Going Long: Nikkor 200mm f/4 AI

A 200mm can be a useful focal length in the bag, albiet a less frequently used length. However the modern and autofocusing xx-200mm zooms are heavy and expensive and therefore options to satisfy the 200mm can be better sourced from the legacy Nikkor AI/AIS catalog.




The main options in the manual focus lens line up for the 200mm medium telephoto range narrows the scope to a few lenses:

• Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED AIS or f/2.8 AI
• Nikkor 200mm f/4 AI/AIS

The 180mm f/2.8 ED AI-S has universally better reviews, is a stop faster and has an ED element for improved CA control but for the infrequent use cases it may not be worth the premium in terms of size/weight (13cm/800g vs 11.8cm/580g) and cost over the 200mm f/4 so the 200mm won.

The very useful Nikon lens serial number site notes the 200mm f/4 had 3 different production runs: 2x AI (710155-739174, 738930-858563), from 1977-Oct 81 and 1x AIS (900747-980088) from Nov 81-Jan 96. Scouring eBay, the costs of the 200mm f/4 AI varied widly between 65-140 GBP, with business resellers pushing their items even higher. Optically, they share the same formula:


^{(c) Nikon - 200mm f/4 optical cross section}

Richard Haw documents cleaning the optics of this lens is not too difficult but as usual requires the right tools and MikeNo62 shows this on the following YouTube video:

The copy I found had a higher price point but was from a private seller and when it arrived it was in great condition with clean optics. The lens is nice and compact (~13.2cm with hood extended) and does not draw unnecessary attention to itself unlike the modern day xx-200mm zooms: for comparison, it's a little shorter than the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 but is significantly less bulky.




^{200mm f/4 AI vs 180mm f/2.8 ED AI-S size comparisson}

The lens has a 52mm filter thread and reasonably light with a minimum focus distance of just under 2m. On DX, you're stepping back a little (3-4m) to get a head/shoulders.


^{tripod @ f/4}

Wide open and at 100% sharpness is quite good but focusing accuracy is difficult given the risk of camera shake at this focal length. Stopping down clearly helps although it's not a significant change.

^{100%, f/4 liveview focused}

Like a lot of other Nikkor AI lenses (excluding the 20mm f/3.5 AI), the 200mm doesn't handle back lit scenarios well resulting in veiling flare. Colour rendition is pleasing and saturated and out of focus areas are not distracting although I'm not sure it's good - certainly the more modern and faster 85m f/1.4D does a better job at their respective maximum apertures but even at f/4 I think even the 105mm f/2.5 AI-S has a little nicer OoF areas.



^{1/320th @ f/4}

As a long lens on a budget, this is pretty good - the prices aren't very high and the build and image quality are good but the real kicker for some might be the relatively slow f/4 aperture and resulting shutter speed. Depending on the use case (outdoor vs indoor recitals etc) this may be bothersome without legs or flash but for the price and optical features it's still a lesser known bargain in the Nikkor back catalogue.