Nikon helical grease

Arbitrarium

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Aug 9, 2016
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I recently got a Nikon FE through trading in some tat, and bought a Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AI from the auction site to go with it.

Do all old Nikon lenses have such awful focusing feel? The grease must be entirely dried out, the focus ring is very free and loose. It feels like a £5 Soviet lens, not an expensive Nikon.

I've had plenty of Pentax and Olympus lenses of the same vintage that were nothing but buttery smooth and silent in their focusing feel. And I've heard nothing but positive things about Nikon's build quality on their manual focus gear, so I was expecting... somewhat better quality. The FE is excellent.

I'll send the lens off to be re-greased in the new year. But it's money I wasn't expecting to have to spend! Should I be wary of other Nikkor AI lenses having totally spent grease?
 
YMMV... I have the following Nikon manual focus lenses

AI'ed Nikkor-H 2.8cm f/3.5 and Nikkor-P 10.5cm f/2.5 as well as AI-S 20 f/2.8, 35 f/1.4, 50 f/1.2, and 85 f/1.4. The only lens I had to have re-greased was the Nikkor-H 2.8cm f/3.5... love them all but the 50 and 28 get the most use.
 
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