Nikon AI Nikkor 55mm F/1.2
Standard prime lens • Film era • Discontinued
- Announced:
- · April 1977
- Production status:
- ● Discontinued
- Country of design:
- · Japan
- Original name:
- · Nikon NIKKOR 55mm 1:1.2
- Class:
- · Ultra-fast full-frame standard prime lens
- System:
- · Nikon F (1959)
Abbreviations
| AI | A manual focus lens with automatic maximum aperture indexing, which is a mechanical system for coupling the lens to the camera's exposure system. Learn more |
Model history (6)
| ■Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-S Auto 55mm F/1.2 | A | 7 - 5 | 0.60m | ⌀52 | 1965 ● | |
| ■Nippon Kogaku / Nikon Nikkor-S[·C] Auto 55mm F/1.2 | A | 7 - 5 | 0.60m | ⌀52 | 1967 ● | |
| ■Nikon Nikkor 55mm F/1.2 | A | 7 - 5 | 0.50m | ⌀52 | 1974 ● | |
| ■Nikon AI Nikkor 55mm F/1.2 | A | 7 - 5 | 0.50m | ⌀52 | 1977 ● | |
| ■Nikon AI Nikkor 50mm F/1.2 | A | 7 - 6 | 0.50m | ⌀52 | 1978 ● | |
| ■Nikon AI-S Nikkor 50mm F/1.2 | A | 7 - 6 | 0.50m | ⌀52 | 1981 ● | |
Specification
| Optical design: | |
| 35mm full frame | |
| 55mm | |
| F/1.2 | |
| 7 elements in 5 groups (Double Gauss derivative) | |
| Nikon F [46.5mm] | |
| 42.9° (35mm full frame) | |
| On Nikon D APS-C [1.53x] cameras: | |
35mm equivalent focal length: | 84.2mm (in terms of field of view) |
35mm equivalent speed: | F/1.8 (in terms of depth of field) |
Diagonal angle of view: | 28.8° |
| Diaphragm mechanism: | |
Diaphragm type: | Automatic |
Aperture control: | Aperture ring (Manual settings only) |
| 7 (seven) | |
| Focusing: | |
| 0.50m | |
| <No data> | |
Focusing modes: | Manual focus only |
Manual focus control: | Focusing ring |
| Physical characteristics: | |
| 410g | |
| ⌀72×49.5mm | |
| Accessories: | |
| Screw-type 52mm | |
| HS-7 - Snap-on round | |
| HR-2 - Screw-type round | |
| Not compatible |
Sources of data
- Manufacturer's technical data.
- Nikon Sales Manual (July 1977).
- Nikon Sales Manual (June 1978).
Manufacturer description
The 55mm f/1 .2 is the fastest of all Nikkor lenses. It is particularly valuable in poorly-lit interior and night scenes, stage and theater photography, and other situations in which little light is available. The ultra-fast f/1.2 maximum aperture and extended 55mm focal length assure ultimate focusing accuracy under all lighting conditions.
From the editor
The last version before Nikon switched their f/1.2 design to a slightly shorter 50mm focal length in AI and ultimately AI-S versions. As one might expect, the lens is quite large and heavy at 410g. Manual focusing is typically smooth and silky as an AI-type lens, although the large diameter focusing ring offers noticeably more resistance to turning than the ring on the smaller AI 50/1.4.
Don't buy this lens for the less than one-half stop wider aperture than an f/1.4 lens and then end up carrying around this relatively large and heavy lens for everyday daylight photography. Also, performance is not optimal wide-open, so you need to stop down anyway to obtain acceptable results for general shooting. However, one really nice use for this lens is portraits. If you get close to your subject and open up the lens wide, the result is a very impressive popping out of your subject against a perfect background bokeh. In fact, no other Nikkor lens provides so much punch, spatial isolation, and beautiful bokeh for portrait subjects. One needs to be careful to select the correct aperture because the extremely shallow depth-of-field at f/1.2 can put your subject's eyes in focus with the rest of their face out of focus.
Notes
- This AI lens was designed for Nikon F3, EL2, EM, FE, FE2, FE10, FG-20, FM, FM2, FM10, FM3A, Nikkormat FT3 AI cameras and Nikon FA, FG, N2000, N6000 AI-S cameras.
- AI and AI-S lenses are backward compatible with Nikon F, F2, Nikkormat FS, FT, FT2, FTN, EL, ELW cameras.
- On Nikon digital SLR cameras, the automatic exposure metering with AI and AI-S lenses will not be available on D40, D40X, D60, D70, D70s, D80, D3000-D3500, D5000-D5600 series.
Other standard prime lenses in the Nikon F system
Lenses with similar focal length
| ■Nikon F mount (14) | |||||||||
| Cosina Tokyo Kogaku Auto-Topcor 58mm F/1.4 (1600 units) | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀58 | 2003 ● | ||||
| Cosina Voigtlander Nokton 58mm F/1.4 SL II | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀58 | 2007 ● | ||||
| Cosina Voigtlander Nokton 58mm F/1.4 SL II N | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀58 | 2012 ● | ||||
| Cosina Voigtlander Nokton 58mm F/1.4 SL II S | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀52 | 2016 ● | ||||
| Cosina Voigtlander Nokton 55mm F/1.2 SL II S | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀52 | 2023 ● | ||||
| Helios-81N 50mm F/2 MC akaArsat H 50mm F/2 akaHelios-81M 53mm F/2 [MC] akaHelios-81N 53mm F/2 akaГЕЛИОС-81М 53mm F/2 [МС] akaГЕЛИОС-81Н 50mm F/2 МС akaГЕЛИОС-81Н 53mm F/2 | A | 6 - 4 | 0.50m | ⌀49 | 1978 ● | ||||
| Helios-123N 50mm F/1.4 MC akaArsat H 50mm F/1.4 akaГЕЛИОС-123Н 50mm F/1.4 МС | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀52 | 1990 ● | ||||
| Volna-8N 50mm F/1.2 MC akaВОЛНА-8Н 50mm F/1.2 МС | A | 7 - 6 | 0.50m | ⌀58 | 1983 ● | ||||
| Selena 58mm F/1.9 | M | 4 - 3 | 0.80m | ⌀62 | 2021 ● | ||||
| Risespray 50mm F/1.7 SLR | M | 6 - 5 | 0.50m | ⌀52 | ● | ||||
| Risespray 50mm F/1.4 SLR akaLightdow 50mm F/1.4 SLR | M | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | ⌀55 | ● | ||||
| Carl Zeiss Classic Planar T* 50mm F/1.4 ZE / ZF.2 / ZK / ZS | A | 7 - 6 | 0.45m | E58 | 2006 ● | ||||
| ZEISS Otus Apo Distagon T* 55mm F/1.4 ZE / ZF.2 | A | 12 - 10 | 0.50m | E77 | 2013 ● | ||||
| ZEISS Milvus Distagon T* 50mm F/1.4 ZE / ZF.2 | A | 10 - 8 | 0.45m | E67 | 2015 ● | ||||
| ■Nikon F mount (1) · APS-C | |||||||||
| Zenitar 50mm F/1.2 S | M | 8 - 7 | 0.45m | ⌀62 | 2015 ● | ||||
| ■Interchangeable mount (2) | |||||||||
| MS Optics MS-Mode-S 50mm F/1.3 Dualsystem (200 units) | M | 5 - 4 | 1.00m | ⌀49 | 2006 ● | ||||
| Tamron 58mm F/1.2 [T] akaTaika Harigon 58mm F/1.2 | P | 8 - 6 | 1.8 ft. | 1960 ● | |||||