Millennium Nikkor 50mm 1.4 - sample photos

[Vincent.G]

Forgot where you took this photo Vincent?
It's here, : 新北市金山區金包里街43號, in New Taipei City, was called Taipei County before,

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.221...4!1stkb8xufcPE026uIjA8ZBCw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Thank you very much.

Here's one more photo to share.

Spending Time With The Little One After Work by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr

 

[Vincent.G]

For the bokeh lovers...


Half Full* by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr

 

[Vincent.G]

One more to share:

ORWO UN54 @ 400, Adox Adonal (1+25)


Feet at the crossing by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr

 

[DanskDynamit]

beautiful shots!

did Nikon sell this lens alone? I always find it with the S3 camera but never for sale alone.

How does it compare to the old version?

 

[marcr1230]

To the best of my knowledge it was only sold with the S3 re-issue
It's a wonderful lens IMHO - full of dimensionality

 

[ray*j*gun]

To the best of my knowledge it was only sold with the S3 re-issue
It's a wonderful lens IMHO - full of dimensionality

That is my understanding as well. It is by far my fav 50 used on my M's and Nikon S3. I stupidly sold my Bessa R2s kit some years ago and wish I had kept it.

 

[DanskDynamit]

I see, then its extremely hard to find!
I was thinking about buying the early F-mount version, but what do you think about the early S-mount? any good?

 

[Vincent.G]

The Millennium Nikkor works great in either B&W or color.

Nikon S3 Black Limited, Millennium Nikkor-S 50/1.4, Ilford XP2


Kinetic Rain by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr


Nikon S3 Black Limited, Millennium Nikkor-S 50/1.4, Fujichrome Velvia 50

Blue Resting Place by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr

 

[jonmanjiro]

I see, then its extremely hard to find!
I was thinking about buying the early F-mount version, but what do you think about the early S-mount? any good?

The Millennium 50mm F1.4 lens is not that hard to find on its own. Quite a few of the 10,000 or so reissue S3 Limited Edition sets that Nikon sold have been split up by now, so there's quite a few lenses only out there in the used market and they can be found with a bit of patience.

The easiest way to tell whether you're looking at a vintage sonnar optical formula Nikkor-S 5cm F1.4 lens or a gauss optical formula Millennium (Olympic) Nikkor-S 50mm F1.4 lens is to look at whether the focal length on the lens is engraved as "cm" or "mm". The sonnar lens is engraved "cm" and the gauss lens is engraved "mm".

The sonnar optical formula 50/1.4 is physically smaller, single coated, very glowy wide open but cleans up when stopped down half a stop, very sharp in the center with softer corners, and has some focus shift. The gauss optical formula Millennium 50/1.4 is larger, multi-coated, has a very flat plane of focus with excellent sharpness into the corners even wide open, and has minimal focus shift. The Millennium Nikkor is a reissue of the Olympic Nikkor released in the 1960s, so should perform similarly to the Olympic Nikkor (though I've never seen a comparison). I think the Olympic Nikkor is single coated rather than multi coated though.

There's lots of example photos taken with the sonnar Nikkor-S 50/1.4 in this thread, along with some Millennum Nikkor shots mixed in there.

The early F-mount Nikkor-S 50mm lenses are very similar to the Olympic/Millennium lens both in optical formula and rendering, though cumbersome to use on an M-mount body as there's no focus coupling.

 

[DanskDynamit]

@jonmanjiro thank you so much mate, it helps me a lot.

 

[Vincent.G]

Tale of the Two Fifties by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr

Nikon S3 Millennium
Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4
400TX @ 1600 / D76 1+1

 

[Tom A]

[/url]F547 #6 Nikon Rf Month by T&T and Mr B Abrahamsson, on Flickr[/IMG]

Nikon S3 and Millennium 50mm f1.4. "How to catch a falling star" Arista Premium 400, Beutler 1:8 foe 11 min. Burnaby Village Museum. BC.

 

[Vincent.G]

Great shot and title, Tom!

 

[ray*j*gun]

M8 Wide open

M8 wide open focus on center horse.

 

[Vincent.G]

Leica M7, Millennium Nikkor 50/1.4, T-Max 400
(Amedeo S-LTM adapter + Leica LTM-M adapter)


Back alley of coffeshop by Days of My Ordinary Life (Vincent), on Flickr

 

[menos]

Reviving this thread in hopes more people will show some of their Millennium Nikkor shots.
I came to two (!) samples of this lens like the virgin Mary to the child as some book says.
I bought one offered to me to be used on Leica M bodies and just a short while later I had a chance to pick up a S3 Millennium kit, including another one.

I like this lens so much that I keep both - one permanently on a Nikon SP and another one welded to an Amedeo adapter to be used on Leica M bodies.

I like it best on the SP to say the least ;-)

Here is a shot that shows why I love this lens so much - although it has a bit of a double gauss craziness, with an open aperture it does work still nicely for backgrounds but is ALWAYS pin sharp - amazing considering how old this Nikkor design is - eat this Leitz ;-)

vintage Nikon SP + 50/1.4 Millennium + TriX 400 in D76 1:1
… by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr

 

[menos]

Nikon SP 2005 + 50/1.4 Millennium + TriX D76 1:1

... by Dirk Steffen, on Flickr

In certain light (contrasty Shanghai daylight) I actually have to dial sharpening and contrast way down from my standard film scan settings with the Millennium Nikkor as it is simply so sharp and contrasty that photographs can look unreal.
The scan here is untouched, no nuclear explosion eye re-touching or crazy sharpening - it's all the lens.

 

[keytarjunkie]

No one posting photos lately - let's change it!

Millennium Nikkor + Fuji Pro 400H

Millennium Nikkor + Portra 800

Millennium Nikkor + 400TX

Millennium Nikkor + HP5 Plus


Stopped down, there is nothing sharper (or at least it out resolves the film). Wide open, the look is beautiful and airy. Often its rendering is preferable to the Sonnars, but not always. I really enjoy this lens on film. It loses some magic on digital.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Wide-Open on the S3-2000.

nikki_portrait by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

nikki_writing by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

 

[keytarjunkie]

A few more on now-discontinued Fuji Pro 400H: