Nikon AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D. I'd get it here or here

Introduction

This is a bargain of a wonderful lens, with one serious and fatal design flaw that Nikon claims to have fixed as of June 2001 .

3 out of 4 that I have seen, including new ones on display in stores, have lubricant leaked onto the diaphragm blades. Many of these lenses work OK with the lubricant on the diaphragm blades, however one new one I saw in a store was so gummed up that I thought that the F100 I was being shown in 1999 had a broken depth-of-field preview. In fact the diaphragm was gummed open, and only after twiddling with the lens did we realize it was all gummed up right on the dealer's shelf.

What this means is that with a modern AF camera that you may get severe over exposure for daylight shots. You won't see this on prints, because the film has enough over exposure latitude, but on slides it will be very obvious. With a closed-loop exposure system camera like the FA your exposures ought to be OK, even though you may wind up shooting at full aperture and not realizing it.

Considering that Nikon USA offers a 5 year warranty for new AF lenses, don't worry about this too much. Just buy new legitimate Nikon USA product. You can have Nikon repair this for you if it causes a problem. Don't take any guff from them if they try to blame you for storing it under hot conditions, this is a design flaw in the lens. If you buy used, look very carefully. Make sure to tweak the automatic diaphragm pin to wiggle the blades around, because if the lens has this problem and the blades haven't moved in a while you'll not see the lubricant on the visible parts of the blades. Also the one I had did have lubricant on the blades and worked fine that way, just as other samples I saw. Who knows, just watch out. This lens is inexpensive enough that I suggest you buy it new with a USA warranty.

Good news: I visited Nikon in Torrance, California USA, on 11 June 2001 and asked them if they had a fix yet. Luckily they told me that they have a cure if your lens has this problem. They also told me that Nikon Japan told them they have now have fixed the problem on new lenses, but that waits to be seen. I was told that this fix actually changes something inside the lens so it won't happen again. Bravo!

Specifications

This lens has six elements in five groups.

It focuses down to 0.25 meters or 0.8 feet. That's about 1/4 life-size and therefore Nikon's closest focusing 35mm lens ever. This is a secret that few seem to appreciate.

It takes 52mm filters and the HN-3 hood that you don't really need due to its great flare performance.

It weighs only 215g or 8 oz.

It's 2.5" (63mm) around by 2.1" (53mm) long.

It has a seven-bladed diaphragm and stops down to f/22.

Nikon Product Number: 1923, in catalog as of spring 2008.

Performance

AF action is very, very fast on an F100. One full turn of the AF screw focuses the lens from infinity to 3.'

Optically this is the best 35mm lens yet from Nikon. It's much better that the 35mm f/2.0 AI-s manual focus, with very little coma even at f/2.0. I prefer it also to the 35mm f/1.4 because the two perform about as well at f/2. At f/1.4 the 35mm f/1.4 is not very good, so I would shoot it at f/2 anyway. The 35mm f/2D AF is free from ghosts, unlike the 35mm f/2.0 AI-s which is among Nikon's worst for ghosts.

The 35mm f/2D AF is typical for AF lenses for mechanical quality. The filter thread is cheap plastic, so watch out when you attach filters. Otherwise the mount and internals seem like sturdy metal.

The 35mm f/2D AF focuses very, very close. It gets to about 1/4 life size. This is another great unknown feature of this lens. It does not have close-range correction as the 28mm f/1.4 D AF and 35mm f/1.4 AI-s do. Therefore the 35mm f/2D AF is fuzzy in the corners at close distances at large apertures. This not a problem unless you are silly enough to shoot flat art in the dark hand-held.

It has the barrel distortion typical to Nikkor wide angles. This distortion is not obvious through most Nikon viewfinders, since they incorporate complementary pincushion distortion.

Recommendations

Buy only a new one imported by Nikon USA. It's not that much more expensive than the bad ones that people are trying to unload over ebay. If you buy new and have the oil problem Nikon should fix it, supposedly for good.

Reader Tim in Green Bay, Wisconsin, reports that his new gray market lens, serial number 329006 bought 18 April 2001 from B&H, seems OK. Tim has seen three other 35/2s and all of them had some oil on the blades and all worked OK. He also reports that his new lens is marked "Made in Japan." Tim also says that storing the lens on it's side makes the oil problem worse, and storing the lens facing up (resting on the rear cap) helps. Storing the lens facing up for three weeks seems to eliminate the problem.

This is a jewel of a small, fast sharp lens and really doesn't do anything differently than the seven times more expensive 28mm f/1.4D AF does, and the 35mm f/2D focuses faster and closer, too. I only sold mine because I was lucky enough to find a used 28mm f/1.4D AF that I could afford.