W-Nikkor 3.5cm f1.8 f2.5 f3.5 comparison

[WJJ3]

Interesting comparison Jon, those 1950s Nikkors are special lenses for sure. I wish other Japanese makers of the time (Minolta!) had been as prolific and made such high quality 35mm FL lenses.

 

[splitimageview]

Jon, are you keeping all three of them?

 

[jonmanjiro]

Thanks Will!

Robert, the f1.8 is going nowhere and I'm going to hang onto the f2.5 for now, but the f3.5 is in the classifieds as I type.

 

[das]

These tests are wonderful and confirm what I have been seeing with these as well after messing around with both the 1.8 and the 2.5 on a mirrorless digital. The first thing that strikes me is the lack of distortion and expected light falloff in both of these lenses. The 1.8 is fairly impressive at f/2 and beyond -- most likely better than any retrofocal SLR lens of the 1960s, even the 1970s perhaps -- but has really noticeable flare and some coma at f/2. As detailed by the Nikon write-ups, the 2.5 does have rather major front focus in the corners that gets better as you stop down, but never really goes away. Modern glass really blows away both of these lenses, though.