First Look: Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P

This is one small lens! It looks small in pictures, but when I went to the store to check it out, I did a double-take and looked in the box for the rest of it. There wasn’t any.

When you mount it on a camera, the first thing you notice is that you will have to adjust your fingers since the focusing ring is so much closer to the body. Using ADR is a pleasure since the numbers show up sharp and clear even in very little light. It has been reported that you can not put rabbit ears on this lens since the aperture ring is too small. Comparing the aperture ring width to other MF lenses with rabbit ears shows that rabbit ears would fit on this lens, but you would need to cover the f/4, f/5.6 and f/8 spots, which would make it difficult to use. It only has one aperture scale and it is the size and position of the ADR scale on other lenses.

The aperture blades are actually backwards. When it is stopped down, the blades “flower” towards the front of the lens.

It comes with a clear ND silver-ring-color protective filter, a silver colored lens shade, and silver colored front and read lens caps.

At this time, I can not report on it’s performance since the only rolls I have taken with it were on ISO 400 film and I don’t want the features of the faster film to interfere with my opinion of the lens.

Photos

Aperture blades "flowering" to the front
45mm f/2.8P without hood next to 50mm f/1.4 AIS
45mm f/2.8P on a black FM2n
45mm f/2.8P on a black FM2n
45mm f/2.8P on chrome FM3a
45mm f/2.8P on chrome FM3a
45mm f/2.8P on F3HP
45mm f/2.8P on F3HP
45mm f/2.8P on F3HP
45mm f/2.8P on F3HP
45mm f/2.8P on F5
45mm f/2.8P on F5
45mm f/2.8P on F5
45mm f/2.8P on F5
Sep 2, 2001