Nikon 13mm f/5.6

The Nikkor 13mm f/5.6 is an ultra-wide angle rectilinear lens which was manufactured by Nikon for use on Nikon 135 film format SLR cameras up until 1998, after which time it was discontinued. Photographers called this lens as Holy Grail, since this lens is very difficult to find. Only about 350 were made, and made only for special order.

The 13mm is one of Nikon's best lens. The Nikon 13mm is the widest non-distorting professional SLR lens ever made. It’s known that each Nikon 13mm lens blessed by a Shinto priest, and domestic customers were invited to their lens' ceremony. Not only does the 13mm cover a wider undistorted angle than any other professional SLR lens ever made, it does so with much less distortion Nikon's ordinary normal and wide lenses! The 13mm works great even on the D3X. 

Distortion

The 13mm f/5.6 has very little distortion, while most normal and common wide lenses have more. Your biggest issue will be keeping your rig square more than worrying about any curvilinear distortion of the 13mm lens. Nikon has a hard enough time making a 35mm or 28mm lens without distortion, yet this 13mm has far less. You can see sample image below (taken from wikipedia):

Falloff

Fallof never be a problem for Nikon 13mm f/5.6 lense, even if you use this lens wide open.

Filters

Since this Nikon 13mm is very rare, no filters were found fit over the front, even if you make some custom-made filter, it will be not good idea since any dirt on the filter would be in focus in your images.

Ghost

This Nikon 13mm will produce some ghosts if you shot by pointing it into the sun; but it’s very minor ghost.

Features

• Very little distortion and lateral chromatic aberration.
• Close Range Optical Correction (CRC) system: floating lens elements are used to reduce aberrations at close focusing distances

Construction

• 16 lens elements in 12 groups
• Extreme retrofocus optical design with backfocus of more than three times the focal length.
• Triplet/Tessar type master lens group behind the aperture.
• Wide angle lens group in front of the aperture to reduce the image size.

Versions

• Nikkor F 13mm f/5.6 - March 1976 (non-AI). Serial numbers began with: 175021.
• AI Nikkor 13mm f/5.6 - June 1977. Serial numbers began with: 175055.
• AIS Nikkor 13mm f/5.6 - March 1982. Discontinued in 1998. Serial numbers began with: 175901