Tight Focus Project

Nikon D2Xs and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. 400 ISO, f/4.5, 1/80th. Window light.

The picture was taken with a Nikon D40 (introduced 2006, CCD sensor). The lens was an elderly Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 from circa 1971. An all-manual experience, like going back in time (except not film).

Pears photographed using a Nikon D2Xs and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. To get a nice close-up I set the camera in high-speed crop which doubles the field-of-view of the lens, in this case to 100mm. In manual mode I set the ISO to 200 and the shutter speed to 1/125th sec. Aperture was f/2. Natural light only. The result was, I admit, unexpected.

Nikon D2Xs and Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.

I am fortunate in being able to have a breakfast, election morning or not.

Bags for life. Nikon D700 and Nikkor 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF.

Originally this photo was in colour and looked uncertain. Conversion to black and white made it more confident. I took this photograph with a Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI lens on a Nikon D700. The Micro-Nikkor was manufactured circa 1978, give or take a year either way. I bought it for £65 in 2011. I don't know how many previous owners it had had, but it has survived many of my periodic lens culls because it is such fun to use. The camera settings were 800 ISO, 1/160th, and f/4 in aperture priority. Although shot as a JPG I nonetheless used Lightroom to convert and boost here and there, plus cropping to 8 x 10" format. Image no. 27,316 on this D700.

The Safrotto camera bag resembles, but is not an exact copy of, a Domke F2 bag. Avid followers of my bag fetish will recollect my reporting critical comments read on various websites about the alleged diminished quality of the canvas used in the production of Domke bags since some hard-to-place moment in the ownership status of the brand name. I have not the faintest idea of whether this is true; I have no examples of Domke bags from the time when Jim Domke owned the production to use as a comparator, and even if I did, I wouldn't pay out for a current example. Nor do I know when this (presumably Chinese) Safrotto bag was manufactured, but I can tell you for free that the canvas is of considerable weight, and so also, therefore, is the bag that has been produced with it. Not as heavy as a comparable sized Billingham though. The bag horses are frightened to kick lest they break a fetlock. More bag news soon! Nikon D2Xs and Tamron 35mm f/1.8 lens.