I’d got something else planned for this post but then realised it would be my 50th so changed my mind…

‘Freelance Wastrel’ has proved surprisingly easy to create posts for and writing it has put me in touch with some fantastic people, I’m hoping that I can maintain the momentum of creating content for it throughout the winter months.

A few Nikon ‘Nifty Fifties’

I’ve mentioned my collection of Nikkor lenses before and the image above shows the 50mm examples… They are as follows:

• 50mm f/2 AI, introduced in 1977. (Top left)
• 50mm f/1.8 AIS, introduced in 1980. My favourite due to its minimum focusing distance of 0.45m. (Top right)
• 50mm f/1.8 AIS, the later, more compact ‘pancake’ version of the above, introduced in 1985, has a 0.6m minimum focusing distance. (Bottom left)
• Series E 50mm f/1.8, introduced in 1978 along with the budget Nikon EM SLR. This is the first version of the lens that doesn’t feature the traditional chrome mounting ring. (Bottom right).
• 50mm f/2 Pre-AI, one of the oldest lenses in my collection, manufactured between 1963 and 1967. The ‘H’ appearing after the ‘Nikkor’ name indicates the number of elements making up the lens, in this case 6 (Hex). (Centre).

I do still use every one of these beautiful lenses, some more than others but they all get an outing from time to time, earlier this year I mounted the Pre-AI lens on my Fujifilm X-T10 (via an adapter) and used it to photograph a friend’s band in a local pub.