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

AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D

Nikon · Nikon F · 1993 · Modified Gauss, with defocus control

our own finding

Also known as: AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D · Ai AF DC Nikkor 105mm f/2D · Nikon 105mm f/2 DC · Nikkor 105/2 DC · DC-Nikkor 105mm · ニッコール AF DC 105mm F2D

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D Nikon F 1993–2020 200001–214195
300001–303501
400001–416070 		33,766 across three serial series (Vink)
  1. Vink's quantity column is derived from the serial numbers he has collected, not from Nikon records. Nikon has published no production figure for this lens.
  2. The weight is given as 640g by Vink and as 625g by Phillip Reeve's review, which weighed a copy. Both are recorded; the difference is within what a measured sample and a catalogue figure normally differ by.
  3. Nikon's Thousand and One Nights has no tale for this lens. Tale 32 covers the 135mm f/2 DC, describes the defocus-control principle in full, and mentions the 105mm only as the successor released in 1993. Everything said here about how DC works is therefore said about the 135mm and applied to this lens.
  4. The designer is not named anywhere on the record. Nikon's own account of the DC concept describes him only as a senior colleague of the author, Ohshita Kouichi, and as the designer of the AF 85mm f/1.8 whose rear-focusing layout DC was built on.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • DC on the front ring: only two Nikkors ever carried it, this and the 135mm f/2
  • 72mm filters, where the 105mm f/2.5 and the 105mm f/1.8 take 52mm and 62mm
  • The DC ring is not a focusing ring and not an aperture ring — turning it changes the aberration, not the exposure or the plane of focus

AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D:

  • A second ring behind the focusing ring marked F and R, graduated to f/5.6
  • Nine rounded blades
  • Crinkle-finish metal barrel with printed, not engraved, markings
  • A sliding built-in hood that screws down to lock
  • The barrel does not change length when focused: only the rear group moves

Serial-range notes

200001–214195
The original run, opening September 1993. 14,195 lenses by Vink's count.
300001–303501
3,501 lenses in a single year, 2005 — a short block between the two long ones.
400001–416070
A fresh series from 2006, which Vink annotates as the 2006 serial number scheme. 16,070 lenses, running to 2020. The 135mm f/2 DC and the 180mm f/2.8D restart in the same two years, so 2005 and 2006 mark a renumbering across the telephoto primes rather than anything about this lens.

Specifications

Formula
Modified Gauss, with defocus control
Construction
6 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
0.9 m
Dimensions
79 × 111 mm
Weight
640 g
Filter
72 mm
Years manufactured
1993–2020
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
strong wide open
Spherical aberration
user adjustable
Flare & ghosting
disputed
Distortion
negligible
Optical formula — Modified Gauss, with defocus control
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 6 elements in 6 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 6 elements in 6 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. — Drawn for this site

History

Autofocus nearly killed the fast medium telephoto. A screw drive turning from the camera body could not swing six or seven elements of glass quickly or accurately, and Nikon’s own account of the period says the class was on the verge of extinction. The escape was rear-group focusing, proved on the AF 85mm f/1.8 of 1988: move three elements at the back and leave the heavy front where it is. The designer who worked that out then asked a different question — if the front elements are no longer doing the focusing, what else could moving them do?

The answer was spherical aberration. It had been understood for decades that a lens with slightly undercorrected spherical aberration throws a softer background, and that the price is a foreground that goes ringy and a plane of focus that loses bite. Nikon’s designer found that in a Gauss layout the distance between the front group and the elements behind it changes spherical aberration and almost nothing else — astigmatism and chromatic aberration stay put. That is a control. Turn it one way and the background softens; turn it the other and the foreground blurs away; leave it in the middle and the correction is near zero and the lens is sharper than a conventional portrait lens, which would have been left undercorrected on purpose.

Defocus image Control appeared first on the 135mm f/2 DC and reached this lens in September 1993. The 105 is the shorter of the pair and, in Bjørn Rørslett’s judgement, the better one — he rates it 5 out of 5, calls it one of the finest Nikkors ever made, and notes that the front element sits deep enough that it barely flares. BastianK, shooting it on digital, disagrees about the flare and reports strong longitudinal chromatic aberration at f/2. On the control itself the two reviewers converge: it is subtle at the settings that keep the image sharp, it demands refocusing after every adjustment, and both of them mostly leave it alone.

The differences from the 135 are worth stating precisely, because the two lenses are usually described as a pair. This one is six elements in six groups against seven in six; the 135’s front pair is cemented and nothing here is. It focuses to 0.9m rather than 1.1m, weighs 640 grams rather than 815, and — the point that gets missed — it never existed in a non-D form. The 135 spent five years reporting no distance to the body before it gained the chip in November 1995; the 105 arrived with it.

Vink’s serial blocks give 14,195 lenses from September 1993, 3,501 in 2005, and 16,070 more from 2006 to 2020: 33,766 in all, from collected serial numbers rather than any factory record. Nikon has published no figure. It has also published no tale for this lens — the design story in the Thousand and One Nights is the 135’s, and the 105 appears in it as a single clause about a successor. So the two questions that would settle what this lens actually is have no published answer: why the cemented front group of the 135 was dropped, and who drew either of them. Nikon’s own historian names the designer of the manual 135mm f/2 in the preceding tale and then declines, for four pages, to name the man who invented DC.

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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 AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D
AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D on a Nikon Df (Christopher J. Fynn) — Christopher J. Fynn, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $730 across 21 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $660–$900). First day tracked.

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 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Nikkor 135mm f/2

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.