All posts by Thomas Pindelski

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Out and about with the 28mm Nikkor

Nikon lenses, Photographs

The perfect street snapper.

While the manual focus Nikkors I use lack the immediate response of the later AF optics, they remain a lot of fun to use and the 28mm f/2 Nikkor N.C. doesn’t need that much focusing in any case, owing to an extended depth of field at all but the largest apertures. They are also far better made than the current optics, making the whole experience a pleasure. The 28mm f/2 is a chunky piece and melds nicely with the far from svelte D700 body. The following snaps use my tailored lens correction profile which you can download here. I use it with Lightroom 4; it works equally well in Photoshop.

I set to it the other day and took but this one lens with me, hitting the streets of San Francisco, as usual. The 28mm is arguably the ideal street snapper – not too long, not too short – and the f2 speed will handle just about anything you will encounter.

Lunch break in the Castro District.

Thee World’s Smallest Side Show. On Castro Street.

In addition to a particular lifestyle, you will see a lot of dogs in the Castro District.

More pups. At f/2.

Noticeboard in the vibrant Castro community. French lessons to massages ….

Mission District muralist. A team of six friends was working on this
mural. This was the team leader, and he told me they had been at it all day.
They remove the spray tips from the aerosol cans to get a sharper line.
Here they are filling in the rough sketch.

The Taqueria on Mission at 25th Street makes divine food.
This little boy was enjoying his meal. Snapped at f/2.
A face straight out of Goya‘s oeuvre – questioning and tragic.

Lovely window light at La Taqueria. At f/2.8.
The lens profile fixes the corner shading. Click the picture.

Late evening light catches a hopeful fisherman at the Bay Bridge

The 28mm f/2 pre-Ai Nikkor N.C. is a crackerjack lens. A thrill to use. My multicoated version (hence the “C” in the designation) renders very contrasty images on the D700, needs no stopping down for even big prints, has a lovely feel and heft and just seems made for the modern full frame Nikon DSLR. Not bad for a 40+ year old optic.

Francis Bacon

Paintings

A dark modernist.

No painters used photography more than Degas, David Hockney and Francis Bacon (1909-1992). For the last, it was the source of much of his output of dark, brooding, tortured canvases, familiar to all. I doubt that his personality was captured better than by the expressionist photographer Bill Brandt in this powerful portrait:

Bacon’s foundation has just released a free e-book on the painter, his studio and his use of photography, well explained in the first of the two included videos. You can read more about it here, whence you can download it to your iPad at no cost. The book is an example of where art publishing is headed and is beautifully done.

A snap over lunch

About the Snap, Street portraits

A picture of a fine man with his first born.

A happy, modern Pietà.

Date: May 11, 2012
Place: Rosamunde on Mission Street
Modus operandi: Looking forward to a cool beer
Weather: Parisian morning sun
Time: 12:39:44
Gear: Nikon D700, 50mm f/1.4 MF Nikkor-S
GPS: Click the image.
Medium: Digital
Me: A lovely man with a divine baby
My age: 60

I was traipsing around San Francisco’s Mission District, enjoying the locals and the murals, when hunger did its thing and directed me to the Rosamunde Sausage Grill on Mission at 24th for a pint and a sausage. After trying mightily to engage the very attractive barmaid in idle banter, and failing miserably, I opted instead for the Ninkasi ‘Spring Reign’ blonde ale, and got to chatting with a fellow diner in the welcoming beer cellar setting. The sausage of choice was a fiery Andouille, with the beer serving as fire extinguisher.

Bruce had a very small baby strapped to his chest and was a delightful companion. Handsome, open, with a straight gaze, a ready laugh and a natural curiosity, we got to chatting. He related that he was selling his restaurant down the road to concentrate fully on bringing up the baby. Spotting the Nikon dangling in that insouciant way from my shoulder, a style that only I can pull off, one thing led to another and he agreed to let me snap a picture of the two of them.

I took a small handful of snaps, composed very tightly, at close to full aperture. I lucked out in keeping both Bruce’s eyes (stolen, clearly, from Cary Grant) and the baby’s head and eyelashes sharp. Natural light from the adjacent window provides gentle modeling.

Bruce with his son, Oliver. D700, 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S at f/2. Click the picture.

For those readers who might understandably have questioned my sanity in fine tuning the focus indicator for this lens, the proof of the pudding is above. The eyes and child’s lashes are critically sharp, whereas the father’s chin is already blurred.

A friend with better eyes than mine, not to mention a knowledge of Hindu, relates that the father’s T Shirt is emblazoned with the word ‘Om‘. How apt.

The related large print is in the mail to Bruce as you read this.

Here’s the ‘contact strip’ from Lightroom:

Nikkor N.C. 28mm f/2 lens

Nikon lenses

A fine wide angle optic.

The aperture claw has been removed here, as it serves no purpose on modern digital bodies.

The 28mm f/2 Nikkor had a very long life, starting in 1970 and finally yielding to the Ai-S version, likely of similar nine elements in seven groups construction, in 1981. The Ai-S version continued through 2005, finally replaced by the AF D, which was recomputed.

Mine is the N.C. version, meaning multicoated, from 1974 and is in absolutely mint condition, claimed to have had but one prior owner, and ran me $252. It is a pre-Ai lens so I removed the rear flange – five Philips rather than slotted screws – pulled off the aperture ring and conferred the appropriate Ai relief on the rear of the aperture ring using a small flat file. Those less courageous can send any pre-Ai lens to John White who can convert it for use on the D700 and like bodies for a modest sum.

The floating element design first used in the 24mm f/2.8 is used in this optic, helping with corrections at closer distances.

In practice the lens’s definition falls in the extreme corners on full frame cameras through f/4 by when they almost match the very sharp center. By f/5.6 full sharpness is secured across the frame, with f/2 being perfectly useable for large prints and sharp as a tack in the center of the image, well toward the corners. Contrast is very high at all apertures (mine is the multicoated version, which probably helps) and I see no diffraction even stopped down to f/22 (but I do see all the crud on my sensor at that aperture!). Minor vignetting gradually disappears by f/5.6.

Quality of construction and the sheer tactile pleasure in use have to be experienced to be believed. Superb in every way. I have the HN-2 hood on mine though that’s actually intended for the 28/3.5. The HN-1 is the correct model, but the HN-2 works fine, with no vignetting fully open.

I installed a CPU in mine – a simple glue-on operation.

Lens correction profile:

Owing to the gradual drop in vignetting from f/2 through f/4, I have made the lens correction profile at four apertures – f/2, f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6. You can download it here.

Some snaps from this optic appear here.

A few from the 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor

Nikon lenses, Photographs

A bargain classic lens.

The Nikkor-S 50mm, f/1.4 lens I own dates from 1968 and needs no excuses. After adding a CPU and adjusting the LED focus confirmation light for critical focus accuracy at closer distances wide open, the results are a wonderful thing to behold. Contrast is high, definition outstanding and the chunky lens balances well on the large D700 body. I use a period Nikon HS-9 hood on mine which helps out with the lens’s modest single anti-reflection coating. But, really, no excuses need be made.

Electrifying, like the lens. At f/1.4. D700.

Whale time. Same gear.

Pretzels, Churros, Corn Dogs …. and sugared water. A highly disciplined display. Same gear.

Pier 39. Same gear.

At the mechanical toy museum. At f/1.4. Same gear.

Marie. Same gear.

Four. In the style of Keld Helmer-Petersen.

Chef and Waiter, at Scoma’s Seafood Restaurant. Same gear.

All snapped a couple of days ago around Fishermen’s Wharf, San Francisco. If you go to the north end where the fishing boats are moored you will find the authentic Fishermen’s Wharf rather than the awful tourist trap down the road at the end of the Embarcadero. There are a couple of really good seafood restaurants among the boats and Scoma’s (last snap above) is one.