The Nikon S-mount is a type of interchangeable lens mount

Lens mount

A lens mount is an interface — mechanical and often also electrical — between a photographic camera body and a lens. It is confined to cameras where the body allows interchangeable lenses, most usually the single lens reflex type or any movie camera of 16 mm or higher gauge...

 used by a series of Nikon

Nikon

, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...

 35mm rangefinder camera

Rangefinder camera

A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus...

s (Nikon I, Nikon M, Nikon S, Nikon S2, Nikon SP

Nikon SP

The Nikon SP is a professional level, interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, rangefinder camera introduced in 1957. It is the culmination of Nikon's rangefinder development which started in 1948 with the Nikon I, and was "arguably the most advanced rangefinder of its time." It was manufactured by the...

, Nikon S3

Nikon S3

The Nikon S3 is a professional level, interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, rangefinder camera introduced in 1958. It was manufactured by the Japanese optics company Nippon Kogaku K. K. ....

, Nikon S4

Nikon S4

The Nikon S4 was a rangefinder camera produced by Nikon that was very similar to the Nikon S3 but had a slightly lower price. This was because it used a cloth shutter curtain and it lacked the self-timer and motor drive contacts of the S3...

). The lenses were sold under the name Nikkor

Nikkor

Nikkor is the brand of lenses produced by Nikon Corporation, including camera lenses for the Nikon F-mount.thumb|right|Nikko parent company brand, from which the Nikkor brand evolved....

.

The mount was a copy of the Zeiss Ikon Contax

Contax

Contax was a camera brand noted for its unique technical innovation and a wide range of Zeiss lenses, noted for their high optical quality. Its final incarnation was a line of 35 mm, medium format and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics...

 rangefinder mount, however, small differences between the two mean that although Zeiss wide-angle lenses can be used on the Nikon cameras and vice-versa, the longer lenses (50 mm and above), if used, will not be able to focus at both close range and infinity.

Nikon made a small number of longer focal length lenses specifically designed to focus properly when mounted on a Contax. These were the 85mm, 105mm, and 135mm lenses. Each was marked with a "C" on the side of the lens barrel. This is not to be confused with a "C" mark used as a suffix to the serial number. Some early Nikkors used this mark to denote that the lenses were coated

Optical coating

An optical coating is one or more thin layers of material deposited on an optical component such as a lens or mirror, which alters the way in which the optic reflects and transmits light. One type of optical coating is an antireflection coating, which reduces unwanted reflections from surfaces, and...

.

The mount itself has two bayonets, one inside the camera and another outside. Lenses that use the bayonet inside the camera need have no focusing helicoid built into the lens barrel. As a consequence, the 5 cm f/1.4 lens that was normally sold with the body is extremely small (about the size of a golf ball) since the lens contains the optics only. Focusing of such lenses could be done by rotating the toothed wheel on the top front of the camera body or by rotating the lens barrel itself (the distance scale is on the camera body). The external bayonet is used to mount longer and heavier lenses where the built-in helicoid would not be strong enough to rotate the lens barrel. Such lenses are focused using a focusing ring and distance scale on the lens just like typical SLR lenses (the distance scale on the camera body will be covered by the lens flange and thus not visible).

Nikon produced a very large range of Nikkor

Nikkor

Nikkor is the brand of lenses produced by Nikon Corporation, including camera lenses for the Nikon F-mount.thumb|right|Nikko parent company brand, from which the Nikkor brand evolved....

 lenses for these cameras with focal lengths from 21mm to 1000mm. Several other manufacturers including Fuji (now Fujifilm

Fujifilm

is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

), Komura and Zunow made S-mount lenses at the time of which the Zunow 5 cm f/1.1 lens is a keenly sought after collectors item. In 2002, Cosina Voigtländer

Cosina Voigtländer

Cosina Voigtländer refers to photographic products manufactured by Cosina under the Voigtländer name since 1999. Cosina leases rights to the Voigtländer name from Ringfoto...

 manufactured a camera (the Bessa R2S) as well as several lenses for the Nikon S-mount.

Further reading

Rotoloni, Robert, Nikon Rangefinder Camera, 1983, Hove, East Sussex, Hove Collectors Books.

External links

• W-NIKKOR 3.5cm f/1.8 "NIKKOR Club Quarterly" article about the design of about what was at the time the fastest wide-angle lens in the world.
• Stephen Gandy's site Brief descriptions of Nikon S-mount cameras and Nikkor / Voigtlander lenses in S-mount.