43mm Lens Caps

[Dez]

As I have a few bits of Nikon RF gear, I have over time gathered a number of different lens caps, and I'd like to sort out which kind goes where. Here is a picture of five different caps, all of which fit on Nikkor RF lenses with a 43mm thread.



I have dug through Bob Rotoloni's superb Nikon System book, and found the section where the different lenses are listed, with the type of caps (push-on or snap-on) they take, but there are different versions of each. I have two different snap-on caps, one "NKT", one "Nikkor" and I have also seen a 40.5mm one with "Nikon". Also three push-on ones, the two blacks having slightly different inside diameters to fit lenses with different filter rim thickness, and a chrome one, the likes of which I have never seen before. There is apparently also a domed chrome push-on variety that was shipped with early cameras forever outside my budget.

So can someone help me understand what goes where? The snap-on NKT variety seems to be the one usually found, and I tend to see that on 50mm f1.4 S-mount lenses. Was there a different cap used on the LTM ones? I tend to keep the chrome one on my LTM 50 that lives on my M4, just because it looks so good, but what cap should it actually be?




Cheers,
Dez

 

[wes loder]

43mm lenses caps

43mm lenses caps

You are correct that the most likely found cap for the RF Nikkors would be the snap-on type with the NKT logo. The black slip-on caps would date from around 1950 to 1956 and, yes, the rims of Nikkors varied. Early Nikkors have a thinner rim, so take a slightly smaller slip-on cap. The chrome caps are quite early—1949 to 1950-1, I would expect. 43mm caps with "Nikkor" on them are of two types. The early ones have a wide plain rim and a small hatch-marked middle. These would date to 1956-1957. Later ones with the narrower plain rim and wider cross-hatching are from after the RF era and came on El-Nikkor lenses that had 43mm threads. The 135mm f5.6 El-Nikkor is one of those, I believe.
The same remarks would cover caps in the 40.5mm thread. Except that 40.5mm caps with the "Nikkor" and "Nikon" mark are more common because that what the 50mm f2.8 El-Nikkor and ilk all take. Hope this helps, WES

 

[wes loder]

Caps for thread-mount Nikkors

Caps for thread-mount Nikkors

I might add that most of the normal Nikkors for thread-mount cameras shipped on Nicca cameras. Their standard caps say "Nicca" or "Tower," depending on whether the Nicca was a Sears import or not. They would not have come with NKT or Nikkor caps. WES

 

[Tony Whitney]

Yes, Robert Rotoloni's outstanding book is a mine of information on even the most obscure Nikon rangefinder details. It would be a most entertaining read for anyone interested in the history of cameras, even if they didn't own a Nikon RF. I have an odd Nikon cap problem right now. Several decades ago, I bought a Leica SM 50 mm lens, which I think was a Topcon - certainly not a mainstream maker of screw Leica lenses. The dealer didn't have a cap for it, so he gave me a 40.5 mm Nikkor snap-on cap for it. The lens is long gone, but for some reason, I kept the cap. Now, years later, I have a small Nikon RF outfit - S3 2000 and three lenses. One of the lenses lacks its 43 mm snap-on cap. I found a 43 mm cap on eBay, but it was nearly $90! So if any RFF member needs a 40.5 and has a 43 mm going spare, let's talk...TW

 

[Corran]

If you are obsessive about an "original" cap, then so be it, but otherwise, you can get 43mm pinch-style caps on eBay for a buck a piece or so. I bought a dozen for my Nikon RF lenses and put away all the original caps so they didn't get lost, so I could scalp them for high prices in 30 years 😉

 

[Dez]

I found a 43 mm cap on eBay, but it was nearly $90! So if any RFF member needs a 40.5 and has a 43 mm going spare, let's talk...TW

Just be patient. It's not necessary to pay Kevin's insane prices on ebay. I recently bought a group of three NKT caps, a 43mm snap-on and 40.5 and 43mm push-ons for $22.69 total.

Cheers,
Dez

 

[Dez]

You are correct that the most likely found cap for the RF Nikkors would be the snap-on type with the NKT logo. The black slip-on caps would date from around 1950 to 1956 and, yes, the rims of Nikkors varied. Early Nikkors have a thinner rim, so take a slightly smaller slip-on cap. The chrome caps are quite early—1949 to 1950-1, I would expect. 43mm caps with "Nikkor" on them are of two types. The early ones have a wide plain rim and a small hatch-marked middle. These would date to 1956-1957. Later ones with the narrower plain rim and wider cross-hatching are from after the RF era and came on El-Nikkor lenses that had 43mm threads. The 135mm f5.6 El-Nikkor is one of those, I believe.
The same remarks would cover caps in the 40.5mm thread. Except that 40.5mm caps with the "Nikkor" and "Nikon" mark are more common because that what the 50mm f2.8 El-Nikkor and ilk all take. Hope this helps, WES

Thanks very much, Wes. Excellent information, and yes, it should have dawned on me that there wouldn't be a Nikkor cap for the LTM lenses!

Cheers,
Dez

 

[cooltouch]

Yesterday, I was browsing through the bins of old stuff at a local camera shop when I came across a stash of old Nikon caps. Most were 52mm with the two plastic push buttons, but a few had the metal push buttons. I selected a clean 52mm one, and found one 43mm and one 40.5mm, figuring that they originally belonged to Nikon RF lenses.

Thanks to Wes's comment I now know that my 43mm cap is the early type and my 40.5mm cap most likely fit the 50mm f/2.8 El Nikkor. So am I correct in assuming that this was the only fitment for the 40.5mm cap? Also, I'm wondering if anyone here knows the lens fitment for the early 43mm cap?

I haven't yet decided what to do with these caps, especially since I don't have a RF Nikon collection. I have a Canon LTM collection, but fortunately all my Canon lenses have their original caps.

I just couldn't pass these old caps up. I bought them, along with two Nikon 52 mm caps, a few other caps of varying sizes, a hood for a lens I own, several rolls of expired B&W film, a handful of reloadable canisters, and a manual for the Nikon MD2 motor drive for $5. I love scrounging around through their old-stuff bins.

 

[Corran]

The 50mm f/2 RF lens takes the 40.5mm as well, I believe. At least, it takes those filters, but I'm not sure what the original cap was (maybe a push-on? I've had push-on caps for some, but not all, of my RF lenses).

 

[wes loder]

40.5mm caps

40.5mm caps

40.5mm was a common filter size at one time. The Zeiss normals all took this size. The 50mm f2 Nikkor and the rare 50mm f1.5 Nikkor both took the 40.5 size, as did the 135 f4 Nikkor. When NK got into enlarging lenses, they continued to use this size, so the 40.5mm size thread continued well past the RF era. In addition, The non-interchangeable lens Nikkorex 35 cameras also took that filter size. All of them would have come with the snap-on cap except the early lenses from 1948 to around 1956, which would take 43mm slip-ons.
The 43mm size fit the RF 21, the RF 28, the later 35mm f3.5, all 35mm f2.5s, the 50 f1.4 and the 135 f3.5. Quite a few of the RF lenses. Hope that helps, WES

 

[kermaier]

And the LTM 28/3.5, 35/3.5, 35/2.5, 50/3.5 (collapsible and rigid) all take 34.5mm caps/filters.
::Ari