Nikon AI conversion

[qqphot]

that must be a very rare dime. a 105mm f/2.5 in clean, working condition goes for $200-300 unless you don't mind ugly, which I do.

Oh, mine was much less expensive than that! If I'd paid $200 for it I would have thought twice before attempting it. Maybe I just got a very good deal, I don't know.

At any rate, I was able to remove the aperture ring and "mill" it down using a toy-like Dremel drill press fixture and some cutting wheels. It was a slow and loud process, but effective.

 

[grant.goodes]

Oh, mine was much less expensive than that! If I'd paid $200 for it I would have thought twice before attempting it. Maybe I just got a very good deal, I don't know.

I paid $149 for my factory-AI'ed Sonnar, and aside from rub marks on the focus-ring, it essentially looks and behaves like new. You can easily find pre-AI 105/2.5 lenses for sub $100, and cosmetically challenged copies can be had for under $50. After all they made something like 130K Sonnars and another nearly 200K pre-AI Xenotars, so this is a VERY common lens, and even minty copies are not particularly hard to find. Aside from the earliest copies with 9-blade aperture (not to mention the "tick mark" version!) you should never have to pay much to join the Nikkor 105/2.5 club.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I paid $149 for my factory-AI'ed Sonnar, and aside from rub marks on the focus-ring, it essentially looks and behaves like new. You can easily find pre-AI 105/2.5 lenses for sub $100, and cosmetically challenged copies can be had for under $50. After all they made something like 130K Sonnars and another nearly 200K pre-AI Xenotars, so this is a VERY common lens, and even minty copies are not particularly hard to find. Aside from the earliest copies with 9-blade aperture (not to mention the "tick mark" version!) you should never have to pay much to join the Nikkor 105/2.5 club.

Mine has 7 aperture blades.