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

Nikkor 50mm f/2 (F mount)

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1959 · Double Gauss

our own finding

Also known as: Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2 · Nikkor-H Auto 50mm f/2 · Nikkor-H.C Auto 50mm f/2 · Nikkor-H·C Auto 50mm f/2 · New Nikkor 50mm f/2 · Ai Nikkor 50mm f/2 · Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-H 50mm f2 · ニッコール 50mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2 prototype · Seven elements in five groups Nikon F 1959–1959 520001–520002 2
Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2 · Seven elements in five groups Nikon F 1959–1963 520101–584394 ~64,300¹
Nikkor-H Auto 50mm f/2 · Six elements in four groups Nikon F 1964–1972 600001–704258
742111–783141
785011–983907
1002001–1068197
2002001–2127288 		~535,700 across the five blocks¹
Nikkor-H·C Auto 50mm f/2 · Six elements in four groups Nikon F 1972–1974 2140201–2329000 ~188,800¹
New-Nikkor 50mm f/2 (K) · Six elements in four groups Nikon F 1974–1977 3100001–3339337 ~239,300¹
Ai Nikkor 50mm f/2 · Six elements in four groups Nikon F 1977–1979 3500001–3813206 ~313,200¹
  1. Quantities are Roland Vink's per-block figures, derived from collected serial numbers rather than from factory records.
  2. The production record disagrees with itself, and by a wide margin. Nico van Dijk's version history puts the Nikkor-H at "approx. 1.5 million lenses" to November 1972 and all f/2 versions together at "more than 2.5 million." Summing Vink's per-block quantities gives about 535,700 to September 1972 and about 1.34 million across the whole family. The gap is roughly a factor of two and a half at the earlier date. Vink counts within numbered blocks and van Dijk appears to count across them; neither is a factory figure, and no factory figure has been published. Both are recorded here and neither is preferred.
  3. Weight and close focus are not constant across the family — 200 g and 0.6 m on the 5cm, 205 g and 0.6 m on the H, 220 g and 0.45 m from the New-Nikkor onward — so those fields are carried in the variant rows rather than at family level. Filter size, aperture range and field of view did hold throughout.
  4. What replaced it was not faster by much and was a different design: the Ai Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 of January 1978, six elements in five groups. The f/2 was sold beside it for a year and then dropped.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 52 mm filter thread and a 46° field on every version
  • The prefix letter is the element count: S is seven, H is six. A lens marked Nikkor-S 5cm f/2 and one marked Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 are not the same design
  • No version of this lens ever carried an Ai-S or AF mount — an f/2 barrel with a stepped nose or a CPU is something else

Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2 prototype:

  • PAT. PEND. on the barrel, February 1959 — before the Nikon F was on sale

Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2:

  • Engraved 5cm, not 50mm
  • S for septem — seven elements; the letter is the element count, not a series
  • Nine aperture blades on the early barrels, six from about serial 534629
  • The earliest examples carry a tick mark on the barrel; 200 g, focuses to 0.6 m

Nikkor-H Auto 50mm f/2:

  • H for hex — six elements, and the visible break with the seven-element 5cm
  • Marked 50mm; the earliest block is cosmetically almost identical to the 5cm it replaced
  • Scalloped aperture ring from about serial 742111
  • Nippon Kogaku Japan to the 1002001 block, Nikon after

Nikkor-H·C Auto 50mm f/2:

  • C for coated — multi-layer coating, amber in reflection

New-Nikkor 50mm f/2 (K):

  • Rubber focusing grip; the scalloped metal ring is gone
  • Focuses to 0.45 m rather than 0.6 m — the one specification that improved
  • 220 g

Ai Nikkor 50mm f/2:

  • Aperture-direct-readout scale; meter prong drilled with large holes on the early barrels
  • The last version — there is no Ai-S and no autofocus 50mm f/2

Serial-range notes

534629
Nine aperture blades give way to six within the 5cm f/2 run.
584394 / 600001
Seven elements in five groups end; six in four begin. The name changes from Nikkor-S to Nikkor-H at the same point, which is the only version break in this family that is legible from the barrel alone.
1002001
Name ring reads Nikon rather than Nippon Kogaku Japan.
3100001
Rubber focusing grip and close focus to 0.45 m; the optics are unchanged.

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Filter
52 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1959–1979
Country
Japan
Coating
Single layer to 1972; multi-layer from the H·C of December 1972

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Spherical aberration
soft wide open
Flare & ghosting
low

History

Two lenses share this entry, and the barrel says which is which if the prefix letter is read as Nikon meant it. S is septem, seven elements. H is hex, six. The Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2 that shipped with the Nikon F in 1959 is a seven-element design in five groups, with a slightly concave front element chosen to hold the back focus clear of the mirror. The Nikkor-H Auto 50mm f/2 that replaced it in January 1964 is six elements in four groups. They are not versions of one another; they are a lens and its successor, sold under one focal length and one aperture.

The first one lasted four years and about 64,000 examples. The second ran until 1979 in four mount generations — H, multi-coated H·C, the rubber-gripped New-Nikkor of 1974, and Ai in 1977 — and never changed optically at all. What changed was the grip, the coating, the coupling and, once, the close-focus distance: 0.6 m to 0.45 m at the New-Nikkor. That is the whole mechanical history.

The reputation belongs to the six-element lens, and it is a reputation for being underestimated. Fredrik Rasmussen finds it remarkable from f/2.8 to f/11 and unremarkable wide open, and still prefers the f/1.4 for general work. Thomas Pindelski, who used Summicrons for thirty-five years, puts this one beside them and keeps it. Both descriptions can be true because they are about different apertures: the f/2 gives up its one-stop speed advantage over the f/1.4 by simply being sharper at every setting the f/1.4 can also reach, and gives up nothing at all to a lens costing twenty times as much once both are stopped down.

How many were built is genuinely unsettled, and the disagreement is not small. Nico van Dijk’s version history says approximately 1.5 million Nikkor-H lenses by November 1972 and more than 2.5 million f/2 lenses in total. Summing Roland Vink’s per-block quantities gives about 535,700 by September 1972 and about 1.34 million across every version. Vink counts inside numbered blocks; van Dijk appears to count across the gaps between them. Neither has a factory document, and neither has published one.

The end came quietly. Nikon put the Ai Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 on the market in January 1978, six elements in five groups and two-thirds of a stop faster, sold the f/2 next to it for a year, and stopped. There is no Ai-S 50mm f/2 and no autofocus 50mm f/2 — the line simply ends in January 1979, twenty years after the prototype. Whether the 1959 seven-element lens has any surviving design documentation, and why Nikon abandoned a formula it had shipped for only four years, are both open: Nikon’s published account of the 50mm f/1.4 mentions the 5cm f/2 as a benchmark its own faster lens had to beat, and then says nothing about why it was replaced.

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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 50mm f/2 (F mount)
Nikon F2 Photomic, black, with the Nikkor-H·C 50mm f/2 (Thomas Altfather Good) — Thomas Altfather Good, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 50mm f/2 (F mount)
Birches — Nikkor 50mm f/2 (naql) — naql, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikkor 50mm f/2 (F mount)
Train pulling into Montpelier station — Nikkor 50mm f/2 (Pierre Marshall) — Pierre Marshall, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 50mm f/2 (F mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $110 across 57 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $70–$150). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: up 2% from $100.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$110$70–$15057
2026-09-06$100$70–$13054

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 50mm f/1.4 (F mount) · Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 · Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2

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.