Category: Black and White

This photograph was produced with my manual focus Nikon AI-S Nikkor 600mm F/4 ED-IF coupled with a Nikon TC-300 2x teleconverter. This combination produces an equivalent 1200mm focal length at an f/8 maximum aperture.

Old, indestructible pro-level Nikon f mount lenses are quite relevant with newer camera bodies such as the Nikon D850 used in this photograph. As a case in point, I used the D850’s focus peeking feature to focus this photograph from over 100 yards.

Focus peeking is common in mirrorless cameras and micro photography. Nikon’s D850 is the first Nikon DSLR to natively offer focus peeking. With modern photographers shunning manual focus lenses for auto focus lenses, the telephoto application of focus peeking is rare. I’m using focus peeking to facilitate the use of a classic unwanted manual focus telephoto 600mm prime lens manufactured between 1982 and 1986 on arguably one of the best modern DSLR cameras to date.

By exploiting Nikon’s timeless backwardly compatible f mount lenses on a modern camera, I’m learning a great deal more about photography at a minuscule fraction of the cost of a modern auto focus nikkor 600mm prime lens

A noir photograph seemed appropriate for a first experiment with a 38 year old manual focus lens and complementary to my current reading of Andreas Feininger‘s The Complete Photographer: The Definitive Guide to Modern Black-and-White and Color Photography.