Slow Photography #52 Nikons Cheapest Native Lens on My D810 by Jim Austin Jimages

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"PASSAGE"


"FALL INTO SPRING"

Nikon's D810 camera has been my daily muse since July of 2014.  In the Bahamas this winter, I shot with Nikon's cheapest lenses on one of Nikon's best cameras. I've learned to play jazz with it. Well, not literally of course. 


Going with the flow, being flexible with your photo process is a lot more fun than lugging heavy glass that you always worry about. Any guesses as to which lens it is?

"NIKON D810 AND MYSTERY LENS"
 ( lens # removed in post)


I will reveal the answer at the end (unless you want to know now, and skip to the last photo).

Nikon's cheapest lens is not perfect. It sells for as low as $10.99 on EBay. It's a 40-year old design, has egregious flare, focuses no closer than two feet, has some focus shift, distracting out-of-focus highlights, and has visible longitudinal chromatic aberration (purple fringing that is correctable with Lightroom). Lomo with a D810, anyone?

This lens skips vibration reduction (non-VR), has no auto-focus (non-AF), and it is made of cheap polycarbonate (non-$$$). 

It is tiny. 





Canon 70-200 Zoom and
Mystery Lens from Nikon


None of these issues matter for Facebook, websites, tablets and phones. The optical flaws are only visible when we make wall prints or professional output.

The thing that matters most is the size of the hole in the little black box.  I click in an aperture of F/2.8. This setting offers smoother renditions and minimizes some of this lens' optical flaws.

OK, time for some samples with the D810 and Nikon's cheapest lens in the Bahamas:


"SEA GRAPE LEAF BY THE POOL"




"IN THE CLOUD"


"DOCTOR SEUSS WATERS"


"MOON & MAST"




"FULL STOP THE SUN"


"Cocktail Hour"


"
"WEST END WAVE"



"TENDRILS OVER TEAL WATERS"





 Q: What lens is it?


NIKON 50mm SERIES E  F/1.8

Nikon's 50 mm, Series E, 1:1.8 is a featherweight lens.  It was offered with Nikon's EM and FG camera bodies around 1979.

It's a joy to make images with such a light lens. At under 5 ounces, when mounted on a D810 body, this pancake 50mm adds no appreciable weight to what you carry. Therefore, I have no excuses about heading out on an adventure due to heavy or cumbersome gear. Besides, in the Bahamas, the light is so amazing that every 2 feet, there are hundreds of potential images.


Film:  lens on a Nikon EM body.


Bottom Line:  When we focus too much on gear (and I too am guilty of this) we tend to miss the flow of our process. A lighter gear load frees our creative vision to make our most favorite photos, the ones we are about to make in the future.


Thanks for dropping by! 
Jim Austin Jimages

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