Micro-Nikkor

Micro-Nikkor is a family of macro lenses produced by Nikon for their 35mm film and digital cameras. The first Micro-Nikkor lens was the 5cm f/3.5 lens introduced in 1956 for Nikon's S-mount rangefinder cameras. It was designed to produce microforms of texts written in Japanese using the Kanji alphabet, a task that, according to Nikon's corporate history, western microphotography systems were ill-equipped to handle, as Kanji text contains many more small details compared to Latin texts. The 5cm f/3.5 was later modified to have a slightly higher focal length of 55mm to accommodate the longer flange-focal distance of Nikon's SLR F-mount.^[1]

Longer focal-length Micro-Nikkors were released later, with the 105mm f/4 first appearing in 1970 and the 200mm f/4 being released in 1978. The Micro-Nikkor family of lenses went through a large number of revisions over the decades, the most recent models are designed for the Nikon Z-mount.

A common feature of Micro-Nikkor lenses is that they reach at least 1:2 (half life size) magnification without the need for extension rings. Micro-Nikkor lenses frequently employ compensating diaphragms, which keep the effective aperture constant, even when magnification is changed.