Photography with Warren's Nikon F2

I finally took the Nikon F2 that Warren generously gave me a few years ago out for a shoot. Here are some images from a roll of Kodak Gold 200 taken in Annapolis last Saturday afternoon. I took the roll to Costco (Price Club) and they developed and scanned the negatives for me (the scanning resolution works out to 19 megapixels!)

I used a Nikkor 43-86mm f/3.5 zoom, a classic lens, the first version of which is reputed by some to be the worst lens Nikon ever made. This one is the 11-element 1976 AI version. I rather liked its performance, which was limited anyway by my presbyopic ability to focus properly without a prescription eyepiece.

I made some very slight adjustments for exposure and color temperature in Adobe Camera Raw, then added a very little bit of sharpening in Photoshop to get these end results. I'm very happy with the colors, but the grain of the film is very apparent, even at less than 50% magnification in Photoshop (hard to see in these 800-pixel, web-sized images.) I attribute that to the film itself, and will try Kodak Ektar 100 or Portra 160, both of which are said to be much better in terms of grain and suitability for scanning.

In any event, I am enjoying displaying and using these classic cameras. With my recent attack of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS,) I've already acquired far too many classic SLRs in the past month or so, but at least they'll keep Warren's two Nikons company. I'll be shooting most of them over the next few weeks and months and will report back on them as well.

Thanks again Warren!

More Nikon FM Photos...

Just after I took a few snaps of the gentleman, this beautiful young woman stepped in to pose in front of the vintage bike. I think she looks like a young Joan Collins... maybe even more lovely.

The other photo is an abstract of shadows of the cast iron railing on the steps of a brownstone on W. 15th Street. The brownstone was indeed brown, and I gave it the sepia treatment.

These were taken with the Nikon FM that Warren generously gave me!

Vintage Camera Day - With a Gift From Warren!

Here are some photos I took using Warren's generous gift to me of a Nikon FM. It's the first time I've shot film since August 2003!

I took my "new" Nikon to today's Vintage Camera Day outing of my photo group, Shutterbug Excursions.

The Nikon handled beautifully, and as you can see, the results are quite sharp. We all took our film to a Ritz 1-Hour photo place a block away from the Inner Harbor, and they did a decent enough job on 4x6 prints. I also had them scan the negatives onto a CD for an additional $4.00 per roll. Unfortunately, the scans were dissappointing - an average of only 1MB per photo. There's no reason they shouldn't be at least 3000 x 2000 pixels using modern minilabs, so I won't use Ritz any more.

But overall, my first film experience in almost 6 years worked out well. And best of all, our gang had a really good time.

Thanks again to Warren for the great camera!