"Olympic" 50/1.4 on E-bay

[mynikonf2]

Jusy thought I'd give a HU on item #290537742519 for sale on E-bay.

Please note that I am not affiliated with the seller but, I have bought several items from him in the past with no regrets. 😀

 

[KHW]

What about this??? 320659166907.

 

[rxmd]

Could you enlighten me what's the difference between the "regular" 50/1.4 Nikkor, the Millennium Nikkor and the Olympic Nikkor?

 

[Highway 61]

The "regular" 50/1.4 Nikkor is a classic Sonnar type while the other two are (probably, because their optics scheme has been kept secret...) of double-Gauss (symmetric) design.

The Millenium and the Olympic are identical, barrel and optical assembly wise, but the Millenium wears the most recent Nikon NIC coatings on all its elements. So it's better than the Olympic, for way less money...

There was a thread here about this very point not so long ago, you should find it back with a little of forum search.😉

Edit : here or even there... 🙂

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

Could you enlighten me what's the difference between the "regular" 50/1.4 Nikkor, the Millennium Nikkor and the Olympic Nikkor?

The regular 5cm f/1.4 was introduced around 1950 and made until the end of the rangefinder production in 1962. There are basically two versions of it, chrome and black.

In 1962 Nikon produced a physically longer version of the 5cm lens with a different optical formula. This lens was engraved "50mm" instead of "5cm". It came onto the market around the same time as the Tokyo Olympics and is commonly referred to as the "Olympic" 50mm. I don't think Nikon ever used that designation in product literature.

In 2000 Nikon manufactured a reissue of the S3 camera (first a chrome body, soon to be followed by an all black body) which was sold in kit with a black 50mm lens. I understand the "50mm Millenium", as it is commonly referred to due to its launch in the year 2000, takes over the same physical shape and lens formula.

 

[fbf]

This has been been relisted for at least 4 times. I'm surprised no one bought it

 

[rxmd]

Oh man, imagine losing this relatively rare lens by 10 bucks!

bidder 1 - $999.99 - 21H:34M:13S
bidder 2 - $1009.00 - 22H:05M:06S
Auction ended - 22H:05M:11S

5 second sniper!

That's life. You can lose auctions by a cent, too.

Bidding $999.99 is not particularly rational because it is slightly below a symbolic threshold that applies to everyone. In this situation, it's usually better to bid slightly above a symbolic threshold than slightly below it - simply because if you bid slightly above it, you're likely to beat everybody who bids slightly below it. So bidding $1010 makes more sense from a game theory point of view than bidding $999, and the difference is negligible.

As for sniping, it's usually frowned upon, but I find that tools such as Bid-o-matic actually encourage rational bidding behaviour. As a buyer, it forces you to think for a while in advance exactly how much you're willing to pay, because you have exactly one shot at specifying the maximum sum you're willing to invest. For other buyers, the simple possibility of having a five-second sniper around forces them to place the highest bid they're willing to pay, as opposed to hanging around on the site pressing F5 all the time and increasing their bids by five bucks. Less bidding wars, less GAS-driven purchases of things you don't really want.

(eBay actually is interested in bidding wars, as it drives up prices, and by extension eBay's profits, and leads people to spend more time hanging around for eBay; this seems to be one of the major motivations why they disallow sniping.)

 

[mynikonf2]

At that price it was so tempting...

but owning 2 of them would be just wrong. 😀
Hopefully the winner is a RFF member.

 

[aoresteen]

eBay auctions are not true auctions. The auction should stay open as long as there are active bidders. Gunbroker.com keeps an aution open beyond the end time. If there is a bid in the last 15 minutes of an auction, the auction is extended 15 minutes to allow more bids. So if you put in a 'snipe' bid, you have just opened up the bidding for an additional 15 minutes. I don't know why eBay doesn't do this as well. I've never seen a live auction stop bids because the clock is at a particular time when there are active bidders.

 

[rxmd]

eBay auctions are not true auctions. The auction should stay open as long as there are active bidders. Gunbroker.com keeps an aution open beyond the end time. If there is a bid in the last 15 minutes of an auction, the auction is extended 15 minutes to allow more bids. So if you put in a 'snipe' bid, you have just opened up the bidding for an additional 15 minutes. I don't know why eBay doesn't do this as well. I've never seen a live auction stop bids because the clock is at a particular time when there are active bidders.

Probably because their business model relies on irrational behaviour on behalf of the buyers - bidding frenzies, bidder wars and so on - and a fixed time limit encourages irrational behaviour.

 

[Highway 61]

Oh man, imagine losing this relatively rare lens by 10 bucks!

bidder 1 - $999.99 - 21H:34M:13S
bidder 2 - $1009.00 - 22H:05M:06S
Auction ended - 22H:05M:11S

5 second sniper!

You will never know which amount was entered by "bidder 2". Only thing you can hold for sure is that is was not $1009.00. This sum was automatically set by the system as a step over the previous bid. He might very well have entered $2666.66 or anything so that he was certain not to be outbid by a "2 seconds sniper".

Anyway as long as all those interesting eBay auctions are pointed out here thanks to the pesky HU threads do not expect to "win" anything of that kind at a good price 😀 😛

 

[NIKON KIU]

The "Millenium" Nikkor has put a good dent on the price of the "Olympic" Nikkor.
Used to be , one couldn't buy one of these for less than $2000

Just a few years back, they did $2000- $2500 , that's if you were lucky to locate one.

I hear they are even cheaper in Japan.

Kiu

 

[mynikonf2]

The "Millenium" Nikkor has put a good dent on the price of the "Olympic" Nikkor.
Used to be , one couldn't buy one of these for less than $2000

Just a few years back, they did $2000- $2500 , that's if you were lucky to locate one.

I hear they are even cheaper in Japan.

Kiu

Kiu, do you think the "Millenium" Nikkor renders a better image than older "Olympic" Nikkor? or would you say the newer 50's only advantage is it's advanced multi-coating, making it less prone to flair?