the price was similar to what  you paid after receiving the refund: 120$ + 23$ shp. Maybe they fumbled and sent you a mismatched box, and they were stuck with another mismatched lens + your box to sell...

Ciao from Massimo

[Chulster]

currently overhauling one 

construction is pretty simple and clever

very easy to overhaul zoom...

my test showed that it's a pretty decent lens on digital, maybe even better on film.
what are you experiences with this lens?

Hi Richard,

Are you planning to do one of your invaluable repair articles for this lens? I have one that I like very much, but I managed to strip one of the bayonet screw holes while attempting to shim the lens to cure a slight focus tilt. I'm thinking to buy a "parts only" copy of the lens and cannibalize it to replace this part into which the bayonet screws go, but I don't know how easy it is to isolate this part; I hope it's not, like, the whole inner barrel of the lens! I also broke a tiny piece of plastic on a hinge, without which the aperture ring does nothing—but that part is trivial to unscrew and replace.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[richardHaw]

Hi Richard,

Are you planning to do one of your invaluable repair articles for this lens? I have one that I like very much, but I managed to strip one of the bayonet screw holes while attempting to shim the lens to cure a slight focus tilt. I'm thinking to buy a "parts only" copy of the lens and cannibalize it to replace this part into which the bayonet screws go, but I don't know how easy it is to isolate this part; I hope it's not, like, the whole inner barrel of the lens! I also broke a tiny piece of plastic on a hinge, without which the aperture ring does nothing—but that part is trivial to unscrew and replace.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

i may in the future. to be honest i hate writing about zoom lenses so that may have to wait. i just hate using them for some reasons much less writing about them. its like talking about an ex girlfriend and detailing your experiences together

this lens is a bit more complicated as it has 2 sets of helicoids. one for the macro mode and the usual one. if you got the macro one wrong then your screwed, pun intended

did you read my work on working with screws?

[Chulster]

i may in the future. to be honest i hate writing about zoom lenses so that may have to wait. i just hate using them for some reasons much less writing about them. its like talking about an ex girlfriend and detailing your experiences together

this lens is a bit more complicated as it has 2 sets of helicoids. one for the macro mode and the usual one. if you got the macro one wrong then your screwed, pun intended

did you read my work on working with screws?

Indeed I had read that page, as all the other ones on repair fundamentals. In hindsight, what tripped me up was Nikon's use of soft aluminum for this part of the lens, which I had not suspected. I'm accustomed to the brass structural components in almost every other Ai/Ai-S lens. While reassembling the lens after the first shimming attempt, I tightened the screws with the same amount of force I usually use, which the brass screw holes of other lenses can easily withstand. But this aluminum screw hole got stripped. (The steel screw is fine.) It was only afterwards that I realized what material it was made of.

As I believe you noted, this particular lens uses a plastic aperture ring, like a Series E lens. Nikon also used aluminum in the barrels of at least some Series E lenses. The presence of these lower-cost materials in the 28-85mm Ai-S—the outer focusing barrel is also aluminum—makes me wonder if Nikon had originally designed the lens as a Series E one, but then changed the branding once they had decided to scrap the whole line, rather than cancel a lens that was perhaps already close to production-ready. If that's true, I'm glad they decided to release the lens after a quick rebranding, because it suits me just fine.

Oh, I went back at the lens tonight and it took about a minute to realize that the part into which the bayonet screws screw is a fairly minor part of the barrel, one that is easily detached from the rest of the barrel. (It is the part that includes the silver grab ring.) Having found that out, I decided to order the "parts only" lens from KEH, which I'll cannibalize for the aluminum piece with the stripped hole and the small, broken plastic piece. I just hope my next attempt at shimming the lens is successful.