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

Nikkor 28mm f/2

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1970 · Retrofocus, with close-range correction

our own finding

Also known as: Nikkor-N Auto 28mm f/2 · Nikkor-N·C Auto 28mm f/2 · Nikkor-NC Auto 28mm f2 · New Nikkor 28mm f/2 · Ai Nikkor 28mm F2 · Ai Nikkor 28mm F2S · Nikkor 28mm f/2 Ai-S · Nippon Kogaku 28mm f/2 · ニッコール 28mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nikkor-N Auto (Nippon Kogaku Japan) Nikon F 1970–1971 280001–282998 (Aug 1970 – 1971) 2,998 (Vink)
Nikkor-N Auto (Nikon) Nikon F 1971–1973 290001–300770 10,770 (Vink)
Nikkor-N·C Auto Nikon F 1973–1975 312501–327987 (start number uncertain in Vink) 15,487 (Vink)
New Nikkor (K) Nikon F 1975–1977 335001–347751 (Nov 1975 – 1977) 12,751 (Vink)
Ai Nikon F 1977–1981 450001–454838
540021–565149 		4,838 then 25,129 across the two blocks (Vink)
Ai-S (Ai Nikkor 28mm F2S) Nikon F 1981–2005 575001–619716 (Sep 1981 – 2005) 44,716 (Vink)
Ai-S NASA Nikon F — 1001–1026 26 by the span of the serial block (Vink)
  1. Quantities are Vink's, taken from the span of each serial block. Nikon has published no production figure for any version.
  2. Nikon's own introduction date is not on the record; MIR gives 1971, while Vink's first serial block opens in August 1970. Both are stated flatly by their sources and neither cites the other.
  3. Weight moved with the barrel, not the glass: 345g for the first version, 355g for the K and Ai, 345g again for the Ai-S. The nine elements are the same throughout.
  4. ¥80,000 is Nikon's listed price for the Ai Nikkor 28mm F2S, undated. No price for the 1970 Nikkor-N Auto has been found.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Nine elements in eight groups with close-range correction executed on the FRONT group — Rørslett notes that other Nikkor wides float the rear
  • 52mm filter and the HN-1 screw-in hood on every version from 1970 to 2005
  • Long for a 28mm: 58.5mm from the flange, against 44.5mm for the 28mm f/2.8

Nikkor-N Auto (Nippon Kogaku Japan):

  • Barrel engraved Nippon Kogaku Japan — the last months before the company put Nikon on its lenses
  • N for nine elements, in the Greek-numeral letter code Nikon dropped when the New Nikkor barrels arrived in the mid-1970s
  • Scalloped metal focus grip, no rubber

Nikkor-N Auto (Nikon):

  • Nikon replaces Nippon Kogaku Japan on the barrel; optics unchanged

Nikkor-N·C Auto:

  • ·C added to the name plate — the coating declared, not introduced

New Nikkor (K):

  • Rubber focus grip; the letter code gone from the name plate
  • Ai conversion kit 25 fits this version — the kit number is the quickest way to date a converted barrel

Ai:

  • Meter-coupling ridge and the second aperture scale on the ring
  • Later Ai barrels carry a shortened rear post that clears the TC-16 teleconverter

Ai-S (Ai Nikkor 28mm F2S):

  • Focuses to 0.25m for 1:5.4, against 0.3m and 1:7.1 on every earlier version
  • Straight aperture blades in place of the curved ones used since 1970
  • Depth-of-field marks on a chrome ring; Super Integrated Coating from serial 6134xx

Ai-S NASA:

  • Four-digit serial in its own 1001 block, nothing like the civilian 5xxxxx numbers
  • Oversize focus ring, and a distance scale in feet only

Serial-range notes

6134xx
Super Integrated Coating begins inside the Ai-S run (Vink).
540021
The Ai jumps from the 45xxxx block to 54xxxx partway through; the later barrels have the shortened rear post that clears the TC-16.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, with close-range correction
Construction
9 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
7
Min. focus
0.25 m
Dimensions
63 × 58.5 mm
Weight
345 g
Filter
52 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1970–2005
Country
Japan
Coating
Multicoated from the first 1970 batch by Vink's classification; Super Integrated Coating on Ai-S serials from 6134xx
Original price
¥80,000 (Ai Nikkor 28mm 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
visible on digital
Vignetting
extreme corners only
Flare & ghosting
unusually resistant
Coma
least of three
Distortion
moderate
Optical formula — Retrofocus, with close-range correction

No Nikon cross-section of the 28mm f/2 could be found. The Thousand and One Nights covers the 28mm f/1.4D and the 28mm f/2.8, both different lenses with different diagrams; Nikon's own product page for the f/2 gives the count and a photograph. The only catalogue-derived figure located is a 106x108-pixel silhouette, on which nine element shapes cannot be read.

History

The 28mm f/2 was the fastest lens of its focal length in production when Nippon Kogaku put it on sale, and it did two unusual things to get there. It used nine elements in eight groups where the only other 28mm Nikkor of 1970, the f/3.5, used six in six. And it placed the close-range correction — the floating group that keeps corners honest at short distances — in the front of the lens rather than the rear, which Bjørn Rørslett records as unlike every other Nikkor wide-angle. That arrangement survived thirty-five years and five mount generations without being recomputed.

Where the record disagrees with itself is the year. Vink’s earliest serial block for the lens, 280001 to 282998, opens in August 1970; MIR states 1971 flatly. Neither cites the other, and Nikon has not published a date. The same first block carries a second oddity: Vink classes it as multicoated, three years before the ·C suffix appeared on the barrel in 1973. On this reading the marking announced a coating the lens already had, which fits what Nikon did across the range at the time but is not something the company has said about this lens in particular.

The version chain is the ordinary Nikon one and the quantities are small at every step. Nippon Kogaku Japan on the barrel for 2,998 lenses; Nikon on the barrel for 10,770; the declared N·C for 15,487; the rubber-gripped New Nikkor of November 1975 for 12,751; the Ai from 1977 in two serial blocks totalling 29,967, the later ones with a shortened rear post so the TC-16 teleconverter would clear it. Vink’s specification table separates the New Nikkor from what came before with a thin rule — his mark for a minor optical revision within the same nine-in-eight layout — and what actually changed is not documented anywhere found here.

The Ai-S of September 1981 is where the mechanics finally moved. It focuses to 0.25m for a reproduction ratio of 1:5.4, against 0.3m and 1:7.1 on everything earlier; the curved aperture blades became straight ones; Super Integrated Coating arrived at serial 6134xx. 44,716 were built before it left the price list in 2005, which makes the Ai-S the commonest version and still an uncommon lens. Rørslett gives it his top rating and remarks that it never caught the buyers’ fancy — a judgement on the market rather than the glass, since the same review calls it outstandingly sharp from f/2 to f/8 and good enough at flare to point straight into the sun.

Twenty-six were built for spaceflight. Vink lists an Ai-S NASA version in its own four-digit block, 1001 to 1026, with an oversize focus ring and a distance scale in feet only; Richard Haw adds that the space lenses were packed with a grease that will not outgas in vacuum. Neither source says which missions carried them.

The lens’s afterlife is in the 28mm f/1.4D. Nikon’s essay on that lens ranks the sagittal coma flare of its three fast wide-angles — 24mm f/2 worst, 35mm f/1.4 next, 28mm f/2 least — and says the ranking indicates how hard each was to design. The 28mm f/2 was the easy one, and the experience of it was part of why Nikon expected the f/1.4 to be brutal. What is still missing is a designer’s name, a factory production figure, an agreed introduction date, and any account of what Vink’s thin rule at the New Nikkor actually represents.

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 28mm f/2
Acueducto de Valle Grande, Madrid — tagged Nikkor 28mm f/2 (Javier Pérez Montes) — Javier Perez Montes, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 28mm f/2
Palacio Longoria at dusk — Nikkor 28mm f/2 (Javier Pérez Montes) — Javier Perez Montes, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 28mm f/2
Cine Bogart façade, Madrid — Nikkor 28mm f/2 (Javier Pérez Montes) — Javier Perez Montes, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 28mm f/2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $230 across 39 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $190–$300). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $230.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$230$190–$30039
2026-09-06$230$190–$30039

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 · Ai AF Nikkor 28mm f/1.4D

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.