Nikon Series E 70-210mm f4 vintage lens review

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In 1979 Nikon introduced the Series E as a cheaper alternative for those who couldn’t afford their main line lenses.

They were engineered to be simpler and less expensive to build, with allegedly cheaper components, but without sacrificing image quality.

The lens is made of metal, it weights around 700g, it is 14,9 to 16,8cm long and it has an external diameter of 72mm, with a 62mm front thread.

The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4to f32  without half steps.

The focusing barrel is rubberized, it turns 160 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.5m. At 70mm it can turn past that to 56cm.

The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46.5mm.

As all of the vintage zooms in this range, it is heavy and somewhat unwieldy, making your system very front heavy.

Sharpness wide open is poor at 70mm but improves at 210. The difference is especially evident in the corners.

By f8 it gets sharp, but still lacking detail and corners at 70mm are a bit fuzzy..

Chromatic aberration can be distracting at wider apertures and it improves but doesn’t disappear stopping down.

Colors and saturation are somewhat dull and not the most natural, but it has good contrast.

Depending on the focal length Specular highlights have some hard edges, CA, onion rings and artifacts, but don’t deform too much towards the edges and Backgrounds vary from busy to a mush of colors

-         It doesn’t much focus breathing.

It is prone to flares, ghosting and loss of contrast when shooting towards sources of light.

There is not much to be said about this lens, it is kinda forgettable like most vintage zooms in this focal range.

I don’t have the Canon Fd equivalent anymore to compare them directly, but the Nikon has noticeably more chromatic aberration, although to my eyes it looks a bit sharper.



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