Monthly Archives: February 2013

Dungeness crabs

Photographs

At Fisherman’s Wharf, SF.

Live and awaiting purchase.

These were absent from stores over Christmas owing to a fishermen’s strike, but now are to be found aplenty. They run $10/lb. cooked in the shell or $32/lb. for the meat only, suggesting a yield of only about 30%. The shells are thick, heavy and very beautiful. Dip in some molten butter, add a nice Chardonnay and you have an excellent light dinner.

Though Fisherman’s Wharf has the most awful – and richly deserved – reputation as a tourist trap, replete with T shirt vendors and the like, there is some excellent seafood to be had there, fresh from the Bay.

The cook at Alioto’s, above, is boiling fresh lobster and crab on the sidewalk, for all to see.

Down the road Capurro’s provides a traditional oak interior where you can enjoy the catch of the day, chalked up on the board for all to see.

The bar, with a couple of local brews on tap, is in context:

And there’s no arguing with this simple message:

All on the Nikon D3x, 16-35 AF-S G at f/4 except the last on the pre-Ai 135mm f/3.5 on the D700.

Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 lens

Nikon lenses

Maybe the most significant Nikkor ever.


Shown with the period HN-7 screw-in hood.

If ever a lens deserves the appellation ‘famous’, it’s Nikon’s 85mm Nikkor-H f/1.8, first made in 1964. Nikon has made many f/2, f/1.8 and f/1.4 lenses of 85mm focal length since then, and while the current AF-S f/1.4 probably delivers the highest resolution of the lot, few would place the Nikkor-H far behind optically, and only non-users would argue that the current lens is better made. Much as with its contemporaries, the 20/3.5UD, 24/2.8, 28/2, 35/2, 50/1.4, 50/2, 105/2.5 and the 200/4, the construction quality, fit and finish of this lens have not been improved since.

None of the manual focus f/1.8 optics came with the Ai modification which permits mounting on later film cameras and most DSLRs. Nikon made (ugly and no longer available) Ai ‘kits’ which comprise a replacement aperture ring with the wrong surface finish, so if you want an Ai version of this lens you have three choices. Buy one which has already been converted, send it out for machining, or do it yourself. I did it myself and the task is simple. See this piece for details of how to do it yourself.

But ‘famous’? Why yes. Because this is the lens David Hemmings used in the studio scenes in Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Blow-Up‘ to photograph Veruschka while she writhed below him. His Nikon F with the Nikkor-H mounted can be seen in the contemporary poster.


Fame.

I have long lusted after this optic but good ones go for high prices and cheap ones are usually beaten up, the anodizing on the scalloped metal focus barrel worn away and ugly. Well, I finally snapped one up in near mint condition for $210 delivered, and when it arrived the other day I immediately set to machining the aperture ring to permit mounting of the lens on my D2x and D3x Nikons. I would love to have used it on a Nikon F but no digital version of that classic was ever made, and I no longer use film.

Amazingly, the filter size is the same small 52mm common to most Nikkors of that era and the HN-7 hood screws in. No clip-on nonsense waiting to be knocked off.

Comparison with the AF-D version:

I set to making a quick test using the local back yard utility pole as my test target. My test was against the ‘plastic fantastic’ 85mm f/1.8 AF-D lens, set in the most ghastly plastic mount imaginable, but of outstanding performance. This lens is still available new in the US for $460. How Nikon manage to make a bitingly sharp optic encased in ductile materials and cheese beats me, so I confess that I ran my simple test with some trepidation. Could any lens significantly improve on the AF-D or, for that matter, even match it? My Nikkor-H is positively geriatric, having been made in February, 1969, meaning 44 years ago. It cost me $212.

I should have known better than to worry. Central definition and overall contrast of the old lens easily beat those of the newer one from f/1.8 to f/4, and vignetting is identical, disappearing by f/2.8 in the old, f/3.5 in the new. Edge resolution in the newer lens is superior through f/4 after which they are identical. In a lens of this focal length, the ideal portrait lens on full frame, central resolution is what counts.

The focus throw on this lens is very long – fully half a circle from infinity to 3 feet, making accurate focus on close subjects easy. Depth of field is very limited at wider apertures so a slow focus ring is actually an asset.

Here’s my thrilling test target, what passes as utility service in the SF Bay area, allegedly part of the most powerful nation on earth. The old MF lens is the left hand image – focal length and maximum aperture are not reported by Lightroom (in the parentheses) as I had yet to install a CPU when this was taken:

Even viewed via this blog on the 11″ display of my MacBook Air the difference is obvious at f/2, remaining so at f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4. The enlargement above is from 5 foot 90dpi equivalent print sizes.


Chipped and ready to go, one of Nikon’s best ever.

The CPU confers a host of benefits, described here and installation on the 85mm f/1.8 Nikkor-H is a simple glue-on job. One key advantage is that you can pass aperture control from the control wheel on the camera’s body to the aperture ring on the lens, sidestepping the non-linearity issue I explain here. Your kit will handle better too, allowing apertures to be changed by supporting the lens properly from below with the left hand. $29 for the CPU, 5 minutes to glue it in place and another 15 minutes to program it, as described here.

Can a lens make a better photographer? When it comes with a heritage like this and when the user revels in the operational feel and the results it yields …. well, you can make your own mind up. Me? I’m going to track down Veruschka’s granddaughter.


Veruschka writhes as Hemmings snaps.

Lens correction profile:

This lens is so well designed that what optical shortcomings there are – very minor vignetting down to f/3.5 – are easily corrected with my lens correction profile in LR or PS, which you can download here, but of all the pre-Ai MF Nikkors this one arguably needs a profile least. I can detect absolutely no barrel or pincushion distortion. Likewise, chromatic aberration (color fringing) is negligible, though the profile corrects what little there is. My profile was made at f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6, with the last prevailing at apertures smaller than f/4. It works with both FX (Full Frame) and DX (APS-C) sensors. The profile was made on my D3x but will work on files from any Nikon DSLR.

To get a sense of what this lens can do in the studio, click here. The handling and balance on a modern full size Nikon DSLR are about as close to perfection as these things get. If you can live without AF, search one of these out.

Use on Panny MFT bodies:

A wonderful lens on the Panny G bodies with a $25 adapter, delivering 170mm f/1.8. Very shallow depth of field, and you retain aperture priority automation, the EVF never dims as you stop the lens down (think about that!) and you have a state of the art MF focusing aid which makes dead on focus trivially simple. Read more about the immense capability of the Panny MFT bodies with MF lenses here. As you are really cherry picking the center of the image circle produced by the lens, definition at any aperture all the way to the extreme edges is not an issue.


The Hemmimgs lens on the Panny G3.

A 1969 lens on a 2012 body, and fully functional. Pretty cool, huh?

Jim the antiquarian

Photographs, Working people

Old maps.


Jim Schwein at work.

“So where do you get all these old maps?”

“Many universities and libraries are digitizing their collections and have neither the money or expertise to store them properly. There is never any supply shortage for my store.”

The Schwein & Schwein store is piled to the rafters with antique maps, in the heart of North Beach on Grant Avenue. There are open displays and dozens upon dozens of pull-out drawers sorted geographically. There’s something for everyone, and the inventory is global in scope.

“We have no such thing as a typical customer. They range from students looking for wall art to affluent bankers who drop by once a quarter and drop a couple of grand. Our buyers are individuals and corporations. We have been in this location for ten years.”

Be sure to check out Schwein & Schwein when you are next in San Francisco.

Taken on the Nikon D3x and Sigma 35mm f/1.4.

HP DesignJet annual checkup

Printing

A little goes a long way.

My HP DesignJet 90, the 18″ carriage model, was commissioned March 14, 2006, so it’s approaching seven years in age. One recent print with a dark black silhouette showed less than perfect blacks and deep, lustrous blacks are one of the many strengths of this excellent printer. Amazingly, B&H still lists the 24″ DJ130 for under $1300 new, and all ink cartridges and printheads remain available on their site, though you may have to hunt about a bit for the special swellable paper which absorbs the ink dyes used by the machine. Regular modern pigment ink papers do not work.

The HP DJ30/90/130 series is blessed with truly outstanding diagnostics and a quick checkout was all it took to find the cause.

First, I dialed up the HP Maintenance Utility which uses online software at HP. For Mac users you have to use OS Snow Leopard or earlier or an even older PPC machine, as HP never updated the software to run on Intel machines. Snow Leopard comes with Rosetta, the PPC emulator software and will run the HP Maintenance Utility fine. Apple recently re-released Snow Leopard on DVD and if you want to run the HP Maintenance Utility on a modern Mac it’s your best choice, though whether it’s even installable on the latest Macs I rather doubt.

I use a decade old iMac which runs Tiger and uses a PPC CPU. Unlike its modern day descendants it does not overheat and refuses to die.

You can run all these print jobs using plain paper in your printer – 8.5″ x 11″. Here’s the Image Quality Diagnostic – this one can unfortunately be run only by using the online software and is the best for determining if a printhead is failing:

No real issues are disclosed here but printhead alignment is called for, judging my some of the colored squares in the center section. The full interpretive section for the above appears here.

Then I ran a printhead alignment which can either be done using the online utility or using the button presses illustrated here:

This did disclose a problem with the black printhead:

The large ‘X’ mark above testifies to a worn or blocked head.

Before deciding on cleaning or replacement of the head I ran the ‘Information Pages’ printout (see above) and got this:

Gaack! The black printhead is 2,534 days old, meaning 6.9 years. It’s the one which came with the printer when I bought it new in 2006! So rather than trying to clean it, I simply replaced it. Pigs get slaughtered.

After replacement of the black printhead – the new one has been on my shelf for ages and is already out of warranty! Some users claim that heads over 30 months old will not work but obviously my experience does not bear this out.

When a printhead is replaced in these machines, they automatically run a printhead alignment which takes some 10 minutes and requires one sheet of plain paper.

Here’s what I got:

All is well.

Finally, out of curiosity, I ran the ‘Paper Usage’ report:

Some advice on older DesignJet printers:

Would I buy one of these used? Only if I could see the Usage Reports and Diagnostics shown above. Many were used by printshops which have beaten the heck out of them. New heads – there are six – run $35 each and cartridges cost a similar amount, so all new heads and supplies total $420. Add $35 for feed tubes. No bargain. Further, if the printer has been unplugged for any period of time, reckon on changing the clogged feed tubes as I had to do when mine went into storage for a few months when I moved a few years back. I explain how to do that here.

Bottom line? I would not pay more than $200-400 for a lightly used HP DJ90/130 (18″/24″) printer, anticipating that some parts will have to be replaced.

Spare parts:

I get mine from Spare Parts Warehouse. The ink feed tube assembly runs $35 and is easy to replace.

Would I buy a new HP printer? Hell NO. I would not buy anything from America’s worst run business whose customer service is a joke. Buy an Epson. The 24″ model runs $3,000 but they will fix it for you when it breaks.

Result:

Success. Perfect blacks were restored.

Here’s the print which was giving me problems:

In the extract, below, you can see a tear sheet of the old print, before the repair, superimposed on the new – night and day:

Printhead failure and analysis:

I have illustrated this before but it bears repeating. Right after the annual checkup, above, the DJ started printing everything with a green cast. This indicates printhead failure as ink levels were fine.

Here is the analysis chart:

I ran the diagnostic report using the online HP utility and this is what I got:



Diagnostic report showing printhead failure.

Comparing with the above chart, you can see that the color patches at A1 (should be magenta), A2 (should be purple) and B2 (should be red) are faulty.

The chart states that A1=M, A2-C+M and B2=Y+M. Note also that the central patch in the left middle section is wrong – it should be magenta. M (magenta) is the common factor to all four error conditions, so I concluded that the Magenta printhead was faulty. $35 to B&H later and it was replaced (a 30 second task) – do insert plain paper when doing this as a printhead alignment chart will be automatically printed when a head is replaced, and the printhead alignment will be performed automatically. It takes some 10 minutes, so be patient. Sure enough, re-running the diagnostic report showed all is well and the DesignJet is back to perfect operating condition.