My Favorite 50

The focal length lens I use more than any other is the standard 50mm prime. And my favorite 50mm lens is this Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Ai-S, serial number 5359395.

I can’t remember when I bought it, nor do I recall if I bought it alone or if it came on a camera. Over the years, it’s lived on various F2 bodies and my F3HP. I’ve used it recently on my Nikkormat EL and right now, it’s on a Nikon FM. Camera bodies have come and gone but this Nikkor has stayed with me. Why?

For me, photography is a very tactile experience. The way a piece of gear feels and handles is right up there with the way it performs. This particular lens just feels good to me. I have several other Nikkor 50s, both the f/1.4 and the f/1.8. The focus on those feels a little loose. On my favorite 50, the focus feels sublime, well-damped and precise. I am not sure if that is the way it supposed to feel or this one is getting a bit stiff. I never had the opportunity to try a new manual focus Nikkor, so I have nothing to compare it with. But the focus ring resistance on my favorite 50 feels just right.

Because of the way this lens feels, I use it more than any other lens I own. I keep this Hoya 52mm metal hood on it. Of all of the lens hoods I have used, I really like this Hoya.

I also love the way the Nikon chrome ring filters look on these old Nikkors. This one is a Nikon L39. I am a member of several Nikon Facebook groups and very often, when I post a picture of one of my old cameras sporting this lens set up, I’ll get comments from people telling me to remove the filter because it will cause glare or flare or whatnot. I’ve shot oodles of images with this lens and have never seen anything of the sort, so I keep using it because…well…because it looks cool to me.

I’ve had a few other lenses that felt as good as this one. Those early Pentax Takumars focus like a dream and I once owned a Leica-R Vario-Elmar 35-70 zoom that was very nice to drive. I knew a carpenter once who told me how important a good hammer is in hitting a nail straight and true—it had to be balanced and feel good in the hand. Cameras and lenses are simply tools a photographer uses to make pictures, so your gear should feel good and inspire you to use it. This lens does it for me. Do you have a camera or lens that inspires you? Please share in the comments. I would love to hear.

Fujifilm Neopan 400 Presto

It’s always nice to get a surprise gift in the mail. It’s especially nice, as an analog photographer, when that gift is some film. So it was a few months ago when a package arrived from my friend and fellow photo-blogger Jim Grey containing several rolls of Fujifilm Neopan 400 Presto black and white film. “Presto” was the Japanese retail version of this film. Here in the US, it was called Neopan Professional. Fuji discontinued this emulsion around 2013, but the stock remained in photo stores for several years thereafter.

I have shot plenty of Fuji’s 100 ISO black and white ACROS and like it every much, so I was anxious to try this faster film. Jim said that the film had always been cold stored so I assumed it would perform close to fresh.

I was working on a video project for my company and took my Nikon F5 loaded with Presto to the video shoot. I clicked off these shots indoors under bright LED lighting. I let the F5’s DX reader set the camera to the film’s box speed.

Video shoot, behind the scenes

I grabbed the F5 one sunny Saturday afternoon, mounted my Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D ED and shot the dogs at play in the park. I thought that the fast telephoto and the 400 ISO film would be a good combination once the dogs got retrieving their ball.

And resting after.

I’ve shot enough Kodak Tri-X over my 50 years of film photography that I know it well and can get consistently good results, whether I process it myself or send it out to the lab. I am comfortable enough with Tri-X that I feel the freedom to be able to concentrate on finding interesting subject matter and putting more thought into composition. I think I got decent results from Fuji Neopan 400 my first time out and wish it were still in production so I could know it better. For now, I’ll just enjoy these last few rolls that I’ve been gifted and feel grateful for having had the opportunity.

Returning to Retina

The first 35mm camera I ever used in the early 1970s was my Dad’s Kodak Retina IIc rangefinder that he bought from the US Army PX before leaving for Europe during the Korean War. Even though I spent hours drooling over Nikon and Canon SLRs on the pages of Modern Photography magazine, the economic realities of my youth kept me tethered to my Dad’s Retina. It wasn’t a bad thing. That old Kodak taught me a lot about photography and it holds a special place in my heart.

For several years now, I have flirted with trying one of the other Retinas. The IIIC has been first on my list but the high prices of that model have discouraged me. Not long ago, a Retina model I was not familiar with popped up in one of my favorite online camera shops—the Retina IIIS.

The IIIS was the last Retina rangefinder, made from 1958-1960, just as SLRs were gaining in popularity. Unlike my Dad’s Retina, this model is not a folder. An amazing feature is that the interchangeable lenses made for the IIIs will also work on the Retina Reflex SLRs that were produced from 1957 to 1974. I am sure a reader will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe only the Retina line allows this cross-platform compatibility.

I paid under one hundred dollars for this camera and, quite honestly, when I bought it I thought it might make an interesting display piece on the bookshelf in my home office. As much as I had fond memories of my Dad’s IIc, there were things about the Retinas that I never warmed to—the film advance on the bottom of the camera, the tiny rangefinder focusing patch and the fiddly interlocked EV shutter speed/aperture set up. When my IIIS arrived however, I realized that this Retina was different.

First off, not being a folding Retina, it felt more like the Leica M cameras I have used—really nice in hand. That big Schneider Retina Xenon 50mm f/1.9 lens out front gave it good balance…almost a little SLR-like. Second, I was surprised by the big viewfinder with a bright and very usable RF patch. Third, the built-in selenium meter was active and peppy. I wondered…could the meter on a 65-year old camera be accurate? The more I played with the camera, the more it begged me to load up some film and shoot.

All of the cameras of this era are fiddly…some more than others. The Retina IIIS falls into the mildly fiddly category. First thing to do is tell the built-in meter what speed of film you are using. To do that, you have to push a lock button on the meter and turn the little razor wheel on the bottom of the lens barrel. Camera makers of this era loved razor wheels. The Nikon rangefinders used them to focus. Not sure why you had to torture your finger tips to take a picture back in the day.

The on-board meter

Film choices, other than Tri-X, from a bygone era

After you set your film speed, you decide on your shutter speed and set that on the lens. Once the meter know what film you are using and you’ve set your shutter speed, you use the razor wheel again to select an aperture that will give you a proper exposure using the match needle on the meter. Once you set the lens opening, the shutter speed and aperture are coupled allowing you to choose from a range that will still give you proper exposure. Like the Nikon lens shuffle, it sounds more complicated than it is.

I loaded up some Ilford FP4+ 125 film and went out in my back yard for some test shots. I considered grabbing my handheld light meter just to be safe but decided to live dangerously and see if this six decade old plane could still fly.

Shadows on my fence

Spring flowers

More flowers

Needed a bit more headroom on this shot

Light and shadows

Shooting into a bright sky

My photographic assistant

I was not expecting much when I sent this roll off to the lab. Many of the photo cells in these old camera have decayed over time, but this one seemed to be just fine—every shot on this roll was properly exposed. Razor wheel aside, even with its quirks, the Retina IIIS is a very capable camera…maybe the best user of the Retina rangefinder line. I say that, of corse, without trying the IIIC which everyone raves about, however you could buy a IIIS and lens or two for the price of the IIIC. And these Retinas have one of the quietest shutters of any camera I have ever shot. Even Leica.

I definitely prefer using an SLR, but I enjoyed shooting the Retina IIIS and need to take it out for a proper photo walk now that I know I can trust its meter. The owner’s manual calls the exposure system in this camera “Automatic” once you dial everything in and even though I wasn’t sure I was doing it correctly, my shots came out nicely. Retinas have a reputation for fine build quality and exceptional lenses. They definitely punch way above their weight. I like the Retina IIIS very much.

I finished the roll with my usual mirror selfie.

MIrror selfie

Ektachrome 100: Living Dangerously

I can count the rolls of slide film I have shot in my life on one hand. I use far more black and white film than color and when I do use color, I am usually playing around with some old camera, so I prefer color print film. It’s more forgiving. You really need to be on your game to shoot slide film. Or have a camera that is.

On a recent long weekend trip to Carmel-By-The-Sea, I brought along my very capable Nikon F5 and a roll of Kodak Ektachrome 100, feeling infinitely confident that the F5’s color matrix metering would do the heavy lifting. The camera didn’t disappoint, but the weather did. Cloudy, drizzle, overcast, fog and every once in a while…a fogdog….a clearing in the grey where a shaft or two of sunlight would poke through.

On my first photo walk, I only got a few shots off before it started to rain.

The Cypress Inn was once owned by Doris Day. She loved animals and the hotel is uber dog friendly.

The next day started off a bit more promising, some hazy sun allowing a walk on the beach.

Down that way is the famous Pebble Beach Golf Club.

I walked past this window several times in my hotel and finally the light was right to try and capture it. I have been amazed at how well the F5 performs handheld with slow shutter speeds, owing to its internally isolated film transport and exceptional mirror dampening more than the steady hands of this photographer. If I recall, I think the F5 was showing 1/20th of a second for this shot.

I finished off the roll back home in my backyard. The usual suspects.

This is the first roll of slide film I have shot where most every frame pleased me. The F5’s program mode and exceptional meter nailed exposures. I’ve been afraid of shooting slides. The film is very expensive and when you don’t know what you’re going to get, the reward just isn’t there. But I have three cameras now that I trust; the F5, my Nikon N90s and N8008s, so I might shoot more of the stuff.

As a footnote, growing up, my Dad shot tons of slide film—mostly Kodachrome 25 and 64. He was brave, using a Kodak Retina Iic rangefinder with no fancy meter to lean on. He guessed his exposures after referring to the paper instructions Kodak packed with each roll and hoping for the best. This is one of Dad’s Kodachromes of the fam from the early 1960s—I’m the goofy looking one in the middle.

One Photograph: NorCal beaches are not like SoCal beaches

I lived on the Sonoma Coast of California for more than a decade. Unlike the beaches in Southern California, beaches up here are usually windy, nippy and often shrouded in fog. As I took my photo walks, I would occasionally come across visitors who were taking a day away from wine tasting to check out the beach. More often than not, they were not dressed adequately for the occasion. I made this photograph with my Pentax Spotmatic SP, 55mm f/1.8 Super Takumar on Kodak T-Max 100 film. Just moments before, I chatted briefly with a family from Ohio, underdressed, shivering and quickly heading back to their parked car.

The Domke F2: Ok, now I get it!

Back in 2010 when I started buying old film cameras, I purchased a couple of Nikon bodies and some other photographic odds and ends from an estate sale near where I lived at the time. The seller’s husband had passed and she was clearing out his camera collection. I paid her and she began placing the items I had purchased into an old brown camera bag. I told her that I had plenty of camera bags, but she said that it would be easier to carry everything out to my car in the bag and she would throw it in for free.

The Domke F2 Shooter’s Bag

The bag she gave me that day was a Domke F2 shooter’s bag. This one is vintage 1977 or so based on the labels and the tattered original inserts inside. Since the day I brought this bag home, it has stayed in my closet. I pulled out the old protective inserts and have used it to store this camera or that. Any time I needed a camera bag, I have used one of my Think Tank or ONA bags. The Domke was alway left behind, forgotten and sad.

For the past few weeks, I have been shooting a Nikon F5 that I will review here. This past weekend, I wanted to take the F5 and make some photos of our Golden Retriever as he took his test to become a therapy dog. Not sure what made me grab it, but I pulled the old, faded Domke from the closet, put a hand towel in the bottom for extra protection, stashed my F5 inside it and headed out. Being a bit rushed, I did not put a strap on the F5, something I hardly ever neglect doing.

My F5 in the Domke

When I arrived at the dog training center, I grabbed the camera bag from the car and slung it over my right shoulder. The strap was adjusted so the bag sat right at my hip. The first thing I noticed was how very comfortable the bag was to wear, even with the big and heavy F5 inside. While walking across the parking lot, I saw an interesting shot of a water tower. The Domke bag was sitting at just the right position for me to lift the flap, grab the F5, get the shot and put it back into the bag quickly and easily. Hmmm.

I spent the next hour putting the F5 through its paces with a roll of Kodak Portra 400. I never took the camera bag off of my shoulder the entire time, it’s that comfortable to wear! When there was a lull in the action, I slipped the camera back into the bag easily while it was still on my hip. I have never left a camera bag on my shoulder for this long. Ever. The soft canvas sides of the Domke just meld with the contour of your body making it seem like a part of you. Hmmm.

Jim Domke was a staff photographer at the Philadelphia Inquirer back in the mid 1970s. In those days, most of the camera cases were big, heavy and made of metal. The cases had foam inside that you cut to fit the shape of a camera, lenses, etc. To shoot, you had to set it down, open it up and pull out your camera. Not very efficient for a fast-moving press photographer. Jim felt he could come up with a better bag for the Inquirer staff photogs and convinced the paper to pay for 20 if he designed them himself and could deliver them at a reasonable cost. He took his inspiration from heavy canvas tackle bags for fishing. Above all, he wanted a bag that would be comfortable for the photographer and give quick access to gear. Jim designed his bag and had prototypes made which he had tested by photographers in the press pool of the 1976 Republican National Convention. With their feedback, the original Domke F2 shooter’s bag was born. Within months, Jim had sold 800 bags. He expanded the line with different size bags and his company grew and grew. He sold the company to Saunders in 1990. Saunders was acquired by Tiffen (the lens filter people) in 1999.

I’ve known about Domke bags for years but have always opted for something newer, sleeker, sexier. I have a Domke Gripper camera strap that I love, especially on heavier cameras like the Nikon F4 or F5. For the life of me, I have no idea why I let my Domke bag sit in the corner of my closet for so many years. This is the best camera bag I have ever used!

I know my bag was one of the early ones because it had canvas insert dividers. I removed those long ago. On my shoot, I stuffed a hand towel in the bag for extra protection for the camera. When I got home, I noticed that Domke sells padded inserts with velcro dividers that fit the F2 for $40. Amazon delivered them the next day. The insert will provide the protection I need for whatever camera I am carrying and the dividers allow customization. The bag also features side pockets for film, light meters, etc. There are also two additional pockets on the front as well as safety straps with clips to secure the flap if necessary. The adjustable strap, which is very wide, is one reason I think this bag sits so comfortable on my shoulder.

My F2 with new Domke dividers

I totally get now why so many hard working photographers used this bag—it’s just that good. And considering mine is nearly 50 years old, it’s a testament to the quality of manufacturing. It’s safe to say that my Domke won’t be in the dark corner of my closet anymore.

Get your own Domke bag here.

Lunch on The Plaza in Santa Fe

Had lunch in a delightful little restaurant in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico last November called The Plaza Cafe. Had to wait for a table, but it was worth it. My burger was delicious. While I waiting for my lunch to arrive, two seats opened up at the nearby counter. I grabbed this shot with my iPhone.

I liked the tile floor, the chrome and the red vinyl seats. Those stools were not empty for long.

More to come

Life has been busy this fall and I haven’t had much time for photography or to tend to my blog. I am hoping things quiet down a bit in the months ahead leaving me more time to exercise my creativity. In the meantime, I am editing some photographs I made during a recent business trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico and writing a review about the camera I took along with me; the Nikon N90s. I owned one new in the 1990s and it was fun to use this camera again some 30 years later. I also have reviews in the queue for a couple of lenses; the 85mm f/1.8 AF-D Nikkor and the legendary Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 Ai.

Here’s a shot I made on the plaza in Santa Fe. More to come.

Santa Fe Shadows, Nikon N90s, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF-D, Fuji Acros II