Nikkor lens age

[Steve33]

I am seeking information on how to determine the age of a Nikkor 90mm f8 lens. Is there any web site around? The lens I am looking at has serial number 700028

Thanks in advance

[Mark Sampson]

This question has come up before with few good answers... AFAIK the Nikon LF lenses were introduced to the US market in the mid-70s, and the designs remained the same until they were all discontinued last year.

[Sevo]

There may have been two different generations. I've seen a few large format (or maybe process?) Nikkor lenses with the old -Q,-H,-S latin lens count nomenclature that seemed to date back to the sixties or seventies. These may have been domestic market only - they certainly weren't officially imported anywhere in Europe.

The Nikkor-M, -W and -SW were touted as a completely new entry of Nikon into the global large format market at a time when I already had set up my first studio, i.e. some time past 1983 - and I doubt that they were introduced earlier in the US.

[Mark Sampson]

I bought a used 180/5.6 Nikkor-W at Ken Hansen's in New York in 1985... there were advertisements for Nikon LF lenses in US magazines in the early '80s. I also seem to recall a column in "Modern Photography" (probably 'View from Kramer') reviewing the Nikon line very favorably when I was in college in the late '70s. I know that's anecdotal and inconclusive... I would agree that the process lenses and the enlarging lenses go back a lot farther than that.

[Brad Rippe]

I can't find it but I think Kerry wrote an article in View Camera a few years ago about the Nikon lenses with dates etc.
I'll keep looking.
-Brad

[Steve33]

I am sorry that I forgot to mention that it is a SW. Now, I have further researched on the internet. I found two interesting pages but nothing comparable to the fujinon or schneider pages that could tell me for sure which year the lens was made.
http://www.apug.org/forums/archive/i...p/t-14601.html
and
http://www.smso.net/Nikkor

Thanks for your help so far

Steve

[Ivan J. Eberle]

I've got a Nikkor 90 f/8 SW myself, in a Copal 0. S/N 692***. Chris Perez's page
http://www.hevanet.com/cperez/testing.html
throws out that 693*** S/N's date from the 80's; my understanding is that they're all the same design, all have the same huge IC that'll cover 5x7, all are multi-coated.

So, actual age wasn't so much of a concern for me, other than general condition and the age & function of the shutter (more a function of how much use and abuse it's subjected to, I'd think. Which didn't trouble me with the 90mm f/8 SW as it might with other lenses with wider apertures more likely to have seen day-in day-out studio use with flashes, etc. The shutter times almost perfectly up to 1/250s, 1/400 = 1/350. Rather typical of even the best Copals, from what I gather).

But if someone's got a Nikkor S/N chart to share, I'd be somewhat curious too.

[Peter Lewitt]

Kerry Thalmann's article on Nikon LF lenses is in the March/April 2003 issue of View Camera. Unfortunately, he says that Nikon didn't use chronologically sequential serial numbers, but assigned blocks of numbers for specific models and production runs.

He says that the SW f/8 lenses were introduced in the early 1980's, were all multicoated, and the design, advanced at the time, has not changed since.

[Mike Herring]

I am sorry I do not have the answer to your question regarding age of the respective lens via a serial number. I can tell you the multi-coating on the lenses changed dramatically over the years. I have the 65mm, 120mm Nikkor AM, 210mm-W and 210mm Nikkor AM lenses. I had the 120mm SW and some of my photographer friends had some of the other lenses. My friend's 210mm Nikkor AM had a distinctive GREEN, MAGENTA, and CYAN coating as it was an earlier series. My lens is completely different. It looks like the new coatings on eyeglass lenses and new Nikkor lenses for DSLRs. I wonder if Nikon also changed the glass types used as Rodenstock, Schneider and Zeiss did because of strict environmental laws. Perhap another expert could enlighten us further?
Take care,
Mike

Kerry Thalmann's article on Nikon LF lenses is in the March/April 2003 issue of View Camera. Unfortunately, he says that Nikon didn't use chronologically sequential serial numbers, but assigned blocks of numbers for specific models and production runs.

He says that the SW f/8 lenses were introduced in the early 1980's, were all multicoated, and the design, advanced at the time, has not changed since.