Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI repair / service

I've loved this lens for a while now for its a ability to resist flare like no other vintage Nikkor I've used, but I've put off servicing this lens since theres been NO online repair resources/service manuals available, not even from the usual places that may have alerted us to identified gotchas. In the end, I decide to attempt the service regardless given recent successes in servicing other Nikkor AI/AI-S lenses.

Old school shade - vintage lens hoods

Rick Housh's archived Geocities Lens hood page was the bible for helping us finding the right lens hood for our vintage Nikkors - whilst this is archived on OOCities.org I've found it a little slow and tempermental. Rick's original domain http://housh.net has long gone sadly and it reminds us that the internet is very much fragile and we hope other resources such as Roland Vink's phenomenal Nikkor lens db is maintained - Roland's pages list the official lens hood for each lens but without hood specs.


^{Nikon HK-6 for 20mm f/3.5 AI}

Commodity old school 35mms

The 35mm focal length was a classic "candid" lens, for street photography/photojournalism etc but for me it was always a compromise: neither wide enough or long enough, preferring either a 28mm or a 50mm/85mm/105mm. These 35mm still command a decent price on the used market and I was able to obtain a 5/5 element/group 35mm f/2.8 AI-S and a 8/6 35mm f/2 AI for a short evaluation.

Cleaning, Repairing and Servicing a 50mm f/1.4 AI

The 50mm f/1.4 AI and its optical formula was inheritted by its successor and beyond which meant it was in production from the late 70s to 2025 so this lens as an option comes with a well known optical performance and can be found a slightly lower cost than its succesor. The f/1.4 AI ran from 1977-1981 so servicing is a must, with my copy having sticky and unusable focus as well as being very dirty.

Just One More: 50mm f/2 AI

Having serviced and owned a number of Nikkor 50mm I asked myself how many 50mm do we actually need? It turns out that just one more in the shape of a 50mm f/2 AI.

Helicoid Grease options: Japan Hobby Tool #10 and NPC FC-4 / BC-13A

Helicoid grease is a specialist item that is difficult to source and suitable options are limited. Even with options, the lens manufacturers do not disclose their greases and there are a very limited number of trusted resources that have reviewed various the greases. Two greases that are under consideration are Japan Hobby Tool #10 and NPC FC-4 (reportedly the grease used in some Nikkor lenses)

The Eutopian Light Mod? The Beauty Dish

As an amatuer photographer interested in lighting I was almost always drawn to a beauty dish, and I remember quite a lot of interest for Todd Owyoung's DIY beauty dish when it first appeared as a means for amateurs to obtain their very own cheap beauty dish - it wasn't for everyone but I've always been intrigued by the light quality from a beauty dish.

Budget Monolight: Godox MS300 practical observations

The Godox brand has been pumping out budget lights for a while now and in recent years the options for entry level monoblock has fallen away with Bowens folding, leaving only Elinchrom D-Lite RX One 100Ws (and its aging user interface/controls) or the Chinese Godox MS200/MS300 rated at 200Ws/300Ws. This is not a review (there's plenty of good ones over the years since its release in ~2019) but with budget/entry level monoblocks, there's generally reasons for the categorisation.



I had a chance to play with a loaner unit for a few weeks and some practical observations.