The 5cm F2 Nikkor-H.C
One of NK's more vanilla offerings was its six element/four group 5cm F2.0. Other than being coated from its very beginning not much that is favorable distinguishes it from other similar offerings from the likes of Leica and Zeiss of that era and actually it sure does look a great deal like the contemporaneous Zeiss Contax Sonnar of that time.
Its earliest embodiment appeared in 1946 in a mechanically fragile collapsible mount and took inconveniently sized 40.5mm filters/accessories.
One interesting aside about this particular lens is that it has been claimed that it was the basis of the of the original design of the earliest 5cm lens for the "F". We have actually come across such a statement in print. Nothing could be more departed from the truth. Not only is it an entirely different formulation (not the the correct number of elements and groups) but, when focussed at infinity or almost anywhere else for that matter, its rear most element would be placed at or even behind the F's mirror.
After the collapsible version a modified/tube disabled version appeared for a short time approximately in 1949. In 1950, the more standard "rigid mount" version appeared:
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which remained largely unaltered in appearance (except for the dropping of "Tokyo" in favor of "Japan" at the end of the US occupation) for the duration of its availability into the sixties.
The the external appearance remained largely constant there were internal changes. The early Nikon rangefinder bayonet mount lenses actually weighed over 7 ounces while that LTM lens shown on the right is over 9 ounces.
Early criticism, especially from pros, attacked the relative massiveness of these early offerings, a criticism that NK was not insensitive to. In fact, as time went on, even though external appearance remained largely constant, theses lenses became progressively lighter largely due to the employment of lighter aluminum alloys in acceptable internal and external applications.
