Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1968 · Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups

our own finding

Also known as: GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 · GN Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 · GN Auto NIKKOR·C 45mm f/2.8 · GN AUTO NIKKOR 1:2.8 f=45mm · Nippon Kogaku GN Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 · GN Nikkor 45mm F2.8 pancake

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
GN Auto Nikkor (Nippon Kogaku), nine blades Nikon F 1968–1970 710101–725535 Vink gives 23,848 for this and the seven-blade block together, not separately
GN Auto Nikkor (Nippon Kogaku), seven blades Nikon F 1970–1971 725683–733948 Included in the 23,848 Vink gives for the two Nippon Kogaku blocks together
GN Auto Nikkor (Nikon) Nikon F 1971–1974 740001–746389 6,389 (Vink, counted from serials)
GN Auto Nikkor·C Nikon F 1974–1977 760001–773051 13,051 (Vink, serial-derived) — the largest single block, and the last
  1. Serial blocks and quantities are Roland Vink's. His Qty column is "Number of lenses made based on serial numbers collected" and his dates "may not be accurate" — serial arithmetic, not factory records. Nikon has published no production figure.
  2. Summing Vink's blocks gives 43,288 lenses across the whole run: 23,848 marked Nippon Kogaku, 6,389 marked Nikon, 13,051 marked ·C.
  3. The launch date is not settled. Vink dates production from August 1968; Nikon's own history essay says the lens "was released in March of 1969", and Photography in Malaysia puts it "around in 1969", alongside the Fisheye-Nikkor 6mm f/5.6.
  4. Blade count and picture angle vary by source and by version: Vink records nine blades then seven rounded ones and gives 51°; the Photography in Malaysia specification sheet, drawn from the later lens, gives seven blades and 50°.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The focus ring turns the opposite way from every other Nikkor — the guide-number cam drives the aperture off it
  • 20mm from the flange, 31mm overall, 150g: the only pancake Nikon made for the F mount until 2001
  • A guide-number scale on the barrel, 10–30 in metres and 32–250 in feet
  • Stops down to f/32, which no other fast-ish Nikkor prime of the period did
  • No element-count letter in the name: GN sits where Q for four elements would have gone

GN Auto Nikkor (Nippon Kogaku), nine blades:

  • Nine aperture blades — the version collectors pay more for
  • Barrel reads NIPPON KOGAKU JAPAN
  • Ai conversion kits 83, 84 and 85 fit

GN Auto Nikkor (Nippon Kogaku), seven blades:

  • Seven rounded blades, shaped to hold a near-circular opening around f/8
  • Barrel still reads NIPPON KOGAKU JAPAN

GN Auto Nikkor (Nikon):

  • Barrel reads NIKON — the corporate rename, not an optical change
  • Five cross-head screws in the mount ring

GN Auto Nikkor·C:

  • ·C for multicoating

Specifications

Formula
Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups
Designed by
Shimizu Yoshiyuki (清水義之) — optical design
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/32
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
0.8 m
Dimensions
64 × 31 mm
Weight
150 g
Filter
52 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1968–1977
Country
Japan
Original price
¥16,500 at release (today ¥61,000) — Nikon's own account calls it an extremely inexpensive Nikkor

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Vignetting
minimal
Flare & ghosting
slight, clears stopped
Optical formula — Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 4 elements in 3 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 4 elements in 3 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. — Drawn for this site

History

Before automatic flash units metered their own light, a flash exposure was arithmetic. Every bulb and every gun carried a guide number; the aperture was that number divided by the distance to the subject; and the photographer did the division at every frame, in the dark, while the subject moved. The GN Auto Nikkor does the division mechanically. Set the flash guide number on a scale on the barrel — 10 to 30 in metres, 32 to 250 in feet — and a non-linear cam links the focus ring to the diaphragm. Focus the lens and the aperture is already right.

The price of that mechanism is the most disorienting handling quirk in the F system: because the cam has to drive the aperture the correct way, the focus ring turns the opposite way from every other Nikkor ever made. Richard Haw, who rates the optics highly, says it is the only reason the lens does not live on his camera. The coupling can be disengaged, and with it off the lens is an ordinary 45mm f/2.8 that meters at full aperture like anything else.

The optics are a Tessar — four elements in three groups, which for Nikon in 1968 was almost an antique choice, and which produced a lens 20mm long and 150 grams heavy that stops down to f/32. Shimizu Yoshiyuki designed it. It and the 45mm f/2.8P of 2001 are the only two Tessar-type lenses Nikon ever made for the F mount, and until that 2001 lens arrived this was the mount’s only pancake.

Nikon was first with the idea and effectively last. Tokyo Kogaku put a guide-number coupling on a Topcor in 1973; Canon tried a different route with the CAT system on the F-1. None of it mattered, because thyristor flash units that read their own light and quenched themselves made the whole calculation disappear. Nikon’s own retrospective is unsentimental about it: flash evolved faster than expected.

Vink’s serial blocks add to 43,288 lenses over roughly nine years, ending in March 1977 — the month Ai bodies arrived, and the reason no factory Ai version exists. What remains open is the start date. Nikon says March 1969; Vink’s records say production ran from August 1968; and Nikon’s own summary of the run as approximately nine years to a 1977 close sits awkwardly with its own release date. Nothing published settles which of the two years belongs to the lens.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8
GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 on a Nikon F2 — Dnalor 01, via Openverse (wikimedia) (BY-SA 3.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a GN Auto Nikkor 45mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $230 across 45 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $190–$250). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $230.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$230$190–$25045
2026-09-06$230$190–$25045

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Sources (5)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.