On my Sony A6000 Camera with a 1.5 crop factor, this is a 82.5 mm equivalent lens. I find this works very well on this camera.
These are F-mount lenses, which come in "AI" and pre-AI flavors. As near as I can tell this distinction doesn't matter to me, but it matters a lot if you want to put a pre-AI lens on a modern Nikon body. The lens must be modified to avoid damage to the camera!
Note that the "32" on the aperture ring is orange, which is reputed to be an indication that the lens has close range correction via a floating element. Some people speculate that the mechanics of the floating element are what give rise to the oil migration issue commonly reported with this lens.
My views on this lens have swung back and forth. Right now they are very positive. You hear a lot about terrible problems with oil migrating onto the aperture blade as well as the focus ring freezing up. My lens has none of these problems, and other people say that these problems are exaggerated on internet forums. This kind of amplification happens on the internet as a handful of bad reports get picked up and spread around (the nature of rumors). I am sure there are copies of this lens with the issue and perhaps there were periods of time when something was going on at the production facilities.
All I can say is that the lens I have is superb in every way. And mine was purchased on Ebay from a lady who said it was used by her father. It is serial number 509xxx. One list shows serial numbers from 179421 - 600814 beginning in 1979 and extending into the early 2000. All I can conclude from this is that this lens was not early production
There is apparently no way to tell a compensating lens apart from a non-compensating lens without partially disassembling the lens and looking at the piece that moves the aperture lug. If the slot in it is straight, it is non-compensating, if the slot is slanted, it is compensating. The compensating version was made first, but later abandoned (who knows why?)
The rubber barrel is seen in two forms, one with a diamond pattern, the other with a square pattern. Some people think they may be different optically, others don't think so. The square pattern is apparently more modern than the diamond. My diamond pattern lens was pre-AI, and modified later to be AI compatible.
The lens with the metal focus barrel is probably the top choice, especially for close up work (which is probably why you are buying a micro-nikkor in the first place). It is unfortunate that this lens doesn't perform all that well focused at long distances, but we just have to get over it. Later versions made adjustments that improved long distance performance, but sacrificed the superb close-up performance of this version. This yields a "more balanced" lens, but if you are all about closeup work, this is not what you want to hear.
have a metal barrel compensating aperture lens, in pieces right now. It has "Nippon Kogaku Japan" markings on the barrel. Serial 248xxx.
I have an f/3.5 lens that is marked "Micro-Nikkor P Auto" with a rubber diamond pattern focusing grip. Serial 689xxx. This is a pre-Ai rubber barrel version, although it was later modified to be Ai compatible. This is apparently one of the newer versions with 5 elements in 4 groups (in lieu of 5 elements in 3 groups) and which focuses better at infinity, sacrificing some of the close up performance. It also came with an M2 extension tube (rather than an "M") which matches this newer era lens.
I also have an f/2.8 lens that seems to have no problems with oil on the aperture blades.
Bjørn Rørslett is an authority on these old Nikon lenses. The quotations below are by him.
His numeric rating system is like so:This version is the most desirable for macro work. Close up he gives it a "5" rating (but for distance work, a dismal "2").
The modified Micro-Nikkor from the mid '60 had much flatter image field than the first version of 1961, and gave close-ups with tremendous sharpness. Despite its single-layer coating, the deeply recessed front element ensured flare problems were minimised. This lens had an outstanding feature directed at the non-TTL light meters of its era, viz. an aperture that changed f/numbers by itself as the lens was focused closer. This meant the photographer could measure exposure the usual way and let the lens take care of the adjustment needed by the close-focus extension. Really neat if you didn't use TTL (I did TTL, however, with my Nikon F Photomic of these halcyon days, and the aperture re-re-adjustment was cumbersome indeed - I ended up doing stopped-down metering with it). The 55 mm Micro was optimised for close-ups with peak performance at 1:10 magnification, and the image quality suffered when it was used for landscape shots. For close-up work, peak performance was between f/5.6 and f/8. The near symmetrical design ensured that it performed well when reversed onto a bellows or extension tubes. I have used it this way successfully for shooting macro images on 6x9 cm and 4x5" formats. Some confusion exists as to which Micro-Nikkor is the one with adjusting aperture. Partly this is due to the term "Micro-Nikkor P" used in Nikon literature, whilst the lens itself only is engraved "Auto". At least my sample is. Since there is an immediate successor without the compensating feature, but "P" designation, identifying this model is not easy. However, a lens with chrome barrel, magnification factors printed in light blue, and hill-and-dale focusing and aperture collars likely is the real thing.
The final successor to the second type of 55 Micro-Nikkor had multicoating (hence the "C" designation). There evidently was a "P" without multi-coating prior to the "P.C" version. Nikon gave it a better image rendition for shooting distant objects, meaning there had to be some quality sacrifice for close-ups. Since most users didn't use it for really close-up work anyway this modification was a comprise that made most users happy (not counting me, I continued to use the older model to this day ..). Maximum sharpness needs an aperture setting of f/8. Beyond f/11-f/16, sharpness rapidly deteriorated.
The faster f/2.8 version of the Micro-Nikkor had floating elements to make it perform equally well up close and for distant scenes. Unfortunately, the f/2.8 design is extremely prone to getting lubrication onto its aperture blades to make the aperture stick unexpectedly when shooting. I gave up my f/2.8 after having cleaned it twice. It makes an excellent paper-weight, however. Newer versions may have a stiffer lubrication so as to minimise the seepage problem. Storing the lens in an upright position and avoiding hot spots such as car trunks may also contribute to mitigate this issue.
Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org