£25,000 Lens - Warning: Ren Kockwell Quoted!!
Discussion
All very interesting an' all that. But I am only really posting because of the stunningly useful Ken Rockwell quote at the end!
Grays of Westminster said:
13mm f/5.6 Nikkor AIS
(ITEM SOLD FOR £25000 BUT DETAILS RETAINED HERE DUE TO CURRENT ADVERTISING AND WIDEASPREAD INTEREST). RAREST OF THE RARE! A "holy grail" of Nikon lenses, being offered secondhand for the first time by Grays of Westminster. The 13mm f/5.6 Nikkor ultra-wide-angle lens was introduced in March 1976 in a pre-AI type lens mount. This extraordinary lens has only ever been available to special order. The 13mm f/5.6 covers an angle of 118º. It weighs in at 1200 grams and represents the widest rectilinear lens available for the 35mm format. It is 4 inches long (10.2cm), with an aperture range from f/5.6 to f/22. It has 16 elements in 12 groups; the front element has a diameter of almost 11cm and is surrounded by a fixed 'petal' style lens hood. It has a floating rear element design, CRC close-range correction, a rectilinear element design for straight line rendition and can focus down to one foot. In 1977 the lens was updated to the AI standard, and in March 1982 the third version was introduced with the AIS type mount with four x 39mm (rear bayonet mount) filters: Skylight, Orange, Amber and Blue in a CL-14 case. It was designed by Mr. Ikuo Mori of the 1st Optical Section, Optical Designing Department at Nikon Optical Japan. Apparently only about 350 of these lenses were ever made. "It is Nikon's greatest lens because not only is it big and supremely expensive, it is Nikon's, and perhaps photography's, greatest lens because it lets us make photographs we can make no other way." Ken Rockwell.
link to original(ITEM SOLD FOR £25000 BUT DETAILS RETAINED HERE DUE TO CURRENT ADVERTISING AND WIDEASPREAD INTEREST). RAREST OF THE RARE! A "holy grail" of Nikon lenses, being offered secondhand for the first time by Grays of Westminster. The 13mm f/5.6 Nikkor ultra-wide-angle lens was introduced in March 1976 in a pre-AI type lens mount. This extraordinary lens has only ever been available to special order. The 13mm f/5.6 covers an angle of 118º. It weighs in at 1200 grams and represents the widest rectilinear lens available for the 35mm format. It is 4 inches long (10.2cm), with an aperture range from f/5.6 to f/22. It has 16 elements in 12 groups; the front element has a diameter of almost 11cm and is surrounded by a fixed 'petal' style lens hood. It has a floating rear element design, CRC close-range correction, a rectilinear element design for straight line rendition and can focus down to one foot. In 1977 the lens was updated to the AI standard, and in March 1982 the third version was introduced with the AIS type mount with four x 39mm (rear bayonet mount) filters: Skylight, Orange, Amber and Blue in a CL-14 case. It was designed by Mr. Ikuo Mori of the 1st Optical Section, Optical Designing Department at Nikon Optical Japan. Apparently only about 350 of these lenses were ever made. "It is Nikon's greatest lens because not only is it big and supremely expensive, it is Nikon's, and perhaps photography's, greatest lens because it lets us make photographs we can make no other way." Ken Rockwell.
That is one interesting lens, he's got some sample pictures up on his site :
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/13mm.htm
Barely any distortion, especially for such a wide angle lens.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/13mm.htm
Barely any distortion, especially for such a wide angle lens.
http://www.japancamerahunter.com/2011/10/the-nikon...
This guy got one for $6,000 on eBay though: http://nikonhistoricalsociety.yuku.com/topic/1377/...
This guy got one for $6,000 on eBay though: http://nikonhistoricalsociety.yuku.com/topic/1377/...
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