Nikon Printing-Nikkor 95mm f/2.8 on the D850

[Michael Erlewine]

Nikon made at least four Printing Nikkors, of which I have only three of them, the PN 95mm, PN 105mm, and PN 150mm. There is a PN 75mm, but I have never seen it or seen it for sale.

Of the three I have, they are not just larger (or smaller) versions of each other. They differ in terms of what you can do with them. For example, the PN 150 is sharp at the reproduction ratio of 1:1, while the PN 95 is geared more toward the lower reproduction ratios of 0.5 and so on.

One trait they all share is a restricted range of use if we want them at their peak quality. As mentioned, those qualities vary from lens to lens.

In the case of the PN 95mm lens, it is very sharp and has high resolution and that is true for both center and corners of the image. And chromatic aberration is minimal across the entire f/stop range. The PN 95 is VERY sharp at lower magnifications like 0.5 and 0.75, but it falls off at 1:1, unless you reverse-mount it, where it becomes very sharp again around 2:0. It is similar with resolution, very good at lower magnification, but not at 1:1 or above, unless reversed. Corner performance is good at 0.5 magnification, but drops off very rapidly.

So, for the kind of close-up work I do, the PN 95 is the Printing Nikkor to choose over the PN 105 or PN 150. This analysis was made possible by using the very useful lens testing results at CoinImaging.com, and I include the link:

http://coinimaging.com/macro_lens_tests.html?

This photo, which is a kind of abstract, is of a Japanese Iris taken with the Nikon D850 and the PN 95, stacked. I have noticed with the D850 that the color is remarkably different that the previous model, the D810. Not sure how to describe it, other than it seems to demand less color adjustment in post than the D810. In general, the D850 is an incredible camera, especially for the money. And although, I liked the color in the Hasselblad X1D, all things considered (especially lenses), the D850 is (for me!) a better bet than either the Hasselblad X1D or the Fuji GFX, both of which I bought, tried, and returned.

Photo with the Nikon D850 and the Printing Nikkor 95mm

[kds315]

Great work, love the iris! The PN lenses are the best there is considering resolution and lack of CA and have great bokeh as f2.8 lenses!

[BernardLanguillier]

Beautiful image indeed!

Cheers,
Bernard

[Michael Erlewine]

Here is another image taken with the Nikon D810 and the Printing Nikkor APO 95.

I have two copies of the much larger and more rare APO Printing Nikkor 150mm f/2.8 and am going to sell one of them, if anyone is interested. To get a f/2.8 with such a highly-corrected lens is very hard to do. The PN 150mm I am parting with is in MINT condition.

[BernardLanguillier]

If I  may ask, how do you mount this lens on the Nikon?

Cheers,
Bernard

[Michael Erlewine]

If I  may ask, how do you mount this lens on the Nikon?

Cheers,
Bernard

The Printing Nikkor 150mm is basically a relay lens. We can mount it forward or backward. It does have  58mm filter screws, so that is easy to find an adapter that will step-down to 52mm and work with all the Nikon adapters. There are also other ways to mount, including this one, which I often use:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/65mm-to-M42x1-male-thread-adapter-for-150mm-Printing-Nikkor/252934822754?hash=item3ae4171b62:g:tn0AAOSwBt5ZFd-Z

The 150mm PN, which IMO is the best of the the three I have tried for macro-work. I ended up with two of them and see no reason to hang on to both. This lens is in mint condition. Here is a photo of it reversed.