Nikkor K 50mm f/1.4, opinions

[richardHaw]

That does not correlate with my findings, It does however have strong field curvature up close, so a little tricky,,,

it can be difficult to focus on subjects closer than 6m. it can fool the rangefinder of the camera

what I do is test and i found that focusing from infinity to your subject until just after the dot highlights worked for my NOCT on both the Df and D750.
this is also true for my other 1.2 lenses.

focusing from minimum to you subject and shooting just after the dot lights up doesn't yield good results. I am not sure what causes this but it's repeatable at least on my lenses and cameras. maybe somebody here knows?

this may differ from lens to lens.

[Airy]

Maybe it has sth to do with the position of your ground glass.
I observe the same with my Df : focus is best when near the point where the -> arrow would light up. Maybe that is bad calibration, but on the other hand it is much more informative than perfect focus in the middle of the "green dot" area, which is too wide for my taste and lenses.

[richardHaw]

Maybe it has sth to do with the position of your ground glass.
I observe the same with my Df : focus is best when near the point where the -> arrow would light up. Maybe that is bad calibration, but on the other hand it is much more informative than perfect focus in the middle of the "green dot" area, which is too wide for my taste and lenses.

"too wide" is the best term.

I am not sure about the ground glass. i suppose the AF module of the df et al is under the mirror?

I can ask mr Goto next time I meet him.

[Erik Lund]

AF Module is under the mirrorbox, so reflected via a sub mirror behind the mirror. all of this can be out of calibration giving all sorts of mistakes also alignment of mount etc.


Using green dot as focusing is not something i rely on to judge how sharp a lens is, maybe we are talking about different things 

[richardHaw]

AF Module is under the mirrorbox, so reflected via a sub mirror behind the mirror. all of this can be out of calibration giving all sorts of mistakes also alignment of mount etc.


Using green dot as focusing is not something i rely on to judge how sharp a lens is, maybe we are talking about different things 

no. same thing. i was thinking that my NOCT wasn't sharp but it was just tricky to focus it properly when relying on the dot. so it's sharp but just a bit off focused 

[richardHaw]

f/1.4

f/2

f/4

f/5.6

the compression made it looked 

trust me, they look better on my monitor

[richardHaw]

f/1.4 @ infinity on a bright day with a shiny subject

[Peter Forsell]

f/1.4 @ infinity on a bright day with a shiny subject

I love it. Maybe I'm nostalgic or just strange, but at the moment I cherish lenses with less than perfect rendering... I like the yesteryear feeling. I have plenty of lenses with high-contrast, neutral, sharp, low-distortion rendering, but at the moment I'm interested in something else. Perhaps in six months I'll pursue some other things.

Very nice images Richard.

[David H. Hartman]

I may not have been clear about the optical performance of Nikon F/F2 viewing screens v. Nikon F3 non-Red Dot viewing screens: they are identical save for aluminum frame.

If any of these viewing screens gives a bright center and dark edge the screen is mismatched to the lens or has no Fresnel or the lens has strong vignetting or there is some other factor such as the lower eye point compared to the F3 HP and later. As one who wears glasses I find the finder image slightly shaded in the F/F2 but not in the F3 non-HP. One can find viewing screen charts for Nikon F through F5 and many others at Photography in Mylashia.

I believe the F3 Red Dot viewing screens are quite similar to the F4 viewing screen except the frames are not compatible between the F3 and F4.

Beat

Dave Hartman

[richardHaw]

I love it. Maybe I'm nostalgic or just strange, but at the moment I cherish lenses with less than perfect rendering... I like the yesteryear feeling. I have plenty of lenses with high-contrast, neutral, sharp, low-distortion rendering, but at the moment I'm interested in something else. Perhaps in six months I'll pursue some other things.

Very nice images Richard.

for sure, its the vintage look that i am pursuing 

but not the super blooming sphero-chromatic aberrations i guess that was a bit too much. my sample is a lemon by the way so maybe you can do some tests and see if yours behave like this too

[David H. Hartman]

I notice pale colored coating for Super IC lenses and flare and ghost if present is pale accordingly. The only lenses I have with IC and SIC coatings are a pair of 28/2.0 Ais Nikkor. These don't give up ghosts even with the sun in the frame and flare isn't an issue. I'd love to see a pair of 24/2.8(s), with IC and SIC compared.

I'd pay more for Super IC particularly for lenses prone to flare and ghost.

Dave Hartman

---

I have a 50/1.4 Nikkor-S that is nicely sharp and seems a bit mellow on my D800 pointed away from the sun compared to my 50/1.8 Ai and 50/1.2 Ais with SIC (all at f/4.0-5.6). Am I fooling myself? 

[richardHaw]

I notice pale colored coating for Super IC lenses and flare and ghost if present is pale accordingly. The only lenses I have with IC and SIC coatings are a pair of 28/2.0 Ais Nikkor. These don't give up ghosts even with the sun in the frame and flare isn't an issue. I'd love to see a pair of 24/2.8(s), with IC and SIC compared.

I'd pay more for Super IC particularly for lenses prone to flare and ghost.

Dave Hartman

---

I have a 50/1.4 Nikkor-S the is nicely sharp and seems a bit mellow on my D800 pointed away from the sun compared to my 50/1.8 Ai and 50/1.2 Ais with SIC. Am I fooling myself?

my https://richardhaw.com/2016/01/23/project-nikkor-s-50mm-f1-4/ article showed a few pictures of the Nikkor-S in various versions including the C, you will notice that the coatings really do work 

https://richardhaw.com/2016/10/24/repair-zoom-nikkor-43-86mm-f3-5-23/
heres another for the 43-86, same conclusions

[richardHaw]

https://richardhaw.com/2018/09/06/repair-new-nikkor-50mm-f-1-4-v1/

version 1 

[shashvat]

Set wide open at F1.4, the camera would slam the lens' stop down lever, jar the lens & invoke (what would normally be called "Mirror Slap.") I had to lock the mirror up & shoot at a high shutter speed & did quite a bit of head scratching. (I carefully filed the lens' lever outdoors with a lot of puffs from my dust off can.)
 
Anyone else noticed this?

Steve, thank you for mentioning this. I've been scouring the interwebs for information on the "mirror slap" I'm experiencing.

To answer your question, yes, I have noticed this.

I recently got a 50mm f1.4 K1 non-AI lens which I modified myself to work with AI. Now it mounts on my D700 FX DSLR, where I've set it as one of the non-CPU lenses. Metering is perfect, the camera recognizes where I've set the aperture ring and gives me perfect exposures every time.
 
But there's that wince-inducing shudder every time you take a photograph, and I'm worried about damaging my camera.
 
I would like to fix the issue - I take it that I have to file off a bit of the stop down lever? Any idea by how much, or how much should the final size be? I have two other lenses, both factory AI (28mm f2.8 and 105mm f2.5) that I can use to compare. Also have a micrometer/vernier to measure.

[Roland Vink]

Steve, thank you for mentioning this. I've been scouring the interwebs for information on the "mirror slap" I'm experiencing.

To answer your question, yes, I have noticed this.

I recently got a 50mm f1.4 K1 non-AI lens which I modified myself to work with AI. Now it mounts on my D700 FX DSLR, where I've set it as one of the non-CPU lenses. Metering is perfect, the camera recognizes where I've set the aperture ring and gives me perfect exposures every time.
 
But there's that wince-inducing shudder every time you take a photograph, and I'm worried about damaging my camera.
 
I would like to fix the issue - I take it that I have to file off a bit of the stop down lever? Any idea by how much, or how much should the final size be? I have two other lenses, both factory AI (28mm f2.8 and 105mm f2.5) that I can use to compare. Also have a micrometer/vernier to measure.

Technically, "mirror slap" is made of three parts:
- Mirror rising
- Aperture stop-down
- Shutter opening and closing

Unless the mirror actually strikes something on the rear of the lens as it rises and falls (which shouldn't happen with any Nikon lens except for some very old "mirror-up" fisheyes and the Nikkor-O 2.1cm) then mirror slap will be the same regardless of which lens is mounted. Similarly, the shutter opening and closing is independent of the lens used.

The aperture stop-down action is the only thing which could vary for each lens. Here it is useful to understand what happens. When the lens is mounted, the camera holds the lens aperture stop-down lever so the lens is wide open. When the picture is taken, the camera releases stop-down lever. The lens stop-down lever is spring-loaded and closes the aperture down. If the aperture ring was used, the lens stops down to the setting on the aperture ring. If the camera command dial is used, the camera only releases the stop-down lever a precise distance so the aperture closes to the required setting. After the exposure is taken, the camera slams the stop-down lever up again to re-open the lens.

The stop-down part of the process should be fairly gentle since the aperture is only closed down by a small spring inside the lens. Any jarring is more likely to be after the exposure when the camera re-opens the lens. Even this should be relatively smooth. Take the lens off the camera and compare with your other AI lenses. Set the lens to minimum aperture and flick the stop-down lever, the aperture blades should open and close freely. It's possible the stop-down lever was bent or moved out of alignment when it was AI modified, and is catching on the side of the slot. Could that be the problem? Maybe also try some test shots with very long exposure (1 sec or more) and notice if the shudder is occurring at the start or end of the exposure (or both). If the camera is exposing properly with the lens, then I don't think you need to file the stop-down lever.