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

Nikkor 24mm f/2

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1977 · Retrofocus, 11 elements in 10 groups, with CRC

our own finding

Also known as: Ai Nikkor 24mm F2 · Ai Nikkor 24mm F2S · Nikkor 24mm f/2 Ai-S · AI-S Nikkor 24mm 1:2 · Nikon 24mm f/2 · ニッコール 24mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Ai prototype Nikon F — 104291 (the only example Vink has recorded) One known example
Ai Nikon F 1977–1981 176021–193501 (Aug 1977 – Nov 1981) 17,481 (Vink)
Ai-S (Ai Nikkor 24mm F2S) Nikon F 1981–2005 200001–247547 (Oct 1981 – 2005) 47,547 (Vink)
  1. Quantities are Vink's, derived from serial-block spans. Nikon has published no production figure for either version.
  2. Nikon's own account dates the release to October 1977; Vink's Ai serial block opens in August 1977. The gap is consistent with production preceding sale, but no source states that outright.
  3. ¥83,000 is the price Nikon lists on the discontinued-product page for the Ai Nikkor 24mm F2S — the Ai-S, on sale from 1981. No dated price for the 1977 Ai lens has been found.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Eleven elements in ten groups — nine of the ten are singlets, an unusually uncemented design
  • A 52mm filter thread on an f/2 wide-angle: the constraint that shaped the whole computation
  • 0.3m minimum focus, 1:8.6, and a front element that barely moves — close-range correction doing the work

Ai prototype:

  • A six-digit 1042xx number, in the block Nikon used for Ai pre-production lenses

Ai:

  • Depth-of-field marks engraved on the black barrel, not on a chrome ring
  • 160° focus throw — twice the Ai-S, and the clearest handling difference between them

Ai-S (Ai Nikkor 24mm F2S):

  • Depth-of-field marks on a chrome ring
  • 80° focus throw; the scale is compressed against the Ai
  • Aperture ring notched for shutter-priority and program metering on the FA and after

Serial-range notes

176021–180202
Earliest confirmed Ai run; Vink publishes no separate quantity for it inside the 17,481 total.
200001
The Ai-S restarts the sequence in a fresh 2xxxxx block rather than continuing the Ai numbers.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, 11 elements in 10 groups, with CRC
Designed by
Tsunashima Teruyoshi — optical design
Construction
11 elements / 10 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
7
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
63.5 × 51.5 mm
Weight
300 g
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
1977–2005
Country
Japan
Original price
¥83,000 (Ai Nikkor 24mm F2S, Nikon's own listing; year not stated)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
residual, uncorrected
Spherical aberration
haze wide open
Vignetting
2.8 EV
Flare & ghosting
flares readily
Coma
strong at f/2
Optical formula — Retrofocus, 11 elements in 10 groups, with CRC
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 11 elements in 10 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 — 11 elements in 10 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. One surface was corrected against the source after a second read. — Drawn for this site

History

Nikon has told this lens’s development story itself, in the ninety-eighth of the Thousand and One Nights essays, and the story is mostly one of failure. Tsunashima Teruyoshi began the design around 1973 and finished the computation in 1974. The first prototype was built that summer and did not perform. The curvatures were reworked, a second prototype went up in spring 1975 and passed, the mass-production order followed in January 1976, and the lens went on sale in October 1977 — four years from first sketch to shop shelf, for a lens with eleven elements in ten groups.

The reason it was hard is stated in the same essay, and it is a constraint rather than a limitation of skill. Nikon wanted the 24mm f/2 to accept a 52mm filter, the thread shared by almost every prime in the manual-focus catalogue, which meant the front elements had to be kept small and given short radii. Short radii on a fast retrofocus wide produce sagittal coma flare — the effect that turns a point of light near the frame edge into something with wings. Nikon ranked its three fast wide-angles by how much of it they produced: the 24mm f/2 worst, the 35mm f/1.4 next, the 28mm f/2 least, and observed that the ranking is a fair index of how difficult each was to design.

Reviewers have been reading the same aberration ever since. Rørslett rates the lens 3.5 and reports that the centre is very good while the corners stay soft until f/8, with residual colour aberrations flattening the depth-of-field zone; he saw the pattern on three samples and concluded it is the design, not the copies. Phillip Reeve’s review reaches a gentler verdict — coma obvious at f/2 and effectively gone by f/4, spherical haze clearing at f/2.8, and flare resistance better than a good deal of modern glass — and advises keeping anything important out of the corners.

The mount history is short because the optics never changed. The Ai ran from August 1977 to November 1981, 17,481 lenses by Vink’s serial span, with depth-of-field marks on the black barrel and a long 160° focus throw. The Ai-S took over in October 1981 in a fresh serial block and ran to 2005, 47,547 lenses, with the marks moved to a chrome ring, the throw halved to 80°, and the Ai-S aperture coupling that let an FA or an F4 set the diaphragm in shutter-priority and program. Nikon announced the discontinuation in January 2006, twenty-nine years after launch.

It never autofocused, and no source explains why. Nikon put an AF motor behind the 24mm f/2.8 in 1986 and behind almost every other prime in the line, but the f/2 stayed manual to the end of its run, and the gap it left at 24mm was not filled until the AF-S 24mm f/1.4G ED of 2010 — eleven elements in ten groups replaced by twelve in ten, two ED and two aspherical, a 77mm filter and twice the weight. The two things still missing from the record here are a factory production figure and any statement of what the Ai lens cost in 1977; the ¥83,000 Nikon publishes belongs to the Ai-S.

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 24mm f/2
Winter forest — tagged Nikkor 24mm f/2 (Scott Wylie) — Scott Wylie from UK, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 24mm f/2
Pohick Creek — tagged Nikkor 24mm f/2 (dw_ross) — dw_ross from Springfield, VA, USA, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 24mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $270 across 36 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $230–$320). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $270.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$270$230–$32036
2026-09-06$270$230–$32036

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

Show 33 more listings

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

Related: Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 28mm 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.