135mm f5.6 EL-NIKKOR A

[Bruce]

Any body know what the "A" stands for? This is an enlarging lens I may bid on.
TIA
_________________
Ready, Fire, AIM.
Bruce
Brooklyn, N.Y.

[MikeWhy]

That's a pretty old version of the lens; 50's, I think. My personal opinion
is that eBay isn't the best place to buy your primary equipment. Bid
carefully.

"Bruce" > wrote in message
...
> Any body know what the "A" stands for? This is an enlarging lens I may
bid on.

[Richard Knoppow]

"Bruce" > wrote in message
...
> Any body know what the "A" stands for? This is an
enlarging lens I may bid on.
> TIA
> _________________
> Ready, Fire, AIM.
> Bruce
> Brooklyn, N.Y.
>
I am not sure this applies to this lens but, in the past,
Nikon has indicated the number of elements in their lenses
by a letter code. I don't have my Nikon data handy so I am a
bit uncertain of whether A indicates the number of elements
or something else. The letters stand for Latin roots,
examples, Q for a four element lens (Quad), etc.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

[AArDvarK]

ummm ...

Mr. Knoppow, you have other replies to answers you
have given in previous threads, could you please reply?

Thanks, much appreciated, And thanks very much for
those replies!

Alex

[Michael Briggs]

Bruce wrote:
> Any body know what the "A" stands for? This is an enlarging lens I may bid on.

The answers guessing that it means a circa 1950s lens or indicates the number of
elements are wrong. Nikon did at one time use letters to indicate the number of
elements, but A isn't one of them: UBTQPHSOND = 123456789,10.

The "A" in fact shows that the lens is recent and the same type as the current
version. Nikon has redesigned their enlarging lenses several times. After the
last revision, to designate the new models, focal lengths up to 105 mm had an
"N" placed after the aperture in Nikon's full naming, and focal lengths 135 to
210 an "A". Even in the most recent brochure that I have, the longer focal
lengths weren't redesigned and don't carry a letter. The barrel styles differ
from N to A to longer w/o a letter. Comparing brochures, the change was circa
mid-1980s.

In some focal lengths, the mounting threads differ between versions. The 135 mm
A should have both 39 mm and 50 mm mounting threads via an adapter that came
with the lens to convert from 50 to 39 mm. One thing to look for in a used lens
is that the adpater is still there -- most likely it will be, because hardly
anyone will have preferred 50 mm and removed the adapter.

--Michael

[Nicholas O. Lindan]

"Richard Knoppow" > wrote
> "Bruce" > wrote
> > Any body know what the "A" stands for? This is an
> > enlarging lens I may bid on.
> ... in the past, Nikon has indicated the number of
> elements in their lenses by a letter code. The letters
> stand for Latin roots, examples, Q for a four element
> lens (Quad), etc.

Need to know Latin from Greek when talking in morphemes ...

ENGLISH LATIN GREEK
one uni mono
two bi di
three tri tri
four quad tetra
five quint pent
six sex hex
seven sept hept
eight oct oct
nine nov non
ten dec dek

English, natch, makes a hodge-podge and uses both systems,
but then English isn't just one language, it's a chimera.

Both systems suffer from having repeats of the first letter,
so Nikon's system is a ******* of both and that does make it
a bit of a pain to remember.

From:

http://home19.inet.tele.dk/ne/nikon4.htm

U 1 Latin
B 2 Latin
T 3 Either
Q 4 Latin
P 5 Greek
H 6 Greek
S 7 Latin
O 8 Either
N 9 Either
D 10 Either

And, finally, a possible answer to the original
question (quoted from the same source, above):

A Type:

The very first lenses introduced in 1959 for the Nikon F.
Officially there is no "A" type, at the time they were
simply Nikkor lenses for Nikon SLR cameras. This range
covers all early lenses which are not multicoated, a
period of over 10 years.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/