Nikkor M300 f9.0 not sharp

[PatrickMarq]

Hi all,

A few months ago I have purchased a Nikker M 300 f/9 and I have taken about 10 pictures with it, but except one they are all unsharp.
The sharp one was taken of tree root about a distance of 10 meter, all the other are landscape pictures and the fares subject is always way out.
I always use my loupe for focusing and never have the same problem with my 150 mm.

Can this be repaired, does anyone have an idea, there is a little bend where you can put some filter in.
Also on advice of someone of this group a have changed something to to chrome ring:
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?153280-Nikkor-M-300mm-1-9-shutterspeed-ring-problems&p=1509165#post1509165

For me it was quite an expensive purchase 600€

Thanks
Patrick

[Jeroen]

If the image appears sharp on your ground glass, the lens should be fine, right? Maybe it's caused by wind. You have a much longer bellows that catches more wind then when shooting a 150mm. Or perhaps you need a more rigid tripod (or tripod head) for shooting this longer lens, or a 4th leg.

Try a shot indoors (no wind), if possible with flash (flash will eliminate any camera/tripod/head movement errors). Good luck.

[Dan Fromm]

What apertures did you shoot at? Where did you focus? Near, far, in between, ... ?

[Bernice Loui]

Check the distance between film holder -vs- ground glass on the camera. Possible the two are not identical. Is the image on the ground glass sharply defined-focused using a loupe with the lens aperture no smaller than f22?


Bernice



Hi all,

A few months ago I have purchased a Nikker M 300 f/9 and I have taken about 10 pictures with it, but except one they are all unsharp.
The sharp one was taken of tree root about a distance of 10 meter, all the other are landscape pictures and the fares subject is always way out.
I always use my loupe for focusing and never have the same problem with my 150 mm.

Can this be repaired, does anyone have an idea, there is a little bend where you can put some filter in.
Also on advice of someone of this group a have changed something to to chrome ring:
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?153280-Nikkor-M-300mm-1-9-shutterspeed-ring-problems&p=1509165#post1509165

For me it was quite an expensive purchase 600€

Thanks
Patrick

[Alan9940]

Were there any camera movements involved? Were you using the center of the image circle or something closer to the outside? What camera was used? Tripod? Tripod head and mount? Was it windy? If the image is sharp on the groundglass and you're using a film holder revealing no issues with other lenses, then your 300M negatives should be sharp. I've used a Nikkor 300M for several years at all focus distances and it's tack sharp.

[domaz]

What format are you trying to cover with the lens? Is it possible you are shooting on too large a format and/or shifting the lens too much and running out of coverage.

[PatrickMarq]

All,
I shoot all images with this lens on f45, I start focussing at the near then go to the far and check between.
Of course some lens movements if needed.
The tripod is sturdy and also the ball head, never with wind. All with a Chamonix 45F-2
I have included a link and also enabled the metadata.

https://adobe.ly/34gtwGN

[Dan Fromm]

If you want the far to be in focus, focus on the far.

I think you are confusing motion blur due to wind with unsharpness. Look at the near plants in your second shot.

Evaluating image quality by looking at scans is a bad idea. Examine the negatives/transparencies with a loupe. Digitizing can only reduce image quality.

In theory shooting at f/45 limits resolution to 33 lp/mm at the center of the frame, less off axis. In practice the limit is lower. More than good enough for contact printing, but not quite good enough for a 4x enlargement.

[Doremus Scudder]

Hi all,

A few months ago I have purchased a Nikker M 300 f/9 and I have taken about 10 pictures with it, but except one they are all unsharp.
...
Can this be repaired, does anyone have an idea, there is a little bend where you can put some filter in.
...
Thanks
Patrick

Patrick,

Do you mean that the threaded ring that the filters screw into is bent? If so, this may be an indication that the lens has been dropped. If that is the case, it may well be unsharp due to damage. If you have some really sharp images made with this lens, it probably is alright, but check anyway.

I would first try to unscrew the front element to see if it unscrews easily and is not cross-threaded from possible impact. (Be careful not to lose shims if they are present!). When you have the front element out, shake it gently to see if you hear any rattling. If so, something has likely been knocked loose. Reassemble if all is well and do the same with the rear element.

If both elements seem alright, I would check sharpness using a flat, detailed subject, like a brick wall or the like. Focus carefully and make sure the camera back is parallel to the wall both vertically and horizontally. If the image is sharp using your loupe on the ground glass, it should be alright on the film. Nevertheless, I'd shoot a couple test negatives. Shoot one at your sharpest aperture (f/22) and also wide open.

Here are some other considerations: When I first mounted my 300 M, I didn't notice that the lens board I was using was a bit too thick and prevented the rear element from screwing in completely. My first images with the lens were unsharp; I was very disappointed till I discovered the problem. A new lens board fixed things superbly.

Depth-of-field with this lens on 4x5 is relatively shallow. Using movements can easily throw part of the image out of focus. This seems to be the case in a couple of the images you posted (distant treetops out of focus, etc.). Maybe you aren't checking all parts of the image carefully when composing and focusing? It's pretty easy to make this mistake.

Hope this helps,

Doremus

[PatrickMarq]

Hi Doremus,

Thank you for the answer, I’m using the lensboards from Chamonix, and going to check the lens.

[Greg]

Once acquired a 115mm f/5.6 Ultragon Lens. The lens didn't even project a sharp image on 4x5 film, and I believe that it should have covered 5x7. Ended up returning the lens. To this day am 99% sure that the lens was mounted in a shutter that increased the spacing between the front and rear elements.

[Bernice Loui]

Quick look at the images posted to that link, why the taking aperture of f45 when most of these images were made at significant distance? Once past f22, optical performance of the lens drops off due to diffraction. Idea would be to use the largest possible aperture about two f-sops down from the len's full aperture and reducing the lens aperture if camera movement cannot bring what needs to be in focus into focus.

Other problem areas can be vibrations from the shutter to camera and time the shutter is opened to expose the film. Really fast shutter speeds can negate camera and or subject movement. Very long shutter speeds (film exposures) can do similar by allowing the film to record the image from the lens then mostly ignoring the shorter time there is camera-shutter and related movement. This is a technique often used by the microscope image making folks. It also works on other image recording devices like a film view camera. Challenge with this technique, the entire set up must be absolutely stable with a subject that does not budge aka move at all.

Best to check the lens performance on the ground glass not scans from film. It is very possible image result has been degraded by stopping down to f45 combined with camera movement is causing the perception of lens problems. ~check this~


Bernice



All,
I shoot all images with this lens on f45, I start focussing at the near then go to the far and check between.
Of course some lens movements if needed.
The tripod is sturdy and also the ball head, never with wind. All with a Chamonix 45F-2
I have included a link and also enabled the metadata.

https://adobe.ly/34gtwGN