Prototype Nikkors series!

[MILLIREHM]

Especially nteresting to see a 10 mm f/2,8 OP-Fisheye with AI-S Characteristics

[richardHaw]

http://richardhaw.com/2018/10/21/report-nikkor-prototypes-part-4/

pt4 

[Roland Vink]

http://richardhaw.com/2018/10/08/report-nikkor-prototypes-part-2/

part 2 is here!

Nikkor-H 2.8cm 1:3.5 Did you manage to get a picture of the tick mark prototype? This lens is shown in some very old Nikon literature but the serial number is never shown. Your pictures seem to show the lens slightly stopped down, I think I can see the aperture blades showing through the front element, but the picture is not clear enough to count them. It either has more than 5 blades from the production model, or the blades are curved so the opening is more rounded ...?

Nikkor-S 28mm f/2.8 Auto You write: "you can say that it’s the for-runner of what’s to become the New-Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 but it has 1 less element and the barrel design is not the same".
Correction - the production New Nikkor 28/2.8 has 7 elements so it is a Nikkor-S. Also the production lens starts with serial number 382011, and the prototype has serial number 382002, so this prototype is clearly related to the production lens. Just after the prototype was made in 1971, Nikon must have decided to change the styling for the New Nikkor (K) series, but kept the optical design more or less the same.

Nikkor-D 20mm f/4 Auto (1966) "This lens has a unique design with integrated lens hood" ... maybe that is a mistake, the hood looks like a normal screw-in hood ...?

Nikkor-D 20mm f/4 Auto (1971) This lens is clearly a predecesor to the New Nikkor 20/4, it has the same number of elements (Nikkor-D = Deci = 10 elements) and a 52mm filter size but I think the design is still a little different as the production lens is shorter and even more compact.

Nikkor-TD 20mm f/2.8 13 elements! What a cool lens

[richardHaw]

updated part 4

Roland: I can check the serials if you want. thanks for your inputs, i will revise it as soon as i get time. super busy lately

[richardHaw]

http://richardhaw.com/2018/10/28/report-nikkor-prototypes-part-5/

Part 5 is now up! 

[Akira]

http://richardhaw.com/2018/10/28/report-nikkor-prototypes-part-5/

Part 5 is now up! 

Thank you, Rick, for the effort!  It has been a long journey, but well worth it.

I guess that the 600/5.6 ED is a prototype with the automatic aperture which the focusing unit didn't offer.

[pluton]

It was interesting that Nikon tried the New Nikkor smaller lens styling on the 300mm.  Looked cool, anyway!

[Erik Lund]

Some rare looking lenses, interesting how one is so accustomed to the actual production lenses that these seems strange and unfamiliar,,,

[richardHaw]

if anybody wants me to revisit anything, i will go there around december and I can take photos of the lenses that you want

just make a list of which lens and WHAT angle and i will see if I can squeeze my iPhone between the glass cases. the staff there are usually familiar with me and they usually let me be anyway but if I needed to touch anything i will have to ask the curator first if he is around

[Roland Vink]

http://richardhaw.com/2018/10/28/report-nikkor-prototypes-part-5/

Part 5 is now up! 

Nikkor-P 135mm f/3.5 Auto It is interesting that Nikon was planning a new version as early as 1963. The new lens would have 5 elements (Nikkor=P = Penta = 5) compared to 4 elements for the existing lens (Nikkor-Q = Quatro = 4). As it turned out, the existing lens remained in production until 1969 when it was replaced by an updated Nikkor-Q, also with 4 elements.

It's interesting that so many prototypes have the diamond pattern rubber grip. In production lenses this was normally used on special lenses such as zooms, reflex, 55mm micro etc, while most lenses continued to use the metal scalloped focus grip until the K/New Nikkor series in 1974.

Reflex-Nikkor 250mm f/8 A interesting little lens, but the not-very-long focal length and slow aperture would have limted its usefulness.

Nikkor-H 300mm f/4.5 Auto I wonder why this lens is so fat? The optics are probably the same as the production model Nikkor-H 300/4.5. Maybe they wanted to make the focus throw longer? The production lens has a relatively focus throw of just 150°, they could easily have made it much longer without changing anything else. The prototype also has a rotating tripod collar, instead of the two fixed points on the production model.

Nikkor-H 400mm f/5.6 Auto This lens is also very fat, and obviously a pre-ED design.

Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 ED This must be a prototype which lead to the AI 600/5.6 IF-ED. A small number of trial pre-AI 400/3.5 and 600/5.6 IF-ED were made for the Montreal Olympics - see https://imaging.nikon.com/history/story/0066/index.htm - but the prototype shown at the Museum has a different design from the trial lenses.

[richardHaw]

Nikkor-P 135mm f/3.5 Auto It is interesting that Nikon was planning a new version as early as 1963. The new lens would have 5 elements (Nikkor=P = Penta = 5) compared to 4 elements for the existing lens (Nikkor-Q = Quatro = 4). As it turned out, the existing lens remained in production until 1969 when it was replaced by an updated Nikkor-Q, also with 4 elements.

It's interesting that so many prototypes have the diamond pattern rubber grip. In production lenses this was normally used on special lenses such as zooms, reflex, 55mm micro etc, while most lenses continued to use the metal scalloped focus grip until the K/New Nikkor series in 1974.

Reflex-Nikkor 250mm f/8 A interesting little lens, but the not-very-long focal length and slow aperture would have limted its usefulness.

Nikkor-H 300mm f/4.5 Auto I wonder why this lens is so fat? The optics are probably the same as the production model Nikkor-H 300/4.5. Maybe they wanted to make the focus throw longer? The production lens has a relatively focus throw of just 150°, they could easily have made it much longer without changing anything else. The prototype also has a rotating tripod collar, instead of the two fixed points on the production model.

Nikkor-H 400mm f/5.6 Auto This lens is also very fat, and obviously a pre-ED design.

Nikkor 600mm f/5.6 ED This must be a prototype which lead to the AI 600/5.6 IF-ED. A small number of trial pre-AI 400/3.5 and 600/5.6 IF-ED were made for the Montreal Olympics - see https://imaging.nikon.com/history/story/0066/index.htm - but the prototype shown at the Museum has a different design from the trial lenses.

Thanks for your input 

i am also wondering why that lens is so fat. there must be some hidden gimmick

[Roland Vink]

VR?? 

[Erik Lund]

The scalloped rings has to be custom cast to fit, a round ring for the rubber grip can easily be made for each prototype. I'm actually surprice that so many of the prototypes has the scalloped rings

The fat versions of the pre production lenses could be due to not wanting to optimise and or down size the internal mechanics for focusing and aperture etc. until the optics where fine tuned.


Thank you for your report Rick and thank you Roland for your detailed comments! Amazing to get behind the scenes info.!

[Roland Vink]

Good point about the rubber grip - they are easier to make for each prototype. I thought the scalloped rings were milled not cast, but it still requires more work...

As for the fat Nikkor-H 300/4.5 (6 elements), the optics of the production lens are almost identical to the older Nikkor-P 300/4.5 (5 elements). The main difference is that the front element of the Nikkor-P is replaced by a doublet in the  Nikkor-H (which is where the extra element comes from). This improves correction for chromatic aberrations which was important as colour films were becoming more common in the late 1960s. The rest of the optical design looks the same, maybe some minor adjustment to spacing, curvature or glass materials. Since the optics are basically the same, they can be housed in a similar barrel, indeed the Nikkor-H 300/4.5 looks identical to the Nikkor-P, it is only a few mm longer due to the thicker doublet, and a little heavier. So it is surprising the prototype is housed in such a different barrel. The other difference is that the prototype appears to have a rotating tripod collar rather than the two fixed points of the production lenses, but that does not explain why the barrel is so fat...

[richardHaw]

im not sure but i guess that some of the components that were used to make these lenses were re-purposed from existing models. hence, the weird dimensions its like me wearing my cousins' clothes as a youngster because kids usually tend to soil or ruin their clothes quite easily as I can affirm with my own child. the shoes that i bought her last month now has holes on both sides...