Stuck diaphragm on a Nikkor 35 PC

[Diapositivo]

It seems I have a problem.
I was taking in my hands some equipment today. I have a Nikon FE2 which I use with two shift lenses: a PC-Nikkor 35/2.8 and a Schneider PC-super-angulon 2.8/28.

With both lenses the diaphragm is not automatic. With a ring you set the desired aperture. With another ring (or lever in the case of the Schneider) you either keep the diaphragm open, or close it to the aperture set with the other ring.

Both lenses have no coupling with the camera body that I can detect.

With the Schneider lens I can open and close the diaphragm both when the lens is mounted on the body and when it is not.

With the Nikkor lens I cannot move the diaphragm ring past 2.8 (full aperture). It's not that it is "hard" to move, it really is stuck there. The other ring, the one for the actual opening and closing of the diaphragm, has its white point aligned with the white point of the first ring. It is also stuck and totally unmoveable not even applying force.

I don't understand what could have happened.

The camera is without batteries at the moment, but I don't see how this could influence the problem as I see no connection between camera and lens. Besides, the Schneider seems to operate normally.

I'm asking for light here before bringing the lens to a repairer. Is there something I am unaware of?

Thanks
Fabrizio

 

[Diapositivo]

GOT IT.
One has to push the entire diaphragm ring inside! Only then will it rotate. The other ring does not rotate if not for the diaphragm excursion needed to reach the settled value, so in full aperture it will not move. I had totally forgot this.

Jeee, now that I think about it, it's since 2006 that I don't use this lens.

All is well that ends well.

Fabrizio

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Fabrizio;

Congratulations on remembering the little things that make the use of our camera equipment possible. It is surprising what an excessive accumulation of years can do to us.

OK. Now that you have the PC-NIKKOR 2.8/35mm lens working, have you considered using it to take another photograph for your "avatar" image?

 

[CGW]

Happy you didn't try to free it up with a pipe wrench!

The 35/2.8PC is a sweet lens. Like how it will fit anything by clearing fixed AI tabs.

 

[Diapositivo]

Ralph, the reason I don't use my two PC lenses often is just because I find the effect unnatural. Even when I "correct perspective" I do it only partially.

Actually while taking the picture of my avatar I also had my Nikon and the two PC lenses with me, I just wanted the converging verticals (and the skewed horizontals).

I find that the small correction I am applying, when even, can be applied in post-processing without too much damage. Also I have to say that it is tripod work, in general, that I do less often nowadays, and although is theoretically possible to use shift lenses hand-held, it's just not worth the hassle.

Maybe next year I'll be again all-tripod, nocturne work as a few years ago. I go in circles.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Fabrizio;

The comment about your "avatar" image was not really critical; it just seemed ironic that you had been working on a NIKKOR "Perspective Control" lens, and the "avatar" image has all of these nicely converging lines in an architectural subject, and that just happens to be what the NIKKOR PC lenses were designed to reduce. I admit that I just could not resist the comment.

With my own work, I find that I can do almost anything I want down to about 24mm, but beyond that I do need to be much more careful in where my lines are across or through the frame. It just seems to be one of the points where something becomes significant. Trying to achieve an image that is aesthetically pleasing while also technically correct can be a challenge.

By the way, while I do have "The 1960s Nikon Project," it does not include the original silver knob type PC-NIKKOR 1:2.8 f=35mm lens. However, I do have the Minolta ROKKOR 1:2.8 f=35mm SHIFT CA lens. Does that count?

 

[Diapositivo]

Yes Ralph, that counts!

I initially wanted to buy the Rokkor shift lens, but it was very, very expensive. I couldn't find one for less than €800,00, that was in 2006 when prices were possibly lower than now. All my SLR cameras are Minolta SR and so that would have been my choice.

After a while I understood that buying a Nikon and a PC-Nikkor would have been much cheaper. Your Rokkor shift lens is a very particular piece of optics, it was at the time, and maybe it is still possibly today, the only shift lens in the world which has an automatic diaphragm (instead of having cams, movement is transmitted by means of a flexible cable inside the barrell, as far as I know).