Lens: Nikon Macro-Nikkor 65 mm f/4.5
Vintage: 1960's.
Lens Mount: M39.
Needed Adapters: M39 to camera-specific adapter, easily found on eBay.
Preferred Mounting: Normal, not reversed.
Filter Thread: 38 mm.
Street Price: $1000-$1500 in good used condition. Prices vary a lot online, shop around.
Controls: Aperture setting, aperture preset.
Aperture: 8 blades.
Basic Function: Requires a bellows to set focus and magnification.
Aperture# | f/number |
1 | f/4.5 |
2 | f/6.3 |
3 | f/9 |
4 | f/13 |
5 | f/18 |
6 | f/25 |
Extension | Magnification | Working Distance |
5 cm | 0.95 | 112 mm |
9 cm | 1.56 | 86 mm |
13 cm | 2.17 | 73 mm |
19 cm | 3.11 | 65 mm |
Est. Focal Length: 65.1 mm |
Appearance:


Resolution vs. Aperture:
This lens is sharpest at f/6.3 (setting #2) and it shows the most resolution at f/4.5 (setting #1). The sharpness at f/4.5 is almost as good as f/6.3 and testing was performed at f/4.5.
Corner Fuzziness vs. Aperture:
The corner fuzziness is good at f/4.5 and goes up to outstanding above f/6.3 (testing at m=1.6).
Lateral CA vs. Aperture:
The lateral CA is in the mild to moderate range across all of the apertures (testing at m=1.6).
Performance: Sharpness vs. Magnification:
I have 4 lines that represent levels of performance from outstanding (top) to fair (bottom). This shows where this lens fits into the hierarchy that I have created.
Sharpness is generally in the good category across the magnification range (testing at f/4.5). These numbers would likely be slightly better at f/6.3.
Performance: Resolution vs. Magnification:
I have 4 lines that represent levels of performance from outstanding (top) to fair (bottom). This shows where this lens fits into the hierarchy that I have created.
Resolution is in the very good category in the lower magnification range and in the good category at higher magnifications.
Corner Fuzziness vs. Magnification:
Corner fuzziness is not so great at the low end of the magnification range and improves to very good at high magnification.
Resolving Power vs. Magnification:
This graph represents the smallest details that are able to be resolved by this lens at various magnifications. If the number doesn't get smaller as the magnification rises, there is little benefit to going up in magnification with this lens. This situation is also called empty magnification.
Resolving power improves consistently with magnification, no problems.
Chromatic Aberration:
This lens shows mild color fringing in the center (about 0.12 - 0.49 pixel) and mild/moderate on the periphery (0.053 - 0.111%). Anything below 0.04% is not considered significant. Above 0.08% is considered moderately visible.
There is mild axial CA on out-of focus details (see image below) as shown by a slight green fringe on the right and a slight magenta fringe on the left of the image.
Longitudinal CA:

Image Contrast: Image contrast is very good, typical for high-quality bellows lenses.
Flare: This lens shows no significant flare during testing.
Distortion: This lens shows no significant distortion during testing.
Image Samples:
About 1.5:1 magnification, f/4.5, focus stack of 18 images, resized:

Pixel level crop from the image above:
There is very good pixel level detail, no problems.
Pixel level crop from the corner:
There is mild fuzziness in the corners.
About x:1 magnification, f/x, stack of x images, resized:

Pixel level crop from the image above:
There is good pixel level detail, no problems.
Pixel level crop from the corner:
There is slight fuzziness in the corners, not bad.
Conclusion:
The Macro-Nikkor 65 mm is an old and highly respected bellows lens. It is relatively uncommon and tends to be expensive. It performs well, but slightly short of the luminar 65 that I have tested previously. This lens is not really made for modern digital cameras with their relatively small detectors. This lens was made for 4 x 5 inch film and on that film it will likely produce much better results. It has good contrast similar to other bellows lenses. It generally has moderate lateral CA, although that improves as the magnification rises. It has its highest resolution at f/4.5 and slightly better sharpness at f/6.3. I chose to test at f/4.5, but you could certainly choose f/6.3 with its slightly higher sharpness and better corner fuzziness.
All together it is a good lens, but not great on modern dSLR's. Its high price will likely scare off most people other than collectors. You could get similar performance for much less money with a 50mm enlarging lens although you would give up a little working distance.