May 29, 2017
Manual focus Nikon lenses
I now have a Sony mirrorless camera (the a6000), and as everybody knows,
almost any "old school" manual focus lens can be used on these cameras with
inexpensive adapters.
This means that fantastic old classic Nikon and Canon lenses from the film camera era
can now be enjoyed and put to good use on modern mirrorless cameras.
Lens letters
There is all kinds of lingo to learn when it comes to Nikkor lenses.
You may see F-mount lenses marked "Nikkor-O" and so forth.
The suffix letter denotes the number of elements on lenses made up to the early 1970's.
Here is the code:
- U = (Uni) -- 1 element
- B = (Bini) -- 2 elements
- T = (Tres) -- 3 elements
- Q = (Quattor) -- 4 elements
- P = (Pente) -- 5 elements
- H = (Hex) -- 6 elements
- S = (Septem) -- 7 elements
- O = (Octo) -- 8 elements
- N = (Novem) -- 9 elements
- D = (Decem) -- 10 elements.
What about a lens marked "UD" like the 20mm UD f/3.5? This is an 11 element lens (Uni + Decem).
To add to the confusion, there are ancient Nikon rangefinder lenses that are called "Nikkor-S",
but these clearly are not F-mount.
Reference material
Nico van Dijk has accumulated (and made available!) a wealth of information:
Bjørn Rørslett is an authority on these old Nikon lenses.
Here are links to his web site:
His numeric rating system is like so:
- Poor, use as a paperweight unless you have perverse photographic interests to pursue.
- Mediocre quality, but useful if there isn't an alternate lens around. Get something better.
- Good, but not overwhelming quality. Will do for non-exacting or amateur use.
- Very good, quality results can be expected. Such lenses can safely be applied to professional photography.
- Excellent. Use such lenses as often as possible and let other people wonder about the quality you can achieve with them.
Feedback? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org