NEX5 and Nikkor 55/2

koji · Expire: 2012-12-27

Just testing mostly at MFD:

@f8 CV Color Skopar 28/3.5

@f8 African violets (red)

@f2 African violets (no flower)

@f8 African violets

@f2 Pecan nut

@f8 Coffee beans

All the above were shot by this NEX + Modified body-cap (yellow arrow) + Helicoid + L39->M42 adapter>

I bough a body cap from "jinfinance" at eBay, and made a hole of Approx. 42mm diameter in order to
fit an M42-helicoid (no glue now) into this hole. There is one helicoid (M42->E mount) with US$133 from Taiwan,
but too thick (minimum 14.7mm + 7mm extension) for my liking, so I have not gotton it.

The lens in the photo is Nikkor-O 55/1.2 which has focus range from 0.3m to inifinity in this combination,
that is quite useful as short-telephoto lens. Those seven photos were shot with Ultra-Micro-Nikkor 55/2.
With this Micro-Nikkor + NEX5 the focusing range is pretty limited due to thick-ness of the helicoid.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Very nice shots, Koji. Well you sure aroused my curiosity because I'd never heard of either of these Nikkors, so I did a bit of googling and found answers! Cool, I always like it when I find answers. And just in case other folks are like me and aren't familiar with these two optics, here's what I found out about them:

The 55mm f/1.2 Nikkor-O (for Oscilloscope):

This very rare speciality lens was made for industrial use to record faint cathode-screen traces and came with a long Leica-thread mount. It can be mounted on any Nikon camera with the LF adapter and a restricted focusing range is achieved by rotating it in the adapter. It is optimised for the limited magnification range 1:4.4-1:5.5 only and here it delivers exceptionally sharp images. Peak performance is between f/1.4 and f/4 so the lens is extremely useful for hand-held close-ups. Its quality for flower photography is further enhanced by a negative field curvature thus enabling both central and outer floral areas to be in sharp focus even at wide aperture settings.

Be aware that using this lens way outside its optimum magnification range will induce severe spherical aberration, flare, and changes in field curvature. All these alterations may or may not be desirable for a given task.

The Ultra-Micro Nikkor 55mm f/2:

Yet another example of the industrial lens range offered by Nikon, this 55 mm delivers outstandingly sharp images even wide open. Contrast and recorded sharpness increase when the lens is stopped down a few more stops. This is probably due to the fact that the Ultra-Micro never was designed for general (close-up) photography, witnessed by its Leica thread mount, lack of focusing mechanism, and short back focal distance of 28.8 mm for 1:4 magnification. It was likely designed for a narrow spectral band as was the 28/1.8 Ultra-Micro-Nikkor, but such data is not engraved on the lens itself unlike the 28 mm. However, the lens behaves so well across the visible range that it easily can be put to good use on a D1/D1X (no, it will NOT illuminate the entire 35 mm frame so using it on a 35 mm system is difficult). The lens should not be reversed used this way (on a 35 mm system, the opposite applies). You'll need a Leica to Nikon (LF) adapter to mount it on a D-series camera, and end up with a remarkably sharp and fast fixed-focus lens. Get down on your knees and explore the world seen through the eye of this superb lens.

I recently modified this lens to give it a matrix metering capacity. Read about the conversion here.

And here's the web page where I found this data -- full of all kinds of info on rare and exotic glass, mostly Nikon:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_spec.html

Also, I find only seven photos, not eight, but whose counting? Rolling Eyes

koji · Expire: 2012-12-27

I was planning to add the following shot, but I forgot it. So either I was
miss-counting or forgetful as my age dominates my behaviour. Very Happy

@f8 rubber rings

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

I find it most amazing to use those exotic lenses on a digital camera!