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

Nikkor 20mm f/2.8

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1984 · Retrofocus, 12 elements in 9 groups, with CRC

our own finding

Also known as: Ai Nikkor 20mm F2.8S · Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 Ai-S · AI-S Nikkor 20mm 1:2.8 · Ai AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D · AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 · Nikon 20mm f/2.8D · ニッコール 20mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
20mm f/2.8 prototype (K) Nikon F 1977 104301 (the only example Vink has recorded) One known example
Ai-S (Ai Nikkor 20mm F2.8S) Nikon F 1984–2020 200001–266369 (Oct 1984 – 2005)
300001–306103 (2006 – 2020, the renumbered late block) 		66,369 then 6,103 across the two blocks (Vink)
AF (first autofocus version) Nikon F 1989–1994 200001–269471 69,471 (Vink)
AF-D (Ai AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D) Nikon F 1994–2020 300001–423068 (Mar 1994 – 2005)
500001–5525xx (2006 – 2020, the renumbered late block) 		123,068 then about 52,500 across the two blocks (Vink)
  1. Quantities are Vink's, derived from the span of each serial block rather than from a Nikon production record. No factory figure for any version of this lens has been published.
  2. Vink's specification table groups the Ai-S, AF and AF-D as one optical design. Bjørn Rørslett, comparing samples directly, doubts it: he reports more field curvature at close range and slightly more chromatic aberration on the autofocus lens, with marginally higher contrast, and suspects a revised coating. Nikon has published nothing that settles it.
  3. Nikon's own price listings — ¥102,500 for the Ai Nikkor 20mm F2.8S and ¥82,500 for the Ai AF 20mm f/2.8D — appear on the discontinued-product pages without a date attached, so the year each applies to is unknown.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Twelve elements in nine groups with close-range correction — a different design from the 11/8 20mm f/3.5 it replaced, not a faster version of it
  • 0.25m minimum focus and 1:8.3 maximum reproduction, against 0.3m and 1:10.8 on the f/3.5

20mm f/2.8 prototype (K):

  • A K-series barrel, seven years before any 20mm f/2.8 was sold

Ai-S (Ai Nikkor 20mm F2.8S):

  • 62mm filter — the first 20mm Nikkor to leave the 52mm standard behind
  • Depth-of-field marks on a chrome ring; HK-14 slip-on hood
  • Super Integrated Coating from serial 257xxx

AF (first autofocus version):

  • HB-4 bayonet hood in place of the manual lens's slip-on HK-14
  • Fatter than the Ai-S — 69mm diameter against 65mm — at the same 42.5mm length and 12/9 construction

AF-D (Ai AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D):

  • D distance encoding; otherwise externally the AF lens

Serial-range notes

257xxx
Super Integrated Coating begins on the Ai-S (Vink).
300001 / 500001
Nikon restarted the serial sequence for both the Ai-S and the AF-D in 2006. A six-digit 3xxxxx number is a late manual lens; 5xxxxx a late autofocus one.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, 12 elements in 9 groups, with CRC
Construction
12 elements / 9 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
7
Min. focus
0.25 m
Dimensions
65 × 42.5 mm
Weight
260 g
Filter
62 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1984–2020
Country
Japan
Coating
Nikon Integrated Coating; Super Integrated Coating on Ai-S serials from 257xxx
Original price
¥102,500 (Ai Nikkor 20mm F2.8S) and ¥82,500 (Ai AF 20mm f/2.8D), both from Nikon's discontinued-product listings, year not stated

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
modest
Vignetting
corners at f/2.8
Flare & ghosting
worse than predecessor
Distortion
moderate
Optical formula — Retrofocus, 12 elements in 9 groups, with CRC

Nikon has published a construction diagram for this lens, but only as a 126x160-pixel filled silhouette on the AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D product page. Roughly a hundred pixels carry twelve elements there; individual surfaces are a pixel or less and several element boundaries do not resolve at all. The topology cannot be read from it, only guessed, and no larger copy exists in the Wayback record of Nikon's sites. Everything else checked is a different lens: Tale 20 draws the 20mm f/3.5 and the 20mm f/4, never the f/2.8.

History

Nikon’s 20mm lenses had spent fifteen years getting smaller. The Nikkor-UD Auto 20mm f/3.5 of 1968 was eleven elements behind a 72mm filter and weighed 390g; the 20mm f/4 that followed in 1974 was designed by Mori Ikuo around the goal of a 52mm thread, came out thinner than the 50mm f/1.4, and was patented in three countries for the trouble. The 20mm f/2.8 of October 1984 went the other way. Twelve elements in nine groups, close-range correction, a 62mm filter and 260g — Nikon bought a stop and a shorter minimum focus, and paid for it in size.

It is worth saying plainly that this is not the f/3.5 opened up. The f/3.5 is eleven elements in eight groups with no floating group and a 0.3m close limit; the f/2.8 is a separate computation focusing to 0.25m at 1:8.3. Roland Vink does record a 20mm f/2.8 in a K-series barrel, a single example numbered 104301 and dated 1977, which he describes as resembling the Ai 20mm f/3.5 — an aperture that existed on the bench seven years before anything like it was sold, and which shares nothing with the lens that eventually shipped.

The autofocus versions arrived in February 1989 and, as a D-type, in March 1994. Whether they are the same lens optically is genuinely unsettled. Vink’s specification table groups all three as one design, twelve elements in nine groups with CRC throughout, differing only in barrel length. Bjørn Rørslett, who compared samples side by side, is unconvinced: he finds more field curvature at close distances on the autofocus lens, slightly more chromatic aberration, never quite the same sharpness, but a little more contrast and noticeably better infrared behaviour — the pattern of a tweaked design and a tweaked coating rather than a rehoused one. Nikon has published nothing either way, and no patent has been produced to decide it.

The numbers are large by manual-focus standards. Vink’s serial blocks give 66,369 Ai-S lenses from October 1984 to 2005 and a further 6,103 after the 2006 renumbering; 69,471 first-generation AF; 123,068 AF-D to 2005 and about 52,500 after. Both mounts stayed on the price list until 2020, which makes the 20mm f/2.8 one of the longest-running optical designs Nikon ever sold in the F mount.

What is missing is the ordinary thing that is missing from most Nikkors of this period: nobody is credited with it. The Thousand and One Nights essays name Shimizu Yoshiyuki for the 20mm f/3.5 and Mori Ikuo for the 20mm f/4, but the series never reached the f/2.8, and Nikon’s product pages carry no designer. Nor is there a factory production figure — every quantity above is Vink’s arithmetic on serial spans. The two open questions, then, are who computed it and whether the autofocus lens is the same computation at all.

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 Nikkor 20mm f/2.8
Kotor — shot on a Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 (spoiltexile) — spoilt.exile, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 20mm f/2.8
Night fountains — Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 (spoiltexile) — spoilt.exile, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 20mm f/2.8
Gates of the fall — Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 (spoiltexile) — spoilt.exile, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 20mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $180 across 46 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $150–$250). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $180.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$180$150–$25046
2026-09-06$180$150–$25046

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: Nikkor 24mm f/2 · Nikkor 24mm f/2.8

Sources (6)

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.