Building a Nikon Nikkor AI-S Vintage Prime Set

Jul 11

I spent most of 2019 working on 6 x 1 hour true crime series called the Genetic Detective. The director and wanted to give the show a particular look and we opted to shoot the entire series on a full set of Cooke Speed Panchros. It was such a joy working with a full set of prime lenses that after the series concluded I started investigating building a prime set of my own for future projects.

My priorities were affordability, character, speed and fully manual operation. The Cooke’s had a beautiful vintage look to them that is hard to come by in any modern offerings in stills lenses or newer budget cinema primes. I wanted to avoid DSLR lenses that had fly-by-wire focusing mechanisms and didn’t offer manual aperture control. After coming across a mint copy of a Nikkor AI-S 58 f1.2 Noct through a private seller in Vermont, I was convinced building a set of Nikkor AI-S lenses was the direction to go. (Check out this video featuring a few of the lenses conducted by Old Fast Glass, a portion of which is in the YouTube video below ).

The 58mm f1.2 is a bit rare and is the most expensive lenses in my set. With that said, the rest of the lenses can be found pretty affordably by scouring craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Keh.com and B&H.com used section. You can easily build a 10 lens prime set (18, 20, 24, 28, 35, 50, 85, 105, 135, 180) for less than $5000 USD. The price creeps up a bit if you choose to cine-mod them, convert the Nikon F mount to EF, etc. The good thing is that you can grow your set slowly and make the lenses more video friendly in stages as you are financially able to. I’m not quite finished modding my lenses set, but I have the following lenses outfitted with 80mm OD fronts, custom push on caps, focus gears, reversible follow focus, Nikon F to E Mount adapters and stored in a hardcase all of under the price of $10,500 USD. The 58mm Noct is the only reason my set was expensive as it is.

Nikkor AI-S 58mm f1.2 Noct with 80mm OD setup ring and custom cap from Cordvision. Focus Gear by Cool-Lux.

12 Lens Nikkor AI-S Set

Nikkor AI-S 18mm f3.5
Nikkor AI-S 20mm f2.8
Nikkor AI-S 24mm f2.0
Nikkor AI-S 28mm f2.0
Nikkor AI-S 35mm f1.4
Nikkor AI-S 50mm f1.2
Nikkor AI-S 58mm f1.2 Noct
Nikkor AI-S 85mm f1.4
Nikkor AI-S 105mm f1.8
Nikkor AI-S 105mm f2.8 Macro
Nikkor AI-S 135mm f2.0
Nikkor AIS - 180mm f2.8
Nikkor AI-S 35-70 f3.5 Macro
Nikkor AIS 50-300mm f4.5

Note that these are the fastest versions of these individual focal lengths. Be aware other slower aperture versions exist.

12 lens Nikkor AI-S set stored in a Nanuk 935 Hardcase with space to spare for the missing lenses in the set.

Completing the Nikkor AI-S Lens Set

Eventually I’d like to round out the set with the following lenses for completeness.

Nikkor AI-S 15mm f3.5
Nikkor AI-S 55mm f1.2 (a little redundant when you have a 50mm / 58mm)
Nikkor AI-S 55mm f2.8 Macro
Nikkor AI-S 180mm f2.8
Nikkor AI-S 80-200 f2.8

Nikkor AIS Cine-Mod

Cine-modding still photography lenses is the process of making them more friendly to shoot video. Nikkor AIS primes are fully mechanical there for are prime contenders for the modification. There are tons of video’s on YouTube about the benefits of modifying still lenses so I won’t waste your time here with explanations of the process. What I do want to do is provide some links to parts and services I used to build my set as well as some other options to build yours.

Front ring and blank cap from Cordvision

80mm Outer Diameter (OD) Step-Up Rings / Caps
Why?

Standardizes the front of the lenses. These lenses have varying filter threads (52-77mm). By replacing standardizing them you are able to use one size filter (77mm) across all your lenses. Don’t have to own different sized filters for each lens and in return saves your money
Allows you to use cinema style clamp on matteboxes that are compatible with 80mm OD lenses
Allows you to use push-on style cinema lense caps

Where to Buy

Cordvision ($30 USD) - Also offers caps
SimmMod ($30 USD) - Also offers caps

Follow Focus Gears
Why?

Ability to use a follow focus with the lenses
Nikon lenses have focus rings that rotate opposite of most cinema lenses (opposite of Canon, etc). This is really unnerving for people have spent a lot of time perfecting their manual focusing chops. By using a reversible follow focus you can retain your normal muscle memory
Where to Buy?

Best - Cordvision ($45 USD), Simmod ($55 USD)
Good - Cool Luxe ($29 USD)

Reversible Follow Focus
Why?

To use focus the Nikkor lenses in the way you are used to focusing your existing lenses.

What to Buy?

Petroff Reversible Follow Focus ($155 USD)
- Petroff originally manufactured this follow focus for Zacuto. While Zacuto has moved on, Petroff still manufactures the same design with the same quality from Bulgaria. It is one of the cheapest, quality made follow-focus units I have come across.

Custom Designed Front Caps

I opted to have custom caps made by Cordvision. Cordvision offers their own templates or you can submit your own design. Simmod also offers this service.

I decided to design my own template using the font inspired by the original Nikkor branding and packaging rom the era that the lens were manufactured. If you are interested in downloading a full 14 lens design file it is available in my store.

The caps display the focal length, f/stop, the close focus distance in imperial and metric as well as any special distinction such as Noct, or Micro (Nikon’s way of saying Macro).

Aperture Declick

I’m in the process of de-clicking the aperture rings of my entire lens set to complete the cine-mod. I will update this section with parts and links as soon as I’m finished.

Professional Cine-Mod Services

If this all this shopping around makes you nervous there are a few reputable places that you can send your lenses to to have the full cinema modification done. You will pay much more out of pocket than doing it yourself but you will have the peace of mind that it was done by qualified professionals. Each company has a price estimator for all the services you would like to have done to the lenses.

Perhaps the best course of action is do most of the modifying yourself (front rings, gear, caps, etc) and then send them off to have the aperture de-clicked.

Check out Duclos Lenses and Simmod.