Singing Praises of the Nikkor H.C. 50/2

[trittium]

I just got a Nikkor H.C. 50mm f2 lens in the mail today. My first impressions were very good. It has a "short throw" and is small and relatively light. Construction is supperb. I decided to take is shooting, and lucky there was a town art festival. I went and shot a roll of film (that's all I had on me), developed it, and was so happy with the results, I went back to shoot some more later on. The rendering is very nice. The highlights are nicely blown own and add a softness to the lens. Yet the images are still sharp in the mid and low tones. I have posted the first roll on my flickr site. If you are interested in seeing them, you can look at the following group..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trittium/sets/72157594168815781/

I will be developing the second roll tonight probably, and those images will appear in that same link.

PS. Does anyone know a good way to focus the close focus on this lens? I tried to guess focal length, but I had no luck.

 

[VictorM.]

Nice 'glow'! Is the lens hazy inside? Mine developed haze over the years and needed a good cleaning. Still, nice pictures.

 

[trittium]

It has a very very very light haze, but I don't think that would affect the glow at all. There is a little strand of some sort of cloth inside. It definately is not fungus just a small string of something. I really like the glow. I would have to say, I think this lens has the best look of any of my sm. I still need to try some wide open shots, but I think they would have a similar look.

 

[raid]

The Nikkor 5cm/2 is one of my favorite 50mm lenses for the Leica and Canon cameras. In my test of twelve 50mm lenses for flare,the Nikkor came out as the winner. It is a beautiful lens with overall great quality.

Raid

 

[rover]

I can only agree, the 50/2 Nikkor is one of my favs too.

 

[amateriat]

From what I can see in the pics, this Nikkor's "glow" works better in some situations than others; in some images its an enhancer, in others I think it detracts somewhat. This is the tricky part with using an older optic that has an obvious "signature": it can work wonders in some situations, yet be a bit of a handful in others. The qualifier here is that roughly 90% of the lenses I've ever used were made after 1974, when multi-coated optics were widely dispersed (pardon the pun) in the marketplace; my concept of lens "signatures" is rather more nuanced as a result of this experience.


- Barrett

 

[rover]

I just looked at the photos again. Is that glow or flare? I have experienced excellent sharpness and character from my Nikkor, but it seems you may have been experienceing flare with bright light sources in the center of your frames.

 

[matt fury]

That glow is intense. Really shows you what "glow" is.