W-Nikkor C 3.5cm f/1.8 Photos!

[Calzone]

LOVE them ALL Jon... Beautiful set
processing is Divine

I should have You hunt me down one in Japan...
is an ltm version for an M body hard to find ?

should one cve in and get a nikon rf ??

Helen,

I own a 35/1.8 Nikkor in LTM. Only 1700 were made in LTM, and it is my favorite 35mm, and is especially great for B&W. The LTM versions are kinda rare.

The glass is radioactive (mildly) and my lens displays a yellow tint that is like having a yellow filter built in (about a half stop). The lens is also tiny.

I use it on a IIIG and my M-bodies. Has a very distinct rendering and contrast. Wide open it has all this glow in the highlights that is due to veiling flare, but slightly stopped down it goes away and is very sharp like a modern lens.

Cal

 

[jonmanjiro]

LOVE them ALL Jon... Beautiful set
processing is Divine

I should have You hunt me down one in Japan...
is an ltm version for an M body hard to find ?

should one cve in and get a nikon rf ??

Thanks Helen! 🙂

I recently compared my LTM W-Nikkor 35/1.8 back to back with a recently cleaned very nice condition Summicron 35mm V1. Both are really good lenses, but I definitely prefer the Nikkor!

As Cal mentioned, the LTM version is fairly hard to find and priced accordingly, so the fastest route to getting a W-Nikkor 35/1.8 would definitely be to get one on a Nikon RF. Its worth holding out for an LTM version though 😉

There's a great write up on this lens on Nikon's website here.

The glass is radioactive (mildly) and my lens displays a yellow tint that is like having a yellow filter built in (about a half stop). The lens is also tiny.

Cal, have you ever had the opportunity to run a Geiger counter over your lens? Would be interesting to see just how radioactive it is! I know Nikon used Lanthanum in this lens, which isn't appreciably radioactive, but Lanthanum is usually accompanied with Thorium, and that certainly is.

 

[NIKON KIU]

Brian Sweeney had a Geiger counter when I visited him a few years back, the 1.8 was definitely radiating.
We assumed it was part of Nikkor glow.

🙂

Kiu

 

[Calzone]

Cal, have you ever had the opportunity to run a Geiger counter over your lens? Would be interesting to see just how radioactive it is! I know Nikon used Lanthanum in this lens, which isn't appreciably radioactive, but Lanthanum is usually accompanied with Thorium, and that certainly is.

Jon,

My day job is being a Cyclotron Engineer so basically I work in a physics lab and I transmutate materials by adding protons and neutrons to target materials every day to create radioactive materials.

On a "Pancake" which is rather sensitive I get a few counts above background when surveying my old Nikkor.

Know that I live and work in Madhattan which has a lot of background radiation due to all the granite/bedrock. Brooklyn in comparision has a lot of sand and below average background radiation.

Cal

 

[Erik van Straten]

Great pictures, Jon. I'd love to see from your hand a 1960's style book with B+W pictures on the Japanese street life.

Erik.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Thanks Erik! That's an interesting idea indeed regarding the book. I'll keep shooting for a bit and see if I can get enough material for one. Meanwhile here's a few more photos taken at Noge-cho in Yokohama, all snapped with an LTM W-Nikkor 35/1.8 on a Leica IIIf, and mostly at 1/25 and f/2 from memory.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Very nice pictures again, Jon. Wich 35mm viewfinder do you use on the IIIf?

Erik.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Thanks Erik! I use a Voigtlander 35mm metal finder which I've finely adjusted to get quite accurate framing. This is the setup pictured below.


Once upon a time, Nikon made lenses for Leica cameras - Leica IIIf and W-Nikkor 3.5cm F1.8 by Jon, on Flickr

 

[Erik van Straten]

How do you adjust that viewfinder? Interesting ...

Erik.

 

[jonmanjiro]

I didn't adjust the finder as such. The right edge of the frame was getting slightly cut off so I adjusted the camera's accessory shoe to point as far to the left as possible on the camera (within the limit of the four screws that hold it in place) and then shimmed the foot of the finder to make the finder point as far to the left as possible in the accessory shoe using the slight amount of play of the foot of the finder in the accessory shoe. These two very minor adjustments added up to make the framing quite accurate.

 

[pyeh]

Great photos Jon, you certainly should consider compiling a book. You're also making me miss the place already.
And ingenious finessing of your accessory viewfinder!

 

[jonmanjiro]

Thanks Pete. Let's go to Noge-cho for yakitori and sake again in December!

 

[jonmanjiro]

Chengdu, China

 

[jonmanjiro]

Muslim quarter, central Xi'an, China

 

[jonmanjiro]

Muslim quarter, central Xi'an, China

 

[jonmanjiro]

Muslim quarter, central Xi'an, China

 

[jonmanjiro]

Bell tower at the center of Xi'an, China

 

[jonmanjiro]

Xi'an, China

 

[Larry Cloetta]

W-Nikkor C 3.5cm/1.8 at f3.2 Nikon S2 Acros 100 XTOL 1+3 (yellow contrast filter)

 

[Larry Cloetta]

W-Nikkor C 3.5cm/1.8 at f3.2 Nikon S2 Acros 100 XTOL 1+3

Posted same scene, different lens, in the S.C. Nikkor 1.4/50 thread for comparison's sake.