Traut
Well-known
I am looking at 10.5cm lenses. One has the Niikor P on the front. The other says P.C. what is the difference. The P.C is an earlier serial number. Thanks. HT
No difference. The red C (indicating "coated") got dropped on later lenses because lenses from all manufacturers were coated by then and it was no longer a selling point.
Traut
Well-known
Thank you. That explains why newer ones looked like something was lacking. Counterintuitive. Thanks again.
James24
Well-known
But with the F Nikkors, Nikon bought out lenses without the C first, and added the C later to indicate that they were coated (or so I thought). For example, 35mm f1.4 Nikkor N became NC, 35mm f2 Nikkor O became OC, 24mm f2.8 Nikkor N became NC and so on. It doesn't make sense to me.
Highway 61
Revisited
But with the F Nikkors, Nikon bought out lenses without the C first, and added the C later to indicate that they were coated (or so I thought). For example, 35mm f1.4 Nikkor N became NC, 35mm f2 Nikkor O became OC, 24mm f2.8 Nikkor N became NC and so on. It doesn't make sense to me.
Actually the return of the C (white font) on some second generation F-mount Nikkors was telling that those lenses had received the new multicoating treatment.
The former ones, without that C, had the same single coating as on the S-mount -C or w/o -C lenses.
E.g. re. all-metal scalloped focusing ring designed lenses : the Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 is coated but single coated while its immediate successor the Nikkor-HC 85mm f/1,8 is multicoated.
With pre-AI and AI lenses (rubber grip focusing ring) all Nikkors had got the multicoating treatment so the C went away for good.
Last improvement was the complete NIC treatment (all lenses surfaces, inside and out, to be multicoated using a new process) on AI-S and AF Nikkors.
ferider
Veteran
If I remember right, the very first lenses had no "C" but where coated anyways. Then the C was added (for marketing, I guess), and quite late removed again.
Interestingly the re-issue 35/1.8 has the "C" again
Interestingly the re-issue 35/1.8 has the "C" again
James24
Well-known
Thanks for the explanations!
Then in about 2001 - 2002 Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) replaced Nikon Integrated Coating (NIC)
The difference between the two is quite obvious when compared side by side. I once compared four very late serial no. Ai-S 105mm f2.5 lenses side by side at MAP Camera in Tokyo. From memory, the serial numbers were something like 1042xxx, 1044xxx, 1049xxx, 1052xxx, all very late production for this lens. The two lenses with the earlier serial no.s had the typically greenish looking NIC coating, and the two later lenses had the typically purplish/amber looking SIC coating. I prefer the colour rendering of the SIC coating so grabbed 1049xxx
And now we also have N for nano-coating
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Leigh Youdale
Well-known
I always thought that PC was for "Perspective Control". How then were those specialist lenses designated?
In the case of the rangefinder lenses and early SLR lenses:
T [tri] - 3 elements optical formula
Q [quadra] - 4 elements optical formula
P [penta] - 5 elements optical formula
H [hexa] - 6 elements optical formula
S [septa] - 7 elements optical formula
O [octa] - 8 elements optical formula
N [nona] - 9 elements optical formula
With the specialist perspective control lenses, PC does indeed mean perspective control
LunoLuno
Member
It's straight forward. When the "PC" comes before Nikkor name, that means it's a "perspective control" lens.
PC-Nikkor 35mm F3.5
With the lenses with 5 elements, "PC" comes right after Nikkor name.
Nikkor-PC Auto 105mm F2.5