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

Nikkor 35mm f/1.4

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

our own finding

Also known as: Nikkor-N Auto 35mm f/1.4 · Nikkor-N·C Auto 35mm f/1.4 · NIKKOR-N.C Auto 35mm 1:1.4 · New Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 · Ai Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 · Ai-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4S · Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-N 35mm f/1.4 · ニッコール 35mm F1.4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nikkor-N Auto (Nippon Kogaku) Nikon F 1970–1971 350001–352697 2,697 (Vink, counted from serials — not a factory figure)
Nikkor-N Auto (Nikon) Nikon F 1971–1973 360001–368727 8,727 (Vink, serial-derived)
Nikkor-N·C Auto Nikon F 1973–1976 370001–377067 7,067 (Vink, serial-derived)
Nikkor-N·C Auto (NASA) Nikon F 1976–1976 1001–1019 (its own short block, restarting from 1001) 19 (Vink, serial-derived)
New Nikkor ("K") · Recomputed 9 elements in 7 groups — same layout, thorium glass replaced Nikon F 1975–1977 385001–389488 4,488 (Vink, serial-derived; his block covers both the K barrel and early Ai-marked lenses)
Ai Nikon F 1977–1981 400001–416628 16,628 (Vink, serial-derived)
Ai (NASA) Nikon F — 1001–1016 (own block) 16 (Vink, serial-derived)
Ai-S Nikon F 1981–2020 430001–507435 (December 1981 – 2005)
600001–617015 (2006 series, to 2020) 		77,435 + 17,015 = 94,450 across the two blocks (Vink, serial-derived)
Ai-S (NASA) Nikon F — 1036–1066 (own block) 31 (Vink, serial-derived)
  1. Serial blocks and quantities are Roland Vink's. He states plainly that his Qty column is "Number of lenses made based on serial numbers collected" and that his production dates "may not be accurate" — these are serial-derived counts, not factory records. No figure for this lens has been published by Nikon.
  2. The launch year is not settled. Vink dates mass production from May 1970, and Richard Haw gives the debut as 1970; Nikon's own history essay and Photography in Malaysia both say 1971. The 1971 date may be the date of general sale rather than of first production.
  3. Family-level specifications are the lens as launched in 1970: nine blades, f/22, 415g. The Ai of 1977 dropped the minimum aperture to f/16 and the blade count had already fallen to seven in 1973; the Ai-S of 1981 restored nine blades. Weight fell to 410g at the New Nikkor and 400g from the Ai (Vink).
  4. Why f/22 disappeared: a correspondent published by Photography in Malaysia reports that on an Ai body the aperture ring fouls the meter-coupling lever at f/22, so a converted pre-Ai lens must be set wider than f/22 to mount. This is one reader's explanation of a real change, not a Nikon statement.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • NIKKOR-N: the N is Nikon's element-count letter for nine, and the lens has nine elements
  • 52mm filter thread on a 67mm barrel — Nikon held the standard accessory size even here
  • Close-range correction: a rear group that moves independently as the lens is focused

Nikkor-N Auto (Nippon Kogaku):

  • Barrel reads NIPPON KOGAKU JAPAN; five slotted screws in the mount ring
  • Nine aperture blades and a full f/22 minimum
  • Thorium glass — these lenses go amber with age and cast yellow on colour film
  • Multicoated but not marked: the ·C engraving does not arrive until 1973

Nikkor-N Auto (Nikon):

  • Barrel reads NIKON rather than NIPPON KOGAKU JAPAN — the corporate rename, not an optical change
  • Still nine blades, still f/22, still thorium glass

Nikkor-N·C Auto:

  • ·C added to the name — the coating did not change, the engraving did
  • Seven aperture blades instead of nine
  • Five cross-head screws in the mount ring

Nikkor-N·C Auto (NASA):

  • Oversize focus scale, marked in feet only

New Nikkor ("K"):

  • Rubber focus grip in place of the metal scallops
  • No thorium: these do not yellow
  • Still f/22, seven blades

Ai:

  • Minimum aperture is f/16, not f/22 — the smallest stop was deleted at the Ai change
  • Meter-coupling ridge and aperture-direct-readout scale
  • Mount screws go from five to three part-way through the block

Ai (NASA):

  • Metal focus ring, feet only

Ai-S:

  • Nine aperture blades again, after twelve years of seven
  • Depth-of-field marks engraved on the chrome band
  • Super Integrated Coating from about serial 479xxx

Ai-S (NASA):

  • Metal focus ring, feet only

Serial-range notes

254001–254003
Prototypes, 1970. Vink notes the thorium glass turns yellow.
479xxx
Ai-S lenses from about here carry Super Integrated Coating.
385001–389488
The block where the thorium glass disappears. Lenses below it yellow with age; lenses above it do not.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, with close-range correction
Construction
9 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/22
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
66.5 × 74.5 mm
Weight
415 g
Filter
52 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1970–2020
Country
Japan
Coating
Nikon Integrated Coating from the first production batch — the first multicoated Nikkor, sold for three years before the ·C engraving admitted it

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Retrofocus, with close-range correction
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 9 elements in 7 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 9 elements in 7 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. — Drawn for this site

History

Nikon’s account of this lens is a story about time. Development ran for about five years and through two prototypes before the target performance was reached — Shimizu Yoshiyuki was designing against sagittal coma flare, the aberration that turns a point of light in the corner of a fast wide-angle into a smear, and against the retrofocus distortion that comes with putting a 35mm lens far enough in front of the film to clear an SLR mirror. Nine elements in seven groups, two cemented pairs straddling the diaphragm, and the close-range correction scheme first used on the 24mm f/2.8, so that a rear group moves independently and the lens does not fall apart at three feet.

What arrived in 1970 was the fastest 35mm lens made, and the first Nikkor to carry Nikon Integrated Coating. That second fact is easy to miss, because the lens does not say so. Nikon did not begin engraving ·C on multicoated lenses until 1973, so the earliest multicoated Nikkor in existence is marked plain NIKKOR-N AUTO. Vink’s database records the 1970 production as multicoated from the first block.

The early lenses have a second, less welcome distinction. To reach the refractive indices the design wanted, Nippon Kogaku used thorium-bearing glass, standard practice in the 1960s and radioactive. Those elements have gone amber, and a pre-1975 example will cast yellow across a colour slide. The thorium disappears in December 1975: Vink marks the New-Nikkor block “No Thorium”, and separates it from everything before it with the line he reserves for a genuine optical variant rather than a new batch. Nikon’s essay credits a redesign by Tsunashima Teruyoshi in the same period. The layout stayed at nine elements in seven groups; the glass did not. Anyone comparing a Nikkor-N Auto with an Ai-S is therefore not comparing two barrels around one optic, whatever the specification tables imply.

The rest is a long tail. Nine blades gave way to seven in 1973 and came back in 1981. The f/22 stop vanished at the Ai conversion — a correspondent published by Photography in Malaysia reports that the aperture ring fouls the meter-coupling lever of an Ai body at that setting, which would explain a deletion that otherwise looks like a downgrade. Three tiny batches went to NASA with oversize footage scales and metal focus rings: nineteen, sixteen, and thirty-one lenses, each numbered from 1001.

Adding Vink’s blocks gives roughly 134,000 manual-focus examples across fifty years, of which about 94,000 are Ai-S. Nikon never made an autofocus version of this optic; the AF-S 35mm f/1.4G of 2010 is ten elements in seven groups and a separate design, which Vink files as a new family rather than a new variant. What no source supplies is a list price, in yen or dollars, for any version — nor a factory production figure to check the serial arithmetic against.

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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 35mm f/1.4
Puerta del Sol, April 2020 — tagged Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 (Javier Pérez Montes) — Javier Perez Montes, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 35mm f/1.4
Palacio de Cibeles at Christmas — Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 (Javier Pérez Montes) — Javier Perez Montes, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 35mm f/1.4
Plaza Mayor, May 2020 — Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 (Javier Pérez Montes) — Javier Perez Montes, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 35mm f/1.4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $380 across 36 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $340–$440). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $380.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$380$340–$44036
2026-09-06$380$340–$45036

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.

Sources (4)

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.