Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Nikkor 105mm f/1.8

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F · 1981 · Xenotar type — 5 elements in 5 groups

Also known as: Ai-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.8 · AI-S Nikkor 105mm F1.8 · Nikkor 105mm f/1.8 Ai-S · Nikon 105mm f/1.8 · NIKKOR 105mm 1:1.8 · AI Nikkor 105mm f/1.8S · ニッコール 105mm F1.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Ai-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.8 Nikon F (Ai-S) 1981–2005 169091 — prototype, August 1980, a single recorded lens
179091 – 223497 (44,407) — March 1981 onward 		44,407 recorded, plus one prototype
  1. Vink's quantity column is derived from serial numbers collected, not from factory records, so 44,407 is a floor rather than a total.
  2. The two sources disagree about how long the lens was sold. Nikon's own account says it "sold for roughly twelve years", which puts the end at 1993 and matches the arrival of the AF DC Nikkor 105mm f/2D in September 1993. Vink's serial record and Richard Haw both run the lens to 2005. A catalogue withdrawal in 1993 and a build-to-order tail to 2005 would reconcile them, but no source consulted says so.
  3. Design and release are also four to five years apart in Nikon's own telling: optics designed 1975 to early 1976, trial-production drawings June 1976, mass production autumn 1979, release September 1981. Vink's first production block starts in March 1981.
  4. No list price has been found for this lens in any source consulted.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A 105mm lens with a 62mm filter and a hood that pulls out of the barrel is this one; the f/2.5 Ai-S also has a built-in hood but takes 52mm filters and weighs 145g less
  • Five elements at f/1.8 is the whole point: a Gauss design of that speed would normally need seven, and Nikon's essay treats the element count as the achievement

Ai-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.8:

  • Built-in sliding hood, 62mm filter, 580g — the barrel is the twin of the 85mm f/1.4 Ai-S in everything but diameter
  • Nine aperture blades, minimum aperture f/22, close focus 1m
  • Five cross-head mount screws (Vink)
  • There is no other 105mm f/1.8 in the F mount: no pre-AI, no Ai, no autofocus version was ever built

Serial-range notes

169091
The single recorded prototype, dated August 1980 — thirteen months before Nikon's stated release and seven before the first production block.
179091
Vink gives the same start number, 179091, for this lens and for the 85mm f/1.4 Ai-S. The two were designed as a pair for the F3 era and released in the same month; whether the shared number is a numbering convention or a transcription of one list into two rows is not something the source settles.

Specifications

Formula
Xenotar type — 5 elements in 5 groups
Designed by
Tsunashima Teruyoshi — optical design, 1975 to early 1976
Construction
5 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
78.5 × 80.5 mm
Weight
580 g
Filter
62 mm
Years manufactured
1981–2005
Country
Japan
Coating
Nikon Integrated Coating

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
present wide open
Vignetting
heavy wide open
Flare & ghosting
mild veiling
Optical formula — Xenotar type — 5 elements in 5 groups
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 5 elements in 5 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. One surface was corrected against the source after a second read.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from Nikon's own diagram — 5 elements in 5 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. One surface was corrected against the source after a second read. — Drawn for this site

History

Nikon released the F3 in 1980 and then, in September 1981, two fast portrait lenses to sit on it: the 85mm f/1.4 and this one. They look alike, they were sold as a pair, and Roland Vink’s database gives them the same starting serial number, 179091. Only one of the two is remembered.

Teruyoshi Tsunashima designed the optics between 1975 and early 1976, and the interesting fact about them is how few there are. Five elements in five groups, Xenotar type, at f/1.8 — a Gauss design of that speed would normally run to seven. Nikon’s own essay on the lens spends most of its length on that point and ends with something close to an exclamation: the author writes that Tsunashima “really did achieve f/1.8 optics with a 5-element design”. Everything downstream follows from the choice. The lens is large — 580g, 62mm filters, a hood that slides out of the barrel — because five elements at that aperture need to be big ones, and its aberration behaviour is that of a design with nothing spare: heavy vignetting wide open, colour fringing that clears by f/4, resolution that is merely good at close range until f/2.8.

What survives all of that is the blur. Richard Haw, who has taken the lens apart, calls the bokeh second to none, with clean evenly-lit discs and no onion rings in them, and rates it level with the 85mm f/1.4 on that count alone. The nine-bladed iris helps; so does the fact that Tsunashima was correcting for a portrait distance rather than a test chart.

Vink records 44,407 lenses from March 1981, plus a single prototype from August 1980. Against the 163,938 Ai-S 105mm f/2.5s built in the same window, that is roughly one f/1.8 for every four f/2.5s — the slower lens was smaller, lighter, cheaper and nearly as good, and most photographers bought it instead.

Two things remain open. Nikon says the lens “sold for roughly twelve years”, which ends it in 1993 when the AF DC Nikkor 105mm f/2D arrived; Vink and Haw both run it to 2005. Nothing consulted here reconciles the twelve-year figure with the twenty-four-year serial record. And no list price has surfaced for it at all, in yen or dollars, at any point in that run.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikkor 105mm f/1.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $400 across 39 fixed-price listings on 2026-10-19 (middle half $350–$450). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 8 days: down 5% from $420.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-10-19$400$350–$45039
2026-10-17$400$350–$45039
2026-10-16$400$350–$45040
2026-10-15$400$350–$45039
2026-09-21$400$380–$45049
2026-09-18$400$380–$47050
2026-09-11$420$380–$45050
2026-09-06$420$380–$45050

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 52 more listings

Listings updated 2026-10-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 · Nikkor 85mm f/1.4

Sources (3)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.