You collectors might cringe, but...

crimbfighter · Jan 15, 2014

I had my Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 fisheye modified by a local camera repair shop. They also specialize in Ai modifications, but I am holding out to see if I can find an Ai conversion kit before having him mill down the aperture ring. The lens used to have a flange protruding beyond the rear lens element, which when you tried to mount the lens to a camera body with a built in focus motor, that flange would catch on the housing for the focus motor and you couldn't lock it into place. Now, I can mount it. The only issue, is without the Ai modification, the aperture ring pushes the meter coupling lever outward, which I'm afraid is putting a lot of stress on the lever itself. So, even though I can mount it now, I'm probably not going to really use it until I either find an Ai conversion ring, or get it milled down...

Now, with the modification, I can mount it to my D800 and get the full glory of the circular image!

crimbfighter · Jan 15, 2014

I am in the market for an Ai conversion kit, so if anyone knows of one available, please let me know! This lens requires a #56, #57, or #58 Ai conversion kit (I'm not sure which one because I can't seem to find documentation on which one is specific to this lens...) I've only been able to find one of each, but they are in a bundle with seven other rings that I don't need, and the whole bundle is $350..

crimbfighter · Feb 11, 2014

It took me a bit, but I now have my fully Ai converted 8mm fisheye! I contacted the seller of the conversion rings on ebay and they agreed to break up the bundle for me so I could purchase only what I needed. I still had to buy all three rings because there wasn't any documentation for which ring goes with what groups of serial numbers... And I'm pretty sure I got the last thee in existence!

One curious thing, though. I still can't change the aperture with the command dial from the camera. I programmed the camera to recognize it as a non CPU lens, so it displays the correct aperture. And it meters correctly. Even when I set the aperture ring to it's minimum aperture, I still can't change the aperture with the camera. Not sure if it was ever a possibility because of the location of the aperture control tab, or if I'm missing something. Either way, not a big deal.

And it looks pretty sweet mounted on my D800!