Nikkor PN105mm Mounting

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 9:11 am

I've had the Printing Nikkor PN105mm F2.8A for some time (Thanks Ray), it's very good around 1X but extremely long. It requires ~90mm from the camera mount flange and is ~ 120mm long, and ~140mm with the short lens hood. So in total a heavy, long 230mm from the camera mount lens.

I use the PN105 in both vertical (Wemacro Vertical Stand) and horizontal (Thor base) modes, and the horizontal mode places lots of torque on the camera mount, thus begging for support.

Peter at MJKZZ has introduced a clamp that is specifically designed for holding lenses and has a 1/4-20 bottom thread for easy mounting, and also has ARCA grooves in the side for direct ARCA clamp mounting. The clamp is designed for the popular 58mm diameter extension tubes.

Since the rear section of the PN105 is a 55mm diameter tube, I built up the diameter with Gaffers tape for a snug fit before tightening, this required ~12 turns. As you can see the 3 clamps are positioned with 2 along the PN105mm rear section and the 3rd near the camera mount which is a 58mm tube section.

The clamps are secured to the ARCA plate (my choice of mounting) with 1/4-20 bolts. Be aware that the ARCA plate must be somewhat forward of the tube camera mount to allow the camera to rotate, this requires the placement of the clamps on the ARCA plate. I searched for ARCA plates that have a slot running almost the full length of the plate, but couldn't find any with the required length ~160mm. Many plates have 2 slots and a hole in the middle, and I tried to guess by the ebay views if these would work. I now have a few "extra" ARCA plates

Peter has an 160mm ARCA plate that has the slot required (runs most of the length) for flexible mounting of the clamps, this is part of his lens mounting kits.

Anyway, hope this helps folks with long lenses and mounting.

Best,

RobertOToole · Post by **RobertOToole** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 6:00 pm

Good solution Mike.

For about a year I have been running something similar that works great with almost any lens over 50mm, built on Thorlans SM2 parts.

The variable tube makes it very easy to to give you exactly the magnification you need down quickly and precisely. Also makes it easy to adjust a tube lens to get infinity focus.

Thorlabs has SM2 tubes from 11mm to 155mm in all types, M-M, F-F, M-F etc.

This is the setup with a couple of lenses.

Rayfact VL 1.4x lens

https://www.closeuphotography.com/nikon ... t-vl-lens/

Rayfact GF, 0.5x - 2x lens

https://www.closeuphotography.com/nikon ... t-gf-lens/

https://www.closeuphotography.com/52mm-setup

Robert

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:05 pm

Robert,

I was going to copy what you had done with the Thorlabs clamps for my Mitty/Sigma LSA setup and the Nikkor PN105 when Peter (MJKZZ) just came out with his clamps. I liked that his are 1/4-20 threaded on the bottom and have the ARCA Swiss grooves built in the clamp sides. This allows you to directly mount to an ARCA Swiss clamp or as I did mount to a ARCA Swiss plate similar to what you've done but without the need for the ARCA Swiss inverted clamps.

First go around I did the Mitty/LSA setup using the popular 58mm tubes and Peter's clamps shown below. Then I went with the Nikkor PN105, which required adding the tape to expand 55mm diameter.

Those Rayfact lenses sure look sweet, as does the Minolta 5400 scanner lens!! You are always finding these jewels and making my old Canon 35mm Macro look bad!! When I go on eBay the prices are usually very high and haven't seen any bargains yet!

Best,

RobertOToole · Post by **RobertOToole** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:24 pm

What is the blue 'top secret' Mitutoyo Mike?

Peter (MJKZZ) clamps look nice. I went with SM2 so I can use all the other parts of the system, vari-tubes, long tube, even SM2 iris units, well that and Peter's parts were not out back then.

Robert

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:38 pm

M PLAN NUV 50.

Best,

RobertOToole · Post by **RobertOToole** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 9:17 pm

mawyatt wrote:M PLAN NUV 50.

Best,

Thought there was a chance you were going to tell us it was a Mity HR 50X!

On my Sigma tube lens setup I like to put a 52mm spacer between that and the objective and run a clamp on that one also for that extra-extra solid feeling.

You just reminded me, I started a tube lens test with focus at infinity, focus close-up, short spacer between, long spacer, all with a Mity 5x. I to finish it up now that I have the Mitutoyo and Nikon tube lenses loaners!

Robert

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Sun Jun 24, 2018 5:50 am

I wish it was the HR version

Have two of these NUV, should probably sell one

That's a good idea, better mechanically putting the clamp towards the end if possible. I recall some discussions on whether it's better to mount the Mitty's right up on the tube lens or add some distance between them, this might have been with the Raynox tubes. Think the result was ~35mm extension worked slightly better with the Raynox, but can't remember if this was a forward or reversed mounted Raynox.

Wonder if the same will be for other type tube lenses, so looking forward to your findings.

Best,