35mm f/2.8 AI-S
Initial impressions matched Bjorn Rorslett's opinions - I thought the lens wide open was a little weak, and certainly not as good as the 28mm f/2.8 AIS. Very near focus, wide open it's ok but mid distance seems to very bland.
f/2.8 near MFD, on DX
Stopping down sharpness at middle distances improves the quality a little but its not a massive improvement.
f/2.8 - f/4 - f5.6 centre crops
f/2.8 on DX
This lens also has pronounced barell distortion.
Servicing this lens produced from 1981-89 is relatively simple, although there are a few sealed components like the retaining ring that sits on the focus ring. I found the helicoid mating position a little challenging with a number of potential starts very close together but its relatively easy to clean. Using a grease like the NPC BC-13A gives it a very nice dampended but fluid feeling.
Accessing the elements is reasonably simple once you have the front retaining ring off.
Not a great deal more to say about the lens. It handles nicely in the hand if you service it. The colours are nice and rich but I still prefer the 28mm f/2.8 AI-S for its rendering.
35mm f/2 AI
This lens is covered in Nikon's Thousand and One Nights #84 - whilst it covers the AI-S version, the optical formula is the same and only the body, focus throw changes.The optical forumula is a bit more complex than the f/2.8 variant and I've found the optical performance reasonable and much better than the newer and slower f/2.8 (at least my copy). Sharpness at f/2 is already really good in the centre regions although sometimes the out of focus rendering can have double/jitters.
(c) Nikon - 35mm f/2 AI optical cross section
All the following images are shot wide open at f/2 on DX.
Even with the older AI coatings it handles direct sun in the top of frame quite well - there is a slight apparent flaring but its reasonable well controlled.
Even the scaled down image we can observe the sharpness in the writing on the sign
Subjects further away are reasonably well rendered - I can never be so sure how objects are infinity should look - its not typically how I shoot - but the objects (houses on the horizon at inifity on second image) look ok.
At closer focus distances sharpness wide open is still good. The second image below is near min focus distance of ~0.3m. The fall off from/to out of focus areas is also very pleasing - note the gradual focus from the edge of the letter box to the silver plate where its sharp and also the drop off from the "0.7" to the edge of the lens in second image below.
Servicing
As usual, Richard Haw has a good article about this lens - there are no real gotchas about this lens especially if you've serviced Nikkor lenses of the same late 1970s time period..
Helicoids
The helicoids setup is identical to the Nikkor 50mm f/2 AI which is of similar age and is quite simply to service.The original grease on this copy was not overly sticky / dry and when openning the lens we can observe that there is very thin application on both inner and outer helicoids. When servicing, the inner helicoid had a very thin layer, almost non-existent JHT #10 applied and similarly for the outer helicoid (actually on the central helicoid) an application of NPC BC-13A - I choose the NPC to give a slightly more weighted feel since its a little but not by much heavier that the Japan Hobby Tool grease.
Optics
Getting to the optics requires removal of the entire optical block through the front of the lens. The optical block can then be seperated into the units in front and behind the aperture mechanism. The get to seperate the units, you will need a rubber cone tool to spin off the front unit - the retaining collar, which secures the optical block to the barrel, does not come off the front.
The retaining collar is in the way, must use rubber tool to unscrew the 2 optical units
bottom L-R: front element sitting on retaining ring, housing for 2nd, 3rd and 4th elements, optical block retaining collar, rear optical unit incl aperture mechanism
The rear optical unit housing elements 6,7 and 8 are sealed and you must use IPA to soften the seals to access them via a lens spanner. The 3rd group (elements 3 and 4) is cemented and painted - be careful when cleaning this since the black ink used can be fragile and can be inadvertently removed which will give odd-looking blotches when looking through the lens once reassembled.
Considering both these lenses, its an easy choice with the 35mm f/2 being superior: there's very little different in terms of ergonomics and weight (f/2.8 at 240g and f/2 at 280g) although my copies are AI-S vs AI but more importantly the f/2 wins in terms of optical performance - Nikon also seemed to think so with the f/2 AI-S iteration being sold til ~2005 (along side the 35mm f/2 AF-D which had a different optical formula) whereas the f/2.8 was discontinued in 1989. I still find the 35mm focal length not wide nor long enough but if you are looking for a Nikkor manual focus 35mm, this is one of those cases where faster is better.
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