Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D Lens

Corsham, Wiltshire, an obstacle course of A boards designed to inconvenience and injure the unwary or short-sighted. I like this photograph because I perceive similarities between the model depicted on the A-board and the smiling woman in the background, namely gender, generation, hairstyle, blue/purple hue, and perhaps even facial features. I don't know if she saw me raise my camera and sportingly posed or if I am being fanciful and just got lucky. I very much like the juxtaposition, whatever the explanation. Photographed with an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens on a Nikon D2Xs set at 100 ISO. 1/125th at f/6. Edited in Lightroom.

Corsham, Wiltshire, an obstacle course of A boards designed to inconvenience and injure the unwary or short-sighted. I like this photograph because I perceive similarities between the model depicted on the A-board and the smiling woman in the background, namely gender, generation, hairstyle, and perhaps even facial features. I don't know if she saw me raise my camera and sportingly posed or if I am being fanciful and just got lucky. I very much like the juxtaposition, whatever the explanation. Photographed with an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens on a Nikon D2Xs set at 100 ISO. 1/125th at f/6. Edited in Lightroom.

Once a tithe barn, the Great Barn is now a museum and art gallery with an exhibition about the circle. It is a timber-framed, aisled barn with two midstreys and a thatched roof. Nikon D700 and AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

Photographed in the Great Barn gallery at Avebury. Nikon D700 and AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

Nikon D2Xs and Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AFD lens, plus a teleconverter.

Nikon D700 and AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

The subject is the Korean-made, Domke-inspired, David Bailey-endorsed canvas camera bag. I photographed it with a 50mm lens on a Nikon D700. This sort of subject is the natural home territory of the 50mm. I have owned this bag for several years, having bought it on eBay for £25. I have never seen another like it, which is surprising considering that David Bailey's initials are embroidered into the fabric at the front. Maybe the bag only ever appealed to photographers whose initials were also 'DB'. The design owes a lot to the Domke F-2 bag although there are a few differences in detail, such as an all-round zip in addition to the dog-clip hardware. However, the Domke canvas is soft cotton, whereas the fabric of the David Bailey version is slightly thinner and resolutely synthetic.

Lately I've been using this lens, the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D, and a manual focus wide-angle lens, the Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S, on a full frame digital camera. There is a lot of 'received wisdom' that the lenses in a set of two should be 35mm and 85mm. The trouble with all this advice is that you end up with too many in your bag. Available light. Aperture priority set at f/2.8. ISO 800. 1/20th sec (a bit risky, as the lack of sharpness amply demonstrates).

Nikon D90 + AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

Photographed with a Nikon D2Xs and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens.

If you keep your clothes as long as I do - and that is for a generation in the case of these jeans - you learn something about clothing sold by supermarkets. This old pair of jeans is made from quite stout denim in comparison to the thin stuff now offered. Additionally, in the old days not only was the cloth of better quality, you got quite a bit more of it. You could live and let rooms in this pair, which suits me fine. You also discover that these days the manufacturers use shorter zips. I won’t offend sensibilities by developing this issue. I will simply state that there are limits and that they may have been exceeded.

Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens on a Nikon D2Xs, which provided a field of view equivalent to 75mm on full frame. I took this at f/8. It surprised me that an aperture so small would provide the kind of distant focus that I wanted. 100 ISO; 1/200th.

Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. Aperture-priority; 100 ISO. 1/400th at f/4.5. The D2Xs, once the flagship of the Nikon fleet, has not become a poor camera simply because later models eclipse its ability. If it used to be good enough for professional photographers, it is a happy experience for amateurs working on their coat tails. Up to 400 ISO it is good; at 100 ISO it is possibly peerless. I love to use it in good light at 100 ISO. It performs best when teamed with a fast prime lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. Aperture-priority; 100 ISO. 1/500th at f/5.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D lens.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D lens.

Seend needs a by-pass but the land slopes away dramatically to the south and thus options are limited. Anyway, it would only have the effect of inflating already eye-watering property prices in the village. Nikon D700 + AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens. Cropped quite a lot.

This is a good lens for clarity and contrast, plus being a 50mm makes it quite cheap to acquire. The light was dim when I took this photograph and thus ISO was pushed up to 3200, but it doesn't look too smudgy. Aperture was f/2.8, speed 1/125th.