Skeletons From The Closet - Nikomat FTn and 80-200 f4 AIS Lens

 

Growing Up, by Reed A. George

Nikomat FTn, Nikkor AIS 80-200mm f4 Lens

Kodak TMax 400 Film

 

I shot this with my Nikomat FTn, September's SFTC camera.

 

(Click Here) to read about the camera.

 

Shooting the Nikomat got me once again interested in older Nikons and lenses. As luck would have it, I met someone who had a nice Nikon F2 and 80-200mm f4 AIS lens for sale. These cameras are incredibly inexpensive these days, selling at ~10% of what they cost new. In any case, I thought I would not be interested in the zoom, until I saw it. The fixed f4 aperture is quite nice. This is one heavy, well-built piece of optics.

 

(Click Here) to read a comparison of several versions of Nikkor zooms in this focal range on JSV Foto, including the 80-200 f4 AIS. The old manual lens did pretty well against its younger cousins.

 

As you can see from the shot above, it's plenty sharp for this type of application. Older zooms were notoriously unsharp compared to primes, but the 80-400 AIS was a premium lens in its day. I think it renders perfectly for people shots like this.

 

So now I'll have to spend some time with the F2 body as well. My first brief experiences with it remind me of when I was a kid, and got to shadow a photojournalist for a day. They were shooting Nikon Fs and F2s. Lots of fun.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Nikomat FTn at Irish Dance Exhibition - Skeletons From The Closet, September's Camera

My Nikomat FTn and I recently went to Glen Echo Park in Maryland. They were holding an Irish dance event in what used to be the bumper car ride in the old Glen Echo Amusement Park.

 

Very challenging lighting, indeed, the pavilion was ringed with mid-day sun, while the interior remained quite dark. Having not brought a flash with me, or ever attempted to use one with the FTn, I decided to go with the prevailing conditions. This first shot took advantage of the light around the edges, and allowed me to capture some details of the dancers stretching and warming up.

Warming Up, by Reed A. George

Nikomat FTn, Kodak Tmax 400 Film

To really share what the lighting was like, I decided to shoot a few silhouettes. I really like the lines of the wood planks in the floor, and how they created a pool of reflected light in the relative darkness. The rafters in the roof also add to the structure of the shots. In this first silhouette, I also like how the dancer at right is actually not touching the floor; you can just detect that by the shadows under her foot.

Silhouette #1, by Reed A. George

Nikomat FTn, Kodak Tmax 400 Film

What I like about this final shot is how the dancer's arms frame the spectator in the distance beyond them. I also think the electric fans add an element of interest.

Silhouette #2, by Reed A. George

Nikomat FTn, Kodak Tmax 400 Film

 

Hardly documentation of the event or the people involved, these shots are my personal interpretation of what I saw. I enjoyed shooting the Nikomat here, and feel that it helped me to extract some details from a challenging lighting situation.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Result - September's Skeletons From The Closet Camera, the Nikomat FTn

 

Paths, by Reed A. George

Nikomat FTn, Nikkor 80-200mm f4 AIS Manual Focus Lens

Kodak Tmax 400 Film

 

This month, I've been shooting my gorgeous example of a black Nikomat FTn.

 

(Click Here) to read about the camera.

 

I took the Nikomat, and a recently-acquired 80-200mm f4 AIS lens, out for a walk at my local suburban "nature walk," a boardwalk over some small but nice wetlands in my neighborhood. The water level is very low right now. Home to lots of turtles, including some very large alligator snappers, the pond is the lowest I've ever seen it. In fact, you can see the back and head of a large turtle in the shot above, about in the exact center of the image, where the paths converge.

 

The 80-400 f4 AIS is an interesting lens. I bought it with an F2 body that was my main interest. When I heard about the lens over the phone, I wasn't interested. When I saw and handled it, I decided to give it a try.

 

Interestingly, Nikon has recently come out with a 70-200mm f4 AF-S ED VR lens, for a full $1,000 less than the venerable f2.8 version.

 

(Click Here) to read about the new AF-S 70-200m f4.

 

Of course, my old AIS lens is in a completely different league, but so far I'm pretty impressed. And, it cost me well over 10X less than the AF version would.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com