Nikkor 500mm/AIS/p (lens plate question?)

[Steven Paulsen]

(The lens does better than expected.) & It's always the silly stuff; I have a 100mm & 120mm arca plates & the rig balances better on the foreword portion of the foot. When stored back in the trunk, with the reversed hood, I have to remove te arca plate for clearance. What kind of a shim do I need that clears the hood when stored in the trunk case.

(With all the spare parts, etc & knurled rubber lens rings, at the moment I'm at a loss.

(Also, I'll add. What do I have to do to maintain low humidity for storage?)
I keep a small collection of guitars that I store with humid/cigar packs. I need to do the opposite with the lens. (I do keep most of my lenses in a cupboard and I have a tiny dehumidifier device, if needed. Should I abandon the trunk, for storage?

  <However, in the end.....it's always good>

[Akira]

Do you keep your guitars and the lenses in the same room, or at least in the same environmental condition?

If so, and if you need to put humidifiers in your guitar cases, especially in those of the acoustic guitars, it should be safe to say that the environment is dry enough to store your photography equipments without dehumidifier.  Another good way to keep the lenses in good health is to use them periodically.

[Bruno Schroder]

Do you have a clearance issue with the hood or with the trunk? I'm also using a long Arca plate but the hood just slips under. I can also close the trunk but this is a tougher call. There is only one position that works.

[Steven Paulsen]

Thank You.
It's still kind of cool, "World Wide Web," looking at replies. I live in Pennsylvania, USA. I get all four seasons. I have forced hot air heat in the winter & central air for the summer. The spring/fall times are when dampness can seep in. The lens looks like it spent most of it's life in the trunk. When I unpacked it for the first time, I threw a low tech humidity meter in the trunk & it read 30%. (The same in a guitar case is royal problems & grief.)

The plate question is about storing the lens with the hood reversed in the trunk. There isn't enough clearance.... (I don't want to scrape the pretty, unused looking lens hood.) I also have to position the lens, foot down and toward the latches.

I found a piece of thick rubber or vinyl sheet & made a shim for the lens plate. We aren't there yet, however I have to live up to my avatar caption.

[Bruno Schroder]

Unfortunately, I'm not at home and can't show a picture but it works for me, in the trunk, foot up and tilted to touch the front facing support block, the one closest to the opening. The hood slides right under the plate, without touching it. The pouch does fit the hood with the plate on but I can't velcro it, because of the plate.

[Steven Paulsen]

Thanks again.
(I'm able to laugh at myself.) I will be first to admit I have some kind of OCD with certain things while being oblivious to others.

I understand exactly what you said about positioning the foot in the case. I am only able to do what you said, ^^^above^^^ with a 2-3mm shim. Is there a special kind of mount, because there is a cubical indent on the rear of the lens' foot?

Flash, ($%&*&^$##,) Brainstorm..... The tabs on the inside of the hood are different thicknesses, making reverse mounting position, different.

Does anyone have the original paperwork for this darned thing? I also forgot to add, I do throw a lot of water (humidifier) into the air during heating season.

Mid morning, silly, simple bliss.

[Erik Lund]

An image says more than a thousand words, pleas add an image to show what the issue is thanks

[Steven Paulsen]

I'm pretty much in tune with what Bruno replied about his. The shim I added gives a bit more clearance & mounting the reversed hood has to be tightened on a certain way.

If I put the lens in the trunk top side up, I swing the foot 45 degrees clockwise from bottom. Mount the reversed hood, narrow hood shims aligned with foot and drape the black cover, open seam around the arca plate. No velcro, just pull the strings snug around foot.

Now that I have the best lens, I ordered a heavy duty strap, the most expensive Gitzo Traveler tripod, so with my D5200, I will be off to a trip to Disney Land.

< Humor >


If anyone has the Nikon paperwork for this old beast,  a jpg scan would make my latest edition of glass appear darn close to brand new.

I tried different combos of 300mm, (Ok, good/not so,) 400mm (sometimes good but on 12-14mp.) I have an old Tokina, 500mm/f8 cat/mirror lens, (sharp but needs a ton of pp to get colors anything close.) Once again, Mr. R's, I well respect & thank reviews for older Nikon lenses led me to acquiring this old dog that performs, near stellar.

Thanks again for being here

[Matthew Currie]

I have the paperwork.  As usual it's a big multiligual sheet.  I did a PDF scan of the two pertinent pages in English.  It's a bit rough as the sheet was crumpled a bit and torn, but I think it's legible.  This site did not like the post, so here's a dropbox link that should work:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/22zf9fqza9pde4s/500%20lens.pdf?dl=0

Note: obviously I can't scan the whole sheet, but if someone would like the whole thing done piecemeal, or in a different format, please let me know.

[Steven Paulsen]

Thank you Sir for the printed upload. (The internet is getting fussy/funny about "Drop box" stuff.)
I got it.

[Bruno Schroder]

Thanks a lot for the scan, Matthew.