AIs Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 coverage

[Kate-the-Great]

I have a totally crazy idea here. The AIs 85mm 1.4, unlike the slower 85's, appears to be just a modified Double-Gauss formula instead of telephoto which means it may cover way more than 135.

Does anyone that owns this lens have a way to check, ie by holding the lens up to GG and looking at the size of the image circle? I'm tempted to just buy one since these are great lenses no matter what the use, but $$$

 

[Phil_F_NM]

It covers more but not much more.
I just focused mine up against my wall at the lamp and wall across the room 10 feet away and it covers maybe 55mm at most but the edges are getting very fuzzy there. I brought a roll of 120 up beside the projected image and the circle of coverage from the lens doesn't even touch both sides of the spool focused at a distance of 10 feet.

Aside from that, Nikon's shortest non-retrofocal lens is the original 10.5cm Nikkor which was a very slightly modified version of the rangefinder lens. They tried to use shorter focal length optics from the RF system but couldn't get the 85mm to clear the mirror box in the original F.

Aside from that, they are GREAT lenses. I got a job based solely on an image I took with one of these, granted I was at the right place at the right time, but framing and focus were great in a situation where I would have had to crop too much with a wider lens and wouldn't have gotten the shot with a longer one.

Phil Forrest

 

[Kate-the-Great]

Thanks for checking that, Phil!

That does tell me that the 85 1.4 would cover 4x4cm digital and almost 4x5cm, which is valuable knowledge 🙂