New images from an old lens

In an earlier post I wrote that I'd enjoyed working with the old Nikkor 50mm lens from my Nikkormat FT3. Alas it has gathered too much grunge over the decades to be a useful working lens, but I loved the long focusing throw and the largish aperture (f/2) and speculated I could buy a clean used version pas très cher.

My favorite place for buying and selling used gear is KEH. Sure enough they had a pretty decent selection of old 50mm Nikon lenses. I ended up with the lens pictured below. According to Ken Rockwell's terrific site on Nikon lens technology, it's an AI (for automatic indexing) lens circa 1977. It's very clean and was a bargain at $89 plus shipping. It mounts with no fuss, focuses smoothly, and is just fun to use. Kudos to Nikon for keeping the F mount compatible for all these years.

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, circa 1977

This morning as I labored in the back yard, Susan called my attention to the light in the dogwood branch over my head (I am very lucky to have a spouse with an eye for beauty). Not wanting to waste good light I dropped my shovel and grabbed the D750 and 50mm. Here's one of the shots:

Dogwood Berries

Not bad for old glass. During our trip to the Finger Lakes and Canada, I took the 50mm out one day in Ottawa instead of lugging the whole camera bag around. I took this picture of the National Gallery of Canada with it.

Ceiling, National Gallery of Canada

Obviously I'm happy with my new, old-but-capable lens.