Nikon's classic manual 28mm wide — H to Ai-S eras, the affordable documentary standard.
The Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 is Nikon's classic manual-focus wide angle, produced across the H, K, Ai and Ai-S eras from 1960 through the 1980s in the same modest-aperture formula.
Optically conservative and mechanically dense, it delivers the flat field and low distortion that made it a documentary standard, with close variants differing mainly in coating and focusing-ring style.
Its significance is as the affordable entry into manual Nikkor wides: clean examples trade well under the faster 28mm f/2.8 Ai-S, and the lens mounts on everything from an F to a Z body via adapter.
Used buying: check the aperture ring detents and blade oil, confirm which era the copy is (pre-Ai lenses need conversion for many bodies), and expect haze in unserviced early examples - prices track condition more than sub-version.