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

Nikkor 135mm f/2

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1975 · Ernostar, then modified Gauss

our own finding

Also known as: Ai Nikkor 135mm f/2 · Ai-S Nikkor 135mm f/2 · New Nikkor 135mm f/2 · AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D · Ai AF DC Nikkor 135mm f/2S · Nikon 135/2 DC · ニッコール 135mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
New Nikkor 135mm f/2 (K) · Variant Ernostar, six elements in four groups, the second and third cemented Nikon F 1975–1977 175011–179793 4,783 (Vink) — the rarest version by a wide margin
Ai Nikkor 135mm f/2 · Variant Ernostar, six elements in four groups, the second and third cemented Nikon F 1977–1981 190001–197527 7,527 (Vink)
Ai-S Nikkor 135mm f/2 · Variant Ernostar, six elements in four groups, the second and third cemented Nikon F 1981–2005 201001–233286 32,286 (Vink) — more than the K and Ai together, four times over
AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2 · Modified Gauss, seven elements in six groups, with a cemented front group; focusing moves the rear three elements only Nikon F 1990–1995 200001–213258 13,258 (Vink)
AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D · Modified Gauss, seven elements in six groups, with a cemented front group; focusing moves the rear three elements only Nikon F 1995–2020 300001–307902
400001–400688
500001–524397 		32,987 across three serial series (Vink)
  1. Vink's quantity column is derived from serial numbers he has collected, not from Nikon records. Nikon has published no production figure for any version.
  2. Construction and specification by version, from Vink's specification table: K, Ai and Ai-S, 6 elements in 4 groups, f/22, 1.3m, 9 blades, 860g, 93.5–94mm long; AF DC, 7 in 6, f/16, 1.1m, 9 rounded blades, 870g, 120mm; AF DC D, the same optics at 815g. Filter size is 72mm on all of them.
  3. The launch year is disputed. Nikon's own history says the NEW Nikkor Auto 135mm f/2 was released in 1976 and reached the Ai system in 1977; Vink dates the K block from December 1975. Both are recorded here and neither is preferred.
  4. Nikon's account of the DC lens declines to name its designer, describing him only as a direct senior of the author, Ohshita Kouichi, and as the man who had designed the AF 85mm f/1.8. The manual 135mm f/2 is credited plainly to Matsui Sei in the tale before it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 72mm filters on every version, manual and autofocus — unusually large for a 135mm, and the tell against the 52mm f/2.8
  • Nine blades throughout; rounded ones only on the DC lenses
  • A DC ring marked F and R means an autofocus lens and a different optical design; no manual version has one

New Nikkor 135mm f/2 (K):

  • Rubber-inlaid focusing ring, and the pre-Ai aperture prong with no Ai ridge
  • LENS MADE IN JAPAN in white; five cross-head screws in the mount
  • Takes Ai conversion kit 41

Ai Nikkor 135mm f/2:

  • Ai ridge and the second, small aperture scale read by the finder
  • A short sliding lens shade — shorter than the Ai-S hood that followed
  • The engraving changes mid-run from LENS MADE IN JAPAN to MADE IN JAPAN

Ai-S Nikkor 135mm f/2:

  • Depth-of-field scale on a chrome band
  • A longer hood than the Ai
  • Ai-S: the minimum-aperture index is orange and the lens meters in programmed and shutter-priority modes

AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2:

  • A second ring behind the focusing ring marked F and R, graduated to f/5.6
  • Rounded diaphragm blades
  • Focuses to 1.1m and stops at f/16, where the manual lens reaches f/22

AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2D:

  • D — the lens reports focused distance to the body
  • 815g against the 870g of the first autofocus version

Serial-range notes

170101–170103
Three lenses engraved 13.5cm f/2 H Auto, which Vink dates to 1962 or thereabouts and marks a prototype. H means six elements, so the count matches the production lens of 1975, but Vink separates it as a distinct optical design. Nothing came of it for thirteen years.
103783
A single K-type prototype seen at 1975, outside the 175011 production block.
190001–197527, 201001–233286
The Ai and Ai-S blocks do not overlap, so the manual-focus versions can be added: 4,783 plus 7,527 plus 32,286, or 44,596 lenses across thirty years.
300001, 400001, 500001
The D lens restarts its numbering three times — a run from November 1995, 688 lenses in a 4-series ending 2005, then a 5-series from 2006 running to 2020. The 105mm DC and the 180mm f/2.8D restart in the same two years.

Specifications

Formula
Ernostar, then modified Gauss
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/2
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
1.3 m
Weight
860 g
Filter
72 mm
Years manufactured
1975–2020
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Ernostar, then modified Gauss
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 6 elements in 4 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. One surface was corrected against the source after a second read.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 6 elements in 4 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. One surface was corrected against the source after a second read. — Drawn for this site

History

Nikon prototyped a 13.5cm f/2 in about 1962 and built three of them. Vink has seen two, at 170101 and 170103, engraved Nikkor-H — six elements, the same count the production lens would eventually carry — and then nothing happened for thirteen years. The fast medium telephoto arrived in December 1975, or in 1976 if Nikon’s own history is preferred, as the New Nikkor Auto 135mm f/2.

Matsui Sei, who had designed the 180mm f/2.8 five years earlier, laid it out as a variant Ernostar: six elements in four groups, with the second and third cemented together. An Ernostar is what a Sonnar becomes when the cemented triplet is split into a convex and a concave element, and it suits a fast telephoto because the layout is asymmetrical and short. The lens is compact for an f/2, and it is also — deliberately — not corrected flat across its focusing range.

That was the point. Nikon’s account of the design is unusually direct about it: the 85mm f/1.8 had existed to be brighter than a standard lens, but the 135mm f/2 was drawn with the emphasis on the character of its defocus, as a short-focal-length member of the family that included the 180mm f/2.8 and the 300mm f/2.8. An Ernostar’s aberrations move more with focus than a Gauss’s do, so the lens is sharp at distance and leaves spherical aberration and coma in at close range, where the edges of out-of-focus detail melt instead of ringing. Rørslett, testing two samples on film, found the close-range softness a fault rather than a feature and rated it 3 to 3.5 out of 5 before a later retest on a D2X raised his opinion.

The manual line ran three deep and almost all of it is Ai-S. Vink counts 4,783 K-type lenses in fourteen months, 7,527 Ai over four years, and 32,286 Ai-S between December 1981 and 2005 — 44,596 in all, of which the first two versions are a tenth. A K-type 135mm f/2 is the scarce one, and its only functional difference from the Ai is the mount ring.

What replaced it in 1990 is not this lens. The AF DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2 is a modified Gauss of seven elements in six groups that focuses by moving its rear three elements, because a screwdriver drive cannot swing a six-element block at speed; the front group is cemented, which improves longitudinal chromatic aberration; and a second ring on the barrel varies the spherical aberration on purpose, softening the background at R and the foreground at F. Nikon’s designers had found that the distance between the front cemented group and the elements behind it changes spherical aberration alone, leaving astigmatism and chromatic aberration untouched, and the DC ring is that discovery made into a control. Set at centre, spherical aberration is corrected to near zero and the lens is at its sharpest.

Two things about the DC lens stay unresolved. Nikon dates it to 1991 and Vink’s serial block opens in October 1990, which is more than a rounding difference. And Nikon’s own history, which names Matsui for the manual lens in the previous tale, refuses to name the DC designer at all — he appears only as the author’s senior, the man behind the AF 85mm f/1.8, credited with the idea and not with a name.

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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 Nikkor 135mm f/2
Nikkor 135mm f/2 (Metroplex) — Metroplex, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 135mm f/2
Petrus von Alcantara, Kalvarienberg Matzen — Nikkor 135mm f/2 (Manuela Gößnitzer) — Manuela Gößnitzer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 135mm f/2
Pohick Creek — Nikkor 135mm f/2 (dw_ross) — dw_ross from Springfield, VA, USA, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 135mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $450 across 53 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $380–$550). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $450.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$450$380–$55053
2026-09-06$450$380–$55054

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.

Related: AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2D · Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED

Sources (7)

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.