Nikkor 18cm f/2.5 short-mount telephoto lens for Nikon Rangefinder system - Part 1

This is a kind of "pre-review" for a lens I've just gotten a hold of, the rare Nikkor 18cm f/2.5. This lens is the fastest 180mm lens Nikon has ever produced. It was one of the varying long telephotos made for the Nikon rangefinder system, to be used with the Visoflex adapter, or later, on the Nikon F SLR with suitable N-F adapter. Like many of the more expensive, professional lenses made during this era, these lenses are fairly hard to come by and generally cost a pretty penny due to their collectible nature.

I was able to procure not just one but two of these beautiful lenses through a liquidation sale of old photojournalism equipment. They were not kept well and needed a complete refurbishment. Sadly one still has some slight damage to the rear element, but I am glad it was at least salvageable.

It's a big, heavy, all-metal lens, the likes of which is not seen in the pro photo gear market these days. This lens itself is much heavier than my 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-S. As such, great care must be taken to ensure a stable mount, or just really strong arms!

I will get more into the specifics of this lens in a future post, but my initial observations are that the lens is extremely sharp, with a bit of spherical aberration from f/2.5 to f/5 (and consequently lower contrast) but absolutely stunning images beyond. It also has that elusive "plasticity" to the images, likely due to its classic Sonnar design and 12 aperture blades.

Here is a couple of portraits done with this lens of Meagan, with a simple 3-point lighting setup. Both were shot wide-open on my D800E, ISO 50:

July/August Showers

Valdosta has been very rainy these last few weeks. So much so that I have not gotten out to shoot much.

I wanted to post something so I will simply put this one photo up that I took a few days ago.

Nikon D800E, Nikkor 18cm f/2.5 short-mount telephoto for the Nikon Rangefinder system on an N-F adapter:

Some new 8x10 photos with Wista (Tachihara) camera

I went for almost 10 months without touching my 8x10 camera. The reason? I never quite got along with my Kodak Century Universal. Sometimes I just don't click with a camera. When I really enjoy a camera, I always get better images because I am more at ease using it. For example, I owned a Hasselblad 500c/m for about a month before reselling it because I really did not like it. To each his own.

Anyway, I am rekindling my interest in 8x10 as I picked up a Wista 8x10 field camera (made by Tachihara) on a lark. I really like this camera - it is much more intuitive for me than the Kodak. It also has better movement control, though it unfortunately does not have any shift, which is slightly disappointing (though you can "force" it to shift slightly by using both front and rear swing).

It also came with a Technika adapter, so it works right out of the box with all my lens boards.

Anyway, I shot a few sheets of my typical Fuji HR-T x-ray film to test out the camera and try developing with Pyrocat HD. Here's a few images:

Strickland Mill Documentary Update

I've been exceedingly busy with various things and sadly a death in my girlfriend's family, so I haven't had time to update in a while. But I thought I'd take a moment to mention that a little while ago my friend and partner in documenting the Strickland Mill Sally and I got word that the show highlighting our work is officially going to happen. It is scheduled for November 2014, which gives us plenty of time to make more images of both the mill and hopefully some of the people who worked there.

Here is a photo taken only a couple of days ago as the sun set. 47mm XL, T-max 100, Pyrocat HD, cropped to a panoramic view:

A couple of Portraits with the Schneider 150mm f/2.8 Xenotar

The legendary Schneider 150mm f/2.8 Xenotar, especially the "Linhof Select" variant, has been a cult-classic lens, boasting the widest aperture of almost any lens in shutter that has 4x5 coverage. This massive piece of glass is fairly rare.

I was lucky enough to find one at a relative "bargain" price. It needed a good CLA but that ended up not costing terribly much. Finally had a chance to use it this evening to take two quick snapshots of my girlfriend's niece, who is staying with us this week.

The first image was taken at about f/3.5, 1/5 of a second shutter speed, on T-Max 100 rated at 80 and developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 12 minutes:

I knew in the waning light that her dress would really pop against the dark leaves under the trellis. Next I did a more low-contrast portrait. This time at f/5.6 with a bit of fill-flash bounced off of the ceiling of our deck:

I'm sure there will be more this week!