Photographica Pages

An online guide to collectable cameras and related stuff


135/4 Nikkor for Rangefinder

The 135/4 Nikkor was the shortest lived of the original five lenses introduced with the Nikon I. Introduced in 1948, it was superceded by the 135/3.5 in march of 1950. It was of typical construction of the time for Nippon Kogaku, heavy chrome over brass, no clickstops on the aperture, and all are MIOJ. Most of them are marked on the side of the barrel, but a few were marked on the rangefinder cam.

Only about 900 of these lenses were built, many in Leica screwmount, and one in Exakta mount. The first batch, serial numbers 611xx are of more crude construction. The rest of the lenses, spread over a couple of different serial number batches, are basically the same.

The lens uses 40.5mm filters, and the shade is a heavy chrome slip on design. The rear cap would be heavy chrome as well, the front cap fits on the end of the shade, is also heavy chrome or black bakelight.


The 135/4 Nikkor in Leica thread mount, with caps, shade and case.