Where to start with the Nikon rangefinder

A Nikkor that costs less than a roll of film did in 1950, the 10.5cm everyone should own, and the f/1.1 the books are about.

Three lenses and three bodies out of the sixty-odd families in this section, chosen for a reader who wants to shoot a Nikon rangefinder rather than complete a set. The entry picks are the pieces that were common in their day and are common now, which is what keeps them affordable and repairable. The value picks are where the price has not caught up with the quality. The collector picks are the ones the reference books devote chapters to — and I say so on each page, with the counts and the caveats.

I have left out the Zeiss, Voigtländer and Komura glass that also fits an S body; the family pages for those are in the same section, and the Sonnar 5cm f/1.5 in Nikon mount is a story of its own.

Lenses

Entry level — the cheapest way in that is still the real thing

Nikkor-H(·C) 5cm f/2

Nippon Kogaku · 1946–1962

The lens that came on most S bodies, and the one Nippon Kogaku made more of than any other in the mount. A Sonnar-type f/2 that is small, sharp by f/4 and cheap because there are so many — the honest first lens, and the one to keep when the others come and go.

Asking today: around $280 (middle half $190–$520) — median of 159 fixed-price USD listings on 2026-09-11

Also consider W-Nikkor·C 3.5cm f/2.5 .

Best value — the most lens or camera for the money

Nikkor-P·C 10.5cm f/2.5

Nippon Kogaku · 1953

The 10.5cm f/2.5 is the lens the Nikon rangefinder is remembered for: a Sonnar-type telephoto whose design Nikon carried into the F mount and kept until 1971. It sells for less than the 5cm f/1.4 and does more that a modern lens cannot.

Asking today: around $280 (middle half $200–$350) — median of 38 fixed-price USD listings on 2026-09-11

Also consider Nikkor-S(·C) 5cm f/1.4 .

Collector level — the one the reference books are about

Nikkor-N(·C) 5cm f/1.1

Nippon Kogaku · 1956

Nine elements and f/1.1 in 1956, the fastest lens in any rangefinder mount when it appeared, in an internal-bayonet and then an external-bayonet barrel. It is soft wide open and glorious for it, and it is the piece the room turns to look at.

Asking today: around $4,000 (middle half $3,000–$4,000) — median of 14 fixed-price USD listings on 2026-09-11

Also consider Nikkor-S(·C) 8.5cm f/1.5 .

Bodies

Entry level — the cheapest way in that is still the real thing

Nikon S2

Nippon Kogaku · 1954

The first modern Nikon: a life-size finder, a lever wind and a 24×36 frame, made in numbers that keep the price sane. Most of the S2s on sale have had seventy years of use and show it; a clean one with working slow speeds is the buy.

Asking today: around $480 (middle half $320–$600) — median of 53 fixed-price USD listings on 2026-09-11

Also consider Nikon S3 .

Best value — the most lens or camera for the money

Nikon S4

Nippon Kogaku · 1959–1960

An S3 without the self-timer and the motor coupling, sold in Japan only and for one year. It has the S3's 35/50/105 finder and its shutter, and because nobody outside Japan knew it, it asks a fraction of the S3's price.

Asking today: around $750 (middle half $630–$960) — median of 29 fixed-price USD listings on 2026-09-11

Also consider Nikon S3 .

Collector level — the one the reference books are about

Nikon SP

Nippon Kogaku · 1957

The camera Nikon built to beat the M3: a universal finder covering six focal lengths, a titanium shutter on later bodies, and the body that carried the company's reputation until the F took over. Twenty-two thousand made; the 2005 reissue is on the same page.

Asking today: around $1,600 (middle half $1,100–$4,700) — median of 47 fixed-price USD listings on 2026-09-11

Also consider Nikon S3M .

The picks and the reasons are editorial and AI-written from the family pages, which say where each claim comes from. The prices are read from the listings I scan on the day the page was built — a median of a handful of asking prices, not a valuation, and not what anything sold for. Updated 2026-09-07.