Pekka Buttler, 08/2024
Specifications
The table below summarizes the lens’ key specifications:
Brand: | Nikon | Lens name | Zoom-NIKKOR 50~135mm 1:3.5 |
Focal length(s)1 | 50–135 mm | Angle-of-view2 | 46° – 18° |
Maximum Aperture | f/3.5 | In Production | 1982–1984 |
Lens mount | Nikon F | Subfamily (if applicable) | Ai-s |
Length3 | 125,5 mm | Diameter4 | 71,6 mm |
Filter ring diameter | 62 mm | Weight | 710 grams |
Lens element count | 16 | Lens group count | 13 |
Aperture blades (S/R/C)5 | 7 S | Focus throw | 150 ° 180 ° in macro mode |
Minimum focusing distance | 1,3 m 0,6 m in macro mode | Maximum magnification | 1:9,3 |
Has manual aperture ring | YES | Has Manual focus ring | YES |
Aperture mechanism type | Auto | Aperture click stops | 3.5-4-5.6-8-11-16-22-32 |
Further notes:
• This lens is Nikon’s only ever zoom lens with this specific zoom range (50–135 mm). It can be characterised as standard-to-medium tele zoom with a bright maximum aperture.
• The lens features a one-ring, push-pull design. This means that you adjust focal length by pushing or pulling on a ring and that you rotate the same ring to adjust focus.
• While not being strictly parfocal, the lens is not far off. At f/8 the shift in focal distance keeps within the depth of field.
• While the MFD is rather disappointing, the lens offers a macro mode (at the 50 mm setting).
• It has a rather elaborate optical design with altogether 16 lens elements.
• Nikon offered a dedicated hood (the HK-10, a slip-on hood) for use with this lens, but as this is Nikon’s only ever lens to use that specific hood, availability of the dedicated hood tends to be weak.
• The lens’ filter threads do not rotate on focusing.
• The lens was discontinued after only two years and a bit over 30 000 copies made. While it has no direct successor, the Nikkor Ai-s 35–135 mm f/3.5–4.5 was introduced at the same time as this lens was discontinues, making that lens its de-facto successor.
A brief genealogy of Nikon SLR lens types
Nikon is undoubtedly one of the great names in 35 mm SLR photography. The Nikon F mount has been in continuous production since 1959. During that time, the mount has developed/changed in some detail, however without ever fully sacrificing compatibility.
In short (a longer version is here), the development of Nikon’s SLR lenses can be traced as follows:
• 1959–1977: Pre-Ai. Manual focus lenses that use ‘rabbit ears’ to communicate selected aperture with the camera body. Pre-Ai lenses can further be subdivided into
• F-type (1959–early 1970s: metal focus ring and single-coated),
• C-type (early 1970s–mid 1970s: metal focus ring and multicoated), and
• K-type (mid 1970s to 1977: rubber focus ring and multicoated).
A significant share of remaining Pre-Ai lenses have since been converted to Ai-spec (Ai’d)
• 1977–1986: Ai and Ai-s. Manual focus lenses that may have ‘rabbit ears’ for backward compatibility, but are designed to communicate selected aperture with the camera body through indentations in base of aperture control ring.
• 1986–today: AF and AF-D. Autofocus lenses that do not have a focusing motor within the lens, but rely on the focus motor within the camera. All AF and AF-D lenses are simultaneously Ai-s lenses (they are Ai-s lenses extended with AF) 6
• 1996–today AF-S and AF-P. Autofocus lenses that have an internal focusing motor and do not rely on the body having a focusing motor.
Adapting
Besides adapting, this lens can be used natively on all current high-end Nikon dSLRs and several earlier medium-to-high-end older Nikon dSLRs7. Likewise, if it still has its rabbit ears, it can be natively used on all Nikon F-mount film cameras ever produced (without the rabbit ears, it is limited to post 1977 bodies).
Thanks to being a fully manual lens (manual aperture, manual focus), the lens can be adapted to all mirrorless cameras using a suitable dumb adapter (and such adapters are easy to find). Moreover, a large range of special adapters (helicoid adapters, tilt/shift adapters, speed boosters) for using Nikon F lenses on most mirrorless systems are available.
Using Nikon F lenses on non-Nikon SLRs and dSLRs is likewise a distinct possibility. Thanks to the relatively generous flange focal distance of the Nikon F mount (46,5 mm), adapter rings for all dSLR mounts are available as well as for a goodly portion of film-era SLR mounts. Such rings may not allow for auto aperture, but even then the lenses can be used in stop-down metering mode.
Footnotes
- Focal length is (unless stated otherwise) given in absolute terms, and not in Full-frame equivalent. For an understanding of whether the lens is wide/tele, see ‘Angle-of-view’. ↩︎
- Picture angle is given in degrees and concerns the diagonal picture angle. Rule of thumb:
> 90 ° ==> Ultra-wide-angle
70–90 ° ==> Wide-angle
50–70 ° ==> Moderate wide-angle
40–50 ° ==> ‘Standard’ or ‘normal’ lens
20–40 ° ==> Short tele lens
10-20 ° ==> Tele lens
5-10 ° ==> Long tele lens
< 5 ° ==> Ultra-tele lens ↩︎ - Length is given from the mount flange to the front of lens at infinity. ↩︎
- Diameter excludes protrusions such as rabbit ears or stop-down levers. ↩︎
- S=straight; R=rounded; C=(almost)circular at all apertures. ↩︎
- There is a further sub-class of AF-D lenses called AF-I lenses that are otherwise AF-D lenses (meaning, fully Ai-s compatible), but have an internal focus motor. Only long tele lenses were made in AF-I variants. ↩︎
- As of this writing, the following Nikon dSLRs fully support Aperture priority and manual metered modes on Nikkor Ai lenses: D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D200, D300, D300s, D500, D600, D610, D700, D750, D780, D800, D800E, D810, D850, D7000, D7100, D7200 ↩︎