Category: Nikon

Monochrome Monday… Lower Largo, Fife

~ freelancewastrel ~ Leave a comment

Drummochy Road, Lower Largo, FifeDrummochy Road, Lower Largo, Fife
Nikon F3HP, Nikon Series E 75~150mm f/3.5 at 75mm – 1/500s, f8, +1EV – Ilford Delta 100

Back in October I posted a few digital shots from a fantastic holiday in Lower Largo on the Fife coast in Scotland. I also shot a few rolls of film that week and got some of the results back from the lab a few days ago.

Drummochy Road leads down to the harbour from the west and crosses Keil Burn on a narrow bridge just out of shot to the right. The viaduct in the background once carried the Fife Coast Railway that ran from Thornton Junction in the west to St Andrews in the north. The line closed to passengers in September 1965 and completely in December 1966.

Scan by Peak Imaging with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom Classic CC.

Nifty Fifty!

~ freelancewastrel ~ Leave a comment

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.

Nikkor 50mm lensesA 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.

Monochrome Monday… Condemned Railway Wagons

~ freelancewastrel ~ 1 Comment

Condemned Coal Wagons, February 1998Condemned Railway Wagons, February 1998
Nikon F-801s, AF Nikkor 24-50mm f/3.3-4.5 – Kodak T-Max P3200

I have no idea what possessed me to shoot an ISO 3200 film in daylight (albeit rather dull February daylight…) but I shot a few rolls back in 1998, most of them on a Nikon F-801s that eventually got sold to a pal who continued to use it for ages.

A couple of years ago an identical camera cropped up (at a ridiculously low price) in the local branch of London Camera Exchange when I was Christmas shopping with a friend and I was thrilled to find it in a parcel with my name on under said friend’s tree on December 25th that year!

I still use it…

 

A few (more) frames from… Paris

~ freelancewastrel ~ Leave a comment

On the Nikon F90X Pro…

As I was scanning the negatives for my last ‘A few frames from…’ post it dawned on me that most of my honeymoon images have never been more than contact printed! One thing is for certain, it’s far easier to showcase photos in the internet age than it was 17 years ago…

So here are a few more…

Metro sign, Paris, September 2000Metro sign, Paris, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

I love these art nouveau signs, designed by French architect Hector Guimard. The curved lamp posts are designed to resemble plant stems but to me always look alien, almost as if they’re going to suddenly bow down and bite an unsuspecting tourist!

Papa? c'est Nicole! Paris, September 2000‘Papa? c’est Nicole!’ Paris, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

This scene reminded me of the characters created to advertise the Renault Clio car in the UK during the 1990s (search YouTube for the videos) and was taken during one of our many ‘beer in a pavement café’ interludes.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica, September 2000Sacré-Cœur Basilica, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

The bust of Gustave Eiffel 1832-1923Gustave Eiffel 1832-1923
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

Scanning these images is bringing back some very happy memories so expect some more in the next few days…

A few frames from… Paris

~ freelancewastrel ~ Leave a comment

On the Nikon F90X Pro…

As a couple of my recent posts have mentioned our wedding anniversary I thought I’d dig out some of the shots I took 17 years ago while on honeymoon in Paris.

I took two cameras with me, a Nikon F90X Pro fitted with a borrowed Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro zoom lens, and a Yashica T4, most of the black & white films were shot on the Nikon.

Flower Power Peugeot, Paris, September 2000Flower Power Peugeot, Paris, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

I have to admit that it took me a couple of days to ‘get’ Paris… I’m not normally a city person and at first I really didn’t like the noise, or the number of people but the more we wandered around, the more photos I took, the more I fell in love with ‘La Ville Lumière’ (The City of Light).

Cimetière de Montmartre, September 2000Cimetière de Montmartre, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

Lunch in Montmartre Cemetery consisted of nothing more than bread, cheese and red wine… red wine that we ended up drinking straight from the bottle as we’d forgotten to bring anything to drink out of!

La tour Eiffel, September 2000La tour Eiffel, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

The films were developed at home (something I really need to start doing again) but have no recollection of the chemistry used, I probably picked whatever was the cheapest available at the time… The Sigma 28~200mm lens was chosen for convenience rather than quality and as a result I steered clear of ‘super zooms’ until last year when I bought the Fujinon XF 18-135mm f3.5~5.6 R LM OIS WR lens to go with my Fujifilm X-T1.

I wish I’d never parted with the Nikon F90X though…

A few frames from… the Nikon F3HP

~ freelancewastrel ~ Leave a comment

High Tide, Sheringham, October 2016High Tide, Sheringham, October 2016
Nikon F3HP, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – 1/500s, f11, +2EV – Fuji Neopan 400CN

Union Jack, Sheringham, October 2016Union Jack, Sheringham, October 2016
Nikon F3HP, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – 1/500s, f11, +2EV – Fuji Neopan 400CN

Wells-next-the-Sea, October 2016Wells-next-the-Sea, October 2016
Nikon F3HP, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – 1/500s, f8, +2EV – Fuji Neopan 400CN

Scans by Ag Photo Lab with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom CC.

I’m not over keen on Fuji’s C41 process black & white film… I can’t quite put my finger on why though, other than it seems very ‘grainy’ for an ISO 400 film. Once my existing stock is used up I’m going to try shooting some Ilford Delta 400 and Kodak T-MAX 400 and see how I get on with those…