EL-Nikkor enlarging lenses - letters N - A & no letter

[Ginette]

What about the letter appearing on the EL-Nikkor enlarging lenses.

My 50 have no letter (bought around 1980) -> EL-Nikkor 50mm f2.8
My 105 is an N -> EL-Nikkor 105mm f5.6N
I look actually for an EL-Nikkor 135mm f5.6A on the Bay.

Is it only for the production date or it also some different quality ?

The old EL-Nikkor 150mm have a retaining of 53mm and the new EL-Nikkor 150mm (letter??) is with Leica 39mm.

What is the Nikon enlarging lens production over 150mm?

[seabird]

My understanding is that "N" stood for "new" and denoted (at least) a mechanical redesign of the barrel and aperture ring. Sorry, I dont know whether it also denoted an optical redesign (but it might have).

The brochure that accompanied my 80/f5.6N indicates the following were released in "N" versions: 40/f4N, 50/f2.8N, 63/f2.8N, 75/f4N, 80/f5.6N, and 105/f5.6N

By comparison my El-Nikkor 135mm is 135/f5.6A. Sorry, I cant speak for the 150mm.

Cheers

[Dan Fromm]

My El-Nikkor brochure says that -N indicates an optical redesign.

[Ginette]

The brochure that accompanied my 80/f5.6N indicates the following were released in "N" versions: 40/f4N, 50/f2.8N, 63/f2.8N, 75/f4N, 80/f5.6N, and 105/f5.6N ...

So the 135 and the new 150 are labelled A ?
Cannot retreived any info on Nikon site :( . Why theses big companies didn't have a section on theirs website about "vintage products" like theirs fines enlarging and large format lenses ?

[Garen]

My older El-Nikkor brochure gives no suffix to 135mm lens and N suffix to longer focal lengths. The new brochure gives all the 135mm and longer FL lenses an A suffix. Looking at the sectional views of the LF lenses, it looks as if the old and the new have curved interfaces between the 1/2 and the 5/6 elements indicating an apochromatic doublet at the outermost groups. My guess is that the differences have to do with single vs. multi coated versions of the same design.

Cheers,

Garen