Aperatue blades not making a perfect circle? Return the lense?

[kawasakiguy37]

Ive recently been trying to aquire a mint condition nikkor 85mm 1.4 lense. I want to use it mainly for portraits and everything else, as its supposedly an amazing lense. I bought the MF AI-S version from KEH ab out 2 weeks ago. Lense arrived in flawless condition, but didnt stop down at all (not sure whats wrong). KEH sent me a replacement that also rated as "EX" (meaning execellent, their 3rd highest condition). This new one stops down, BUT

The aperature hole, when stopped down, is not perfectly circular. It has 9 elements and some are longer than others, especialy at F/16, and it gives it a sort of slightly off balance shape.

KEH told me this was normal for this type of lense and I should be fine to use. I am, however, not too happy, and pretty sure I am going to return it.

Am I overreacting or will this affect picture quality? All my other used nikkors have had perfectly rounded (by rounded I mean proportional polygons) diaphrams.

 

[Village Idiot]

Ive recently been trying to aquire a mint condition nikkor 85mm 1.4 lense. I want to use it mainly for portraits and everything else, as its supposedly an amazing lense. I bought the MF AI-S version from KEH ab out 2 weeks ago. Lense arrived in flawless condition, but didnt stop down at all (not sure whats wrong). KEH sent me a replacement that also rated as "EX" (meaning execellent, their 3rd highest condition). This new one stops down, BUT

The aperature hole, when stopped down, is not perfectly circular. It has 9 elements and some are longer than others, especialy at F/16, and it gives it a sort of slightly off balance shape.

KEH told me this was normal for this type of lense and I should be fine to use. I am, however, not too happy, and pretty sure I am going to return it.

Am I overreacting or will this affect picture quality? All my other used nikkors have had perfectly rounded (by rounded I mean proportional polygons) diaphrams.

Compare it to other samples of the 85 f/1.4. Does the Bokeh on your photos show up abnormal?

 

[kawasakiguy37]

I havent tested it extensively as it just arrived, but I have not noticed weird bokeh yet. I am just kinda aggravated that I paid 600 bucks for a MF lense that is supposedly one of Nikons best ever, and it has this problem....especially with 9 aperture blades!!!

edit: and I have no other 85 1.4's to compare to, sadly, they arent too easy to come by

 

[KmH]

No lens that uses only 9 aperture blades makes a perfectly circular lens opening.

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[Flash Harry]

Its fine, test it, if not happy then return but its a great lens as long as you get focus spot on when wide open, F2 is best. H

 

[Garbz]

For your comparison:

 

[GeneralBenson]

Garbz, is that top one wide open? Shouldn't it be a perfect circle wide open?

OP, I'm pretty sure no lens is a perfect circle when stopped down. Even with rounded aperture blades, when you start stopping down, you would progressively start seeing the 9-sided polygonal shape. Or do you mean that it's oblong, as in, not an equal-sided nonagon?

 

[Derrel]

The slight degree of out of round shape that Garbz's photo set is showing is reasonably common--many lenses are not perfectly round at their smaller apertures, especially at the f/16 and f/22 zone. One blade is quite often slightly out of alignment, as seen on Garbz's lens. At wider apertures like f/5.6 and wider, the out of round nature of a slightly mis-aligned diaphragm blade is pretty difficult to see in out of focus highlights.

 

[Garbz]

No the top one is at f/2. You wanted to see the blades so I figured it would be pointless to show the f/1.4

 

[kawasakiguy37]

Garbz, is that top one wide open? Shouldn't it be a perfect circle wide open?

OP, I'm pretty sure no lens is a perfect circle when stopped down. Even with rounded aperture blades, when you start stopping down, you would progressively start seeing the 9-sided polygonal shape. Or do you mean that it's oblong, as in, not an equal-sided nonagon?

Mine is like his, but more unequal (as in not an equal side polygon). I dont expect it of course to form a perfect circle, I just meant merely that the blades are not even (quite oblong). Ill post some pictures of mine soon

edit:

Here are the pictures:

For some reason it looks worse in person than these pictures, but maybe its just my e yes

 

[reznap]

I wouldn't know better - I'm still pretty new - but it sounds like you're being super-critical and it's normal. Do the blades on your other lenses form perfect polygons?

On a side note, those are the coolest aperture blade macro shots I've seen.

 

[Garbz]

That is definitely not an issue. Here's a little food for thought, bokeh is only rendered in the perfect shape of the aperture blades when they are a) stopped down, and b) the edge of the lens doesn't come into play.

If the lens produces good pictures at f/1.4 where only the very centre meets this criteria then you won't at all notice the slight variations of the aperture blades.

 

[kawasakiguy37]

Yea, I decided to keep it, this thing takes AMAZING photos!

Btw, as for those shots, they were taken with my little canon SD600 point and shoot! Ijust set it to macro mode on manual and fired away, I love that little thing! Shows you dont need the best camera to take nice photos