Drive-Thru

I bid successfully on eBay for an old Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 lens. They made this lens from 1964 until 1975 and then inexplicably replaced it with a lens universally agreed to be its inferior (a bit like the Ford Motor Company when it replaced the Escort in 1990; you can probably think of other good examples of bad marketing).

The construction quality, fit and finish of this lens is exquisite. Nothing like this is made now and even the current lens offerings will mostly be gone before this lens breaks.

If you want to safely use a lens like this on a Nikon digital camera which isn’t ‘entry level’ you need to check it has been modified to AI compatibility, or you could wreck your camera. None of them was ever made to the new standard which Nikon introduced in 1977.

It was a lens like this that David Hemmings used to photograph Veruschka in the studio scenes of the 1966 film ‘Blow-Up’. You can appreciate therefore that owning a lens like this will enhance your style credentials as well as instantly make you a better photographer.