Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D Lens

The debate rages on over the inclusion of an oblique stroke in 'Op/Tech'. Why? Why, oh why, oh why?

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

every time i go to tesco i try to park in a newspace and then when i get home i tickitoff on my big plan that i made on the back of a roll of wallpaper sometimes when i am leaving tesco i see a space i have never parked in before and if it is not too busy i nip into it and park a second time to qualify for the wallpaper chart i have to have parked for at least ten minutes this is my own rule otherwise people would notice and say i was eccentric to pass ten minutes i go back into the store and join a long queue with a newspaper or a magazine but if it is a nice day i go over to the perimeter of the car park where there is a hedge and i pretend to be interested in photographing wildlife they call me the tesco photographer but i couldn’t care less about photography i just like tickingoff the spaces only 73 left now mostly disabled and mothers with children could be a problem

Nikon D300s + AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D + Speedlight SB-400.

For the photographer there are specific-purpose bags: rainy day bags; anti-pickpocket bags; bags which do not look like camera bags for use in tough neighbourhoods; slim-profile bags for carrying in crowded areas; bags to inspire confidence at an important event you've been hired to shoot; bags so impossibly large you use them as a supply depot where your other bags call to make changes to their contents; bags which are devoted to specialist items like flashguns or filters; medium-format bags; 35mm film camera bags; digital camera-with-lens-fixed-always bags; soiled bags that you don't mind using in dirty conditions ... the list is endless. The more camera bags I try - all sourced from eBay, the world's greatest lending library, where sometimes it's even possible to turn a modest profit on short-term acquisitions - the more I realise that what we're talking about is a sack. A sack with compartments, a sack with different dimensions to the previous sack, a sack made from different materials, but nevertheless a sack. This particular bag is the Tenba P-750 Pro Pak™ from the early 1980s, with its super-cool logo which reads the same upside down (but best not to verify this when the bag is full of kit). You often see them referred to as the ‘Tenba Equa’ because the logo suggests that is the name. It was available in rust, black, and grey, as well as the more traditional tan colour you see here. It is constructed of ‘Cordura’, a waterproof and rugged nylon. ‘Cordura’ will always win in a friction squabble with your coat or trousers. Tenba put a less aggressive pad of material on later Pro Pak™ bags where the ‘Cordura’ met the owner’s clothing. The P-750 is an unusual design with a fairly deep compartment within the lid to store 30 to 40 rolls of film, and a stout zip fastener to keep the contents secure. On the other side of the top ‘half’- i.e. on the inside of the bag’s main compartment - is a modest zipped compartment which might be for tickets and passport-type documents. There are four ‘D’ rings, for a back-harness or tripod straps, and unusual side straps which can be deployed to limit the travel of the lid or to transport a monopod. The main compartment lacks the extreme weather-proofing measures you find on a Billingham bag, like zips and secondary flaps. That is perhaps a weakness if near water or sand. It rather negates the value of ‘Cordura’ as a waterproof fabric. The coups de foudre are the two external pouches which, in combination with the hip logo, make this bag unusually distinctive in a market place stuffed with boring oblong boxes with straps. Photographed at Avebury stone circle using a Nikon D90 and an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

It is New Year's Day. Let us consider the future and reflect on the past. The subject is a Nikon FG-20 and a Soligor C/D Zoom Macro 80-200mm f4.5 lens Photographed with an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens on a Nikon D2Xs set at 100 ISO. I resolve to make much greater use of 50mm prime lenses. I have sold the FG-20 and the Soligor zoom lens.

Nikon D3s + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens.

Nikon D3s + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. There is something engrossing about shooting with a 50mm lens on a full frame camera. Perhaps it is another form of time travel, a subject which occupies my mind with occasional intensity. Unconventional camera settings for this picture: 1/2500; 800 ISO; f/5.6. A proper photographer would be appalled.

Photographed with a Nikon D3s and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens.

A Nikon D50 with a DX AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G lens photographed using a Nikon Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D on a Nikon D2Xs camera.

AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D on a Nikon D2Xs.

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

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've cropped it a bit too. 100 ISO and f/4. I ought simply to superglue this lens to a camera. The results are often far superior to other lenses.

Nikon D3s + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. Processed in Lightroom. A Limbo Lockdown Production™. Pressing 'z' seems to improve the impact a bit.

A Nikon D3s and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens photographed in available light using a Nikon D2Xs with a Tamron SP 35mm F1.8 lens. 1/40th at f/4 and 400 ISO.

A few of those old coaches which were once in service all over the British Rail network survive in preserved steam railways. The experience of being hauled by a steam locomotive; the characteristic sounds and smells; the dusty bench seats in the compartments accessed through a corridor; all these things are heightened in authenticity and nostalgia by rain falling and assembling in drops on metal and glass surfaces. It's like time travel. Nikon D700 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens at f/2.

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