One hundred and twelve lines per mm !

G

_goodtimez

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After a series un unfortunate purchases that I had to return to sender I finally obtained what I consider to be a pure beauty.
I am a great fan of Nikkor Micro 55mm lenses and I have a few samples already but when I saw the one described here I immedialty fell in love:

This is a 1965 unit with all possible accessories, that includes the original Silica gel and also pieces of test negatives performed at the time to verify the maximum resolution. 112 lpm is what the certificate states ! This is great and I am absolutly happy with this kit. Everthing in the kit is mint.
Here are a couple of pictures:


Micro Nikkor Auto 55mm f 3.5 by Wegothim, on Flickr


Micro Nikkor Auto 55mm f 3.5 by Wegothim, on Flickr


Micro Nikkor Auto 55mm f 3.5 by Wegothim, on Flickr
 
Is this lens any different from your other 55mm 3.5 micro lenses?

Congrats. It looks great.
 
Resolution

Resolution

raid said:
Do all such micro lenses have such a resolution?
I have two such lenses!
Click to expand...

I cannot yet compare this lens with the more modern Micro Nikkors f3.5 but this is what the Bartender states about a Leica Summicron DR as a compare:

The 50/2 Dual Range Summicron is one of the most interesting Leica M lenses with the closest rangefinder coupled focusing of any M lens. The removable "eyes" provide parallax corrected viewing in the close focus range. The flat dovetail mounting base for the eyes gives the DR has a unique appearance among Leica lenses. A popular lens in the user market, many photogs consider the DR their sharpest lens. A 50 DR had the honor of having the highest resolution ever tested by the now sorely missed American photography magazine, Modern Photography, at over 100 lines per mm.

All my more modern issues (up to the late 70s) of this lens are really really sharp.
I think this one is sharp and beautiful :)
Price ? this lens has no price to me ...
 
Before you slobber all over this "find", just compare that with resolution figures Martin Tai got out of a couple of Minox lenses...

Minox C , "MINOX" lens15mm/f3.5 163 line-pair/mm on film.
Minox B,"COMPLAN" lens, 15mm/f3.5 177 line-pair/mm on film
Click to expand...

Here's the thread on "a certain other" forum, in which Martin details his exact technique: Minox 8x11 lens resolution

:cool:
 
You also have to consider that the old Micro Nikkor was optimized for close up photography. Current macro lenses use aspherical and floating elements to optimize performance across the focusing range. None of this matters as much, of course, if you are hand-holding the camera and shooting wide open at slow shutter speeds.
 
goodtimes said:
...
This is a 1965 unit with all possible accessories, ...
Click to expand...

This appears to be the original compensating aperture design. Be careful using it with TTL meters that couple to the prong. Its aperture design will lead to exposure errors at close distances. The error is minor at normal distances, approaching 1/3 stop at around 25" distance, but reaches a full stop at its minimum focusing distance. For accurate TTL meter reading you need to use stop-down metering after focusing.
 
Sejanus.Aelianus said:
Before you slobber all over this "find", just compare that with resolution figures Martin Tai got out of a couple of Minox lenses...



Here's the thread on "a certain other" forum, in which Martin details his exact technique: Minox 8x11 lens resolution

:cool:
Click to expand...


How sharp is the lens for the 35mm Minox?
The miniature Minox needs extreme sharpness with its size.
 
If you want to play the high resolution game, look at the industrial Nikkor lenses from the early 1960s.

Ultra-Micro-Nikkor 29.5mm f1.2: 1260 lines/mm in center 2mm
Ultra-Micro-Nikkor 28mm f1.8: 600 lines/mm in center 8mm
CRT-Nikkor 55mm f1.2: 250 lines/mm. I use this lens on a Visoflex, and the results are stunning.
 
How sharp is the lens for the 35mm Minox?
The miniature Minox needs extreme sharpness with its size.
Click to expand...

I haven't come across any figures but, from personal experience, I'd guess it's in the typical 50-70 lpm range at f8. The one I had was adequate but nothing special.

I believe the general rule is that for "straight" lenses (lenses where the focal length is more or less equal to the diagonal of the frame to be covered) the shorter the focal length, the higher the resolution. Once you start designing for wider coverage, the resolution at any focal length seems to go right down. I once compared my Nikkor f2/50mm to my Distagon 50mm for the Hasselblad. Definitely not a scientific test but the Nikkor was definitely sharper on the test (the usual page of newsprint).

This is important knowledge if you wish to photograph pages of newsprint. :D
 
In film days, the limiting feature was generally film location. I have occasionally seen 125 lp/mm on individual frames, but in general it is very unusual indeed to see anything much over 100 lp/mm on every single frame.

Assuming, of course, you're shooting test targets, which I used to do for magazines.

Cheers,

R.
 
Hi,

Some of us in the UK can remember a time when an OM Zuikos from R G Lewis came with a similar certificate.They were very proud of the fact that they tested them all. There was a series of adverts from Olympus that dwelt on this too.I can still remember the crowd outside the shop in High Holborn when it first happened.

Regards, David
 
Just out of curiosity, the early quotes are in "lines per mm" while more recent resolution figures are in "lp/mm" which is "line pairs per mm."

The question is does a black line and it neighboring white line count as one or two lines?

Is the measurement of the Micro Nikkor 112 lp/mm or 56 lp/mm? Just curious. My micro Nikkors are very sharp.
 
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