Is it worth keeping Non-Ai Nikon lenses unmolested?

Dwig said:
Additionally, they designed the lenses so that the f/stop ring overhung the mounting flange as an additional dust/dirt shield to further address #2. The original overhang on the "tick mark" lenses was something around 3mm. It covered most of the side of the body flange on the F. They reduced this to about 1.5mm in the early 60s to address issues with the meter coupling on the meter coupling of the Nikkormat FT being developed. The early tick mark lenses will only mount on the F, F2, Nikkorex F (and the Ricoh version), and Nikkormat FS unless the lens was modified.
Click to expand...

As a side-note to this, early non-tick mark lenses that still have the 9-blade design also have the overhanging f/stop ring, making them only mount to the older cameras.

I have a complete set (3.5cm, 5cm, 10.5cm, and 13.5cm) that I have been meaning to send to a good tech for a while and get them AI'd and turn down the overhang. I don't care about collector value but they are excellent lenses with a unique rendering and I want to use them on more cameras...but I'm not sure who would best do such a conversion. Any thoughts?

At the moment I only use them on my F or F2 which is fine as I love my F2 anyway. But using aperture priority on my F3 and of course digital cameras would be nice...

I also have a pre-AI 8mm f/2.8 circular fisheye and some other older lenses that I need to have done.
 
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