Nikon FE with a 50mm f/2

[Derrel]

Your 50mm f/2 had a nice AI-conversion performed on it! Nikon used to charge $35 for the AI-conversion work. Robert White is still performing similar, expert-level conversions.

Really? I thought mine is just the Ai version that came out in the 70s. I believe the non Ai one your talking about is the 50mm f/2 Nikkor-H, which were around the 50/60s. That needs to be converted to work with modern DSLR body. This was something I read up before, so I could totally be wrong.

No, I think you're right and I was wrong...I just checked my serial number book...that does appear to be an original Ai model....there were both Ai and earlier, non-AI versions of your lens's design style, with the rubber rings....the Nikkor-H and H-C. versions had the metal, ribbed focusing rings. There were quite a few of these type made with the RIFR or rubber-inset focusing ring style from 1974 to 1977 that yours lens has....this lens is actually a pretty good, solid optical performer, and it performs well as a manual focusing lens--it has a nice "throw". From March of 1977 to January of 1979, these lenses were made in three separate runs, in factory Ai dress; your lens in the 3,7XX,XXX range appears to have been made in the last year of AI production.

I owned two of the 1974-77 versions, which were really good lenses for me. I kept one, and still use it as a body cap on an old,collectible Nikon of that era! The focusing helicoid on these tended to get kind of loose and slicked-up after a good period of use--your lens looks very minty! Be glad the FE you got came with the 50/2 and not the later Series E 50/1.8, which is more prone to flare and has lower contrast.

 

[shaunly]

Your 50mm f/2 had a nice AI-conversion performed on it! Nikon used to charge $35 for the AI-conversion work. Robert White is still performing similar, expert-level conversions.

Really? I thought mine is just the Ai version that came out in the 70s. I believe the non Ai one your talking about is the 50mm f/2 Nikkor-H, which were around the 50/60s. That needs to be converted to work with modern DSLR body. This was something I read up before, so I could totally be wrong.

No, I think you're right and I was wrong...I just checked my serial number book...that does appear to be an original Ai model....there were both Ai and earlier, non-AI versions of your lens's design style, with the rubber rings....the Nikkor-H and H-C. versions had the metal, ribbed focusing rings. There were quite a few of these type made with the RIFR or rubber-inset focusing ring style from 1974 to 1977 that yours lens has....this lens is actually a pretty good, solid optical performer, and it performs well as a manual focusing lens--it has a nice "throw". From March of 1977 to January of 1979, these lenses were made in three separate runs, in factory Ai dress; your lens in the 3,7XX,XXX range appears to have been made in the last year of AI production.

I owned two of the 1974-77 versions, which were really good lenses for me. I kept one, and still use it as a body cap on an old,collectible Nikon of that era! The focusing helicoid on these tended to get kind of loose and slicked-up after a good period of use--your lens looks very minty! Be glad the FE you got came with the 50/2 and not the later Series E 50/1.8, which is more prone to flare and has lower contrast.

yea, this lens is great! It completely blow my 50mm f1.8 AFD out of the water. It's very sharp and well control even wide open. at 2.8 it's even sharper and at f4, its tack sharp corners to corners!. Color is warmer than my 1.8AFD and contrast is just terrific!

Pretty amazing knowing that I'm using an over 30+ year old lens and it still outperform today's standards. Technology and electronics may improve, but I guess good glass are always going to be good glass.

 

[Derrel]

Here is the link to Nikon's own,official "Story" underlying the development of their 50mm f/2 lens in F-mount.

Nikon | Imaging Products | NIKKOR - The Thousand and One Nights, Tale 2 : AI Nikkor 50mm f/2

an excerpt: "A feature of this Gaussian type is the ability to correct the chromatic aberration and spherical aberration which tends to occur with a large aperture lens, and this lens exploits this characteristic to provide excellent correction of chromatic aberration.

This lens also exploits glass with high refractive index and low dispersion to provide a much flatter image than the Nikkor-S.
We should also mention that the drop in performance for close-up work is small, and not only is the high quality maintained at the closest focusing distance of 0.45m (1.5ft.), but the lens also produces high quality when used on a bellows or extension rings for macrophotography.
The reasonable f/2 aperture means that coma can be easily corrected, and the sagittal coma flare which is a problem in large aperture lenses (turning points of light near the edge of the image into comet tails) is also relatively low.
By reducing the aperture by two stops, an image can be obtained with high contrast right to the edge of the image.

However, the spherical aberration is somewhat large when compared with a shorter lens barrel design model called "AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S"(1980~) in Japan, which was a further improvement on the AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8(1978~) and therefore the contrast is somewhat reduced at full aperture.
But this is a characteristic of the lens, and cannot be dismissed as an out-and-out defect.
In fact, this lens has a delicate balance of spherical aberration and residual peripheral coma flare, which together with the outstanding image flatness gives excellently uniform imaging over the whole image area from full aperture.
If we are just considering the image uniformity, then even among the many excellent lenses there are in this normal focal length, this is a top class item.

Thus, with few faults, this lens can stand comparison with the latest designs for its impressive performance. If we must give a drawback, it might be the very slight barrel distortion.
Of course this is absolutely no problem for normal work, but can slightly intrude in architectural work or macrophotography.
Compared with the previous model, the NIKKOR-S Auto and the AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8(1980~) mentioned above, which had almost zero geometrical distortion, it is something of a pity that this lens did not have quite as good correction."

 

[shaunly]

This lens had got to win the "best IQ for the money" award. I've seen some that goes for well under 100 buck!!! Good bye 50 f1.8 AFD.

 

[lmederos]

The FE is a great little camera. Built like a tank, and easy to work with. Mine has a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor.

But I am about to replace it, as most of what I do is digital, and end up taking photos and having to scan them. It's a shame this older lens does not do much with the current generation of Nikons, so I will probably end up looking at something other than Nikons for price reasons.

 

[djacobox372]

The FE is a great little camera. Built like a tank, and easy to work with. Mine has a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor.

But I am about to replace it, as most of what I do is digital, and end up taking photos and having to scan them. It's a shame this older lens does not do much with the current generation of Nikons, so I will probably end up looking at something other than Nikons for price reasons.

That lens will work perfectly on a d200, d300, d700, or d3.

It is true that with lesser bodies you'll lose metering, but not with the higher-end nikon dslrs.

 

[shaunly]

The FE is a great little camera. Built like a tank, and easy to work with. Mine has a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor.

But I am about to replace it, as most of what I do is digital, and end up taking photos and having to scan them. It's a shame this older lens does not do much with the current generation of Nikons, so I will probably end up looking at something other than Nikons for price reasons.

Mine works great on my D700. Those picture of the Nikon FE are actually taken with the 50mm f/2