Nikon Rangefinders Lens "C"

S

Stefcuoz

Established
Local time
7:51 PM
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
176
Someone can clear to me: :bang:

Nikon Rangefiders Lens marked "C" for Contax have problem on Nikon cameras...?
If yes, What??

Thanks. :)
 
Yes, there is a problem. The focusing helicals on the Nikon cameras and Contax cameras are somewhat different. Consequently, on lenses larger than 35mm, the rangefinder will indicate that the image is in focus, while the image is not actually in focus at the film plane. This problem will not be apparent with shorter lenses like the 35mm because the focusing error will be within the lens' depth of field. The focusing error gets progressively greater as the focal length is increased.

Brian Sweeney and others could probably give you the technical explanation.

dexdog
 
Stefcuoz said:
Someone can clear to me: :bang:

Nikon Rangefiders Lens marked "C" for Contax have problem on Nikon cameras...?
If yes, What??

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

If your referring to the red C on Nikkor RF lenses it simply indicates that the glass is coated. I believe that all Nikkors were coated but Nikon put the C on their early and mid-production lenses to make it clear to people since other lens makers were still making uncoated lenses.

Late production Nikkor RF lenses do not have the C because by then coating a lens was the industry-wide standard.
 
I believe that the "C" on the Nikon lens that was made for the Contax camera refers to the letter C engraved on the focusing ring on the lens barrel, and not to the red C on the lens bezel that indicates a coated lens.
 
dexdog said:
I believe that the "C" on the Nikon lens that was made for the Contax camera refers to the letter C engraved on the focusing ring on the lens barrel, and not to the red C on the lens bezel that indicates a coated lens.
Click to expand...

Thanks, since I only use Nikkors for Nikon I didn't know that. ;)
 
It's worth knowing. A couple of times I bought Nikkor lenses over the phone back in the late 1980s and got 'C' versions delivered. So I learned to ask sellers if there was a 'C' mark along the base of the barrel. It's still worth asking in the Ebay era, because many people don't know about this and often the pictures don't show the lens from every side.

Nikkor lenses in Contax mount have the 'C' engraved near the base, including the quote marks. The lenses in question are the 85mm, 105mm and 135mm. The 50mm Nikkor doesn't do very well on a Contax at 2.8 or wider, but I'm not aware of any 'C' versions of these "normal" lenses.

Depth of field for wide-angles makes the difference generally unimportant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom