[LargeFormat] Nikon Process-Nikkor 260mm f/10 lens

[Michael Briggs]

On 04-Oct-2002 Ted Burford wrote:
> I just got 3 new in the original box Nikon Process-Nikkor 260mm f/10
> lenses in a trade deal. 
> 
> I have not been able to find any large format web pages for Nikon.

Nikon doesn't have any English language web pages about their large format
lenses.  The US distributer doesn't seem to have any interest in promoting LF
or enlarger lenses.   But this isn't really pertinent to these lenses, since
they are many years out of production and Nikon wouldn't consider them to be
lenses for large format photography -- for both reasons there wouldn't be any
commercial motive to go to the effort to put them onto a web page.

> I would like to know what they are worth and what the specifications of
> these lenses are.

These lenses were intended for the printing industry (books, magazines, etc.).  
The Apo-Nikkors were Nikon's normal lenses, and the Process-Nikkors were
designed for when a wider than normal coverage lens was wanted.   The wider than
normal coverage would allow a shorter focal length than typical for a given
negative size, and therefore less distance from the object to image.   Probably
they were used in vertical cameras, which have limited object-to-image distance
compared to horizontal cameras.

They were optimized for 1:1 and they cover about 74 degrees at f22.

They show up on ebay occasionally and go for roughly a couple of hundred
dollars.

From the photos on ebay, there seem to be two vintages, with the most obvious
difference being the box: wood for the older version, cardboard for the newer.
Which version do you have?   Some have said that the coatings differ; I am
guessing that the wooden-box version is too old for multicoating.

They are beautiful lenses with their deeply curved outer elements.  They must
have cost A LOT of money when they were new.  There seem to be a fair number of
(virtually) new-in-the-box ones out there -- perhaps Nikon charged so much
money for them that they didn't sell.

Probably the best use today would be in a vertical LF enlarger -- you could use
a shorter focal length than normal and thus make larger prints than the height
of the enlarger would otherwise allow.   The 210 mm version could do 8x10.

--Michael