Yearly Archives: 2018

Nikon – a magnificent legacy

Cameras, Nikon bodies, Nikon lenses

The Nikon Museum in Tokyo.


Click the image to go to the interactive Google view.

Nikon honors its legacy in the extensive displays in the Nikon Museum. When Nikon abandoned the Zeiss Contax lens mount replacing it with the F mount in its first – and best – SLR, the peerless Nikon F, it was as much a statement of intent as it was an act of courage. The wisdom of that decision persists to this day when even the earliest F mount lenses can be mounted on the latest Nikon D850 DSLR.

Now with a new, wider mount in the Z6/Z7 mirrorless offerings, Nikon has finally begun to abandon the flapping mirror in favor of what is already acknowledged as the best EVF in the business, the one found in the new Z bodies.


A display of rangefinder bodies which preceded the Nikon F. The related lenses put Nikon on the map.

Leitz, Wetzlar used to be the owner of the legacy crown, snatched from it by Nikon with the Nikon F which saw the rangefinder Leica M bodies migrate from being workhorses to becoming silly Veblen goods. The working pro gives these not even a passing thought, no more than an enthusiastic driver thinks about Rolls Royces.


The Nikon F. The camera which changed everything. This camera did to the German
camera industry what Honda did to British motorcycles.

A week in sunsets.

Photographs

High desert drama.

Scottsdale, Arizona features dramatic sunsets at this time of the year and I am lucky that my patio faces south to enjoy the drama at its best.

These were taken on seven successive days last week.



Saturday, 5:44pm.


Sunday, 5:37pm.


Monday, 5:18pm.


Tuesday, 5:21pm.


Wednesday, 5:24pm.


Thursday, 5:20pm.


Friday, 4:57pm.


All snapped on the iPhone 7, straight out of camera.

4mp is all you need

Technique

The lunacy of the pixel race.

These images are of the same subject with the two best lenses I own – the ‘pro’ Lumix 12-35mm at 25mm (50mm FFE) on the Panasonic GX7 and the Nikon D700 with the 50mm f/2 HC MF Nikkor. The GX7’s sensor is 16mp on 3/4 sq. in., the D700 has 12mp on its 1.5 sq. in. sensor. Both at 400 ISO and f/5.6.

The image below enlarges the center 40x, so a 40” x 60” print. Note the greater warmth of the Nikkor optic. To properly display focal length in the EXIF data I have installed a CPU in the Nikkor lens, which has nothing to do with its optical quality. No extra sharpening – just the default of 25 in Lightroom, no other processing:

These images display maybe 1 mp of the sensors’ pixel counts.

In the next image I have increased the GX7 sharpening from LR’s default of 25 to 70. The Nikon image is unchanged, using default sharpening:

The results are indistinguishable as regards definition.

Here you can compare the shadow details – GX7 at left. The D700 has one of the best sensors for rendering shadows in the business:

The results are again indistinguishable.

The madness of the sensor pixel race, with FF sensors now approaching 50mp, dictates that users upgrade their lenses as all the ‘faults’ of older optics are now on display when pixel peeping. The reality is that no one makes 40″ x 60″ prints and that users would be better off sticking with modest sized sensors and old lenses. The 50mm f/2 HC Nikkor used in the above dates from 1973 and can be found in mint condition for $50. A mint Nikon D700 with low shutter actuations can be had for $450 or less. And you will not have to wait all day for the images to render in Lightroom owing to the modest file sizes.

4mp is all you need.

The Preserve saved

Photographs

Petty corruption loses for once.

The McDowell Sonoran Preserve, at 30,000 acres, is the largest in the United States. My home community abuts it.

A year ago our sleazy mayor and his hangers on decided to collude with developers and create a ‘Desert Discovery Center’ to purportedly enhance education about the Preserve by placing a branch of Arizona State University bang in the middle. You can get many things at ASU but a premier education is most certainly not one of them.

The mayor, in his well bribed wisdom, reckoned he could just ram this through with a straight vote of the administration. But residents of Scottsdale saw this as the Trojan Horse it was, an open door to commercial development and the white trash set with its beer and rock concerts. Traffic and policing costs would skyrocket, not to mention the attendant noise pollution. A pristine desert preserve would become just another Budweiser sales outlet. So we residents brought suit against the comically named ‘administration’ and then gathered sufficient signatures to place the issue on the ballot, denying the major his claimed royal privilege over voters. I am pleased to report that I was active in this effort.

The resulting Proposition 420 passed by a thumping 71% margin despite desperate misinformation efforts by the developers, and one of the finest, pristine desert parks was saved.

My son and I took our pre-Thanksgiving meal hike through the Preserve yesterday, realizing just how much we had to be thankful for.

For once the gang of corrupt politicians and their developer funders were well and truly thrashed.

There’s more about the Preserve, including a map, here.

All snaps on the iPhone 7 which delivers stellar results in the wan sunlight that prevailed yesterday.