The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: Nikkor AI

Lacock Abbey. Nikon D700 + Nikkor 28mm f/2 AI lens.

Lacock Abbey. Nikon D700 + Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 AI lens.

Ah! The Good Old Days, before electricity, before television, radio, recorded music; even before the internet and digital everything. When folks made their own entertainment listening to the pianist, playing cards and parlour games. Of course, this did not involve everybody, least of all the people living in tiny overcrowded cottages with earth floors, and outhouse latrines and water fetched from some distant well. Difficult to imagine how they managed without a piano. Probably their only music was from Sunday devotions and occasional spontaneous bursts of song prompted by the realisation of how well off they were.

I used a Nikkor 28mm f/2 AI lens on a Nikon D700 to make this picture. Because of the processing, you get only a glimpse of the sharpness and contrast provided by this uncommon lens, so I won't go on about its capabilities lest I become more didactic and boring than ever.

Learned minds grappled with detail, words, and concepts; printers toiled over typesetting and presswork; bookbinders laboured to amalgamate the whole using thread, glue, and leather. Now they exist as exhibits; they are periodically inspected for mildew, mould, parasites. They are occasionally dusted. But they are never read. Nikon D700 + Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 AI lens made sometime between 1977 and 1981.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/2 AI lens made sometime between 1977 and 1979. During the 1970s it was implicit that when you bought a single lens reflex camera it came with a 50mm or 55mm lens. Keen photographers subsequently added a wide angle prime lens (usually 28mm) and a telephoto prime lens (usually 135mm). On the day I photographed these daffodils I took those three lenses. Yet after taking this picture I switched to the 28mm and then the 135mm. I have noticed this before: the 50mm is a great lens but is not my preferred focal length and the best way of getting the good of it is not to pack any other lenses. The Nikkor-H f/2 dates from 1963 and was in production for 16 years. The design is an orthodox Gaussian configuration of six elements in four groups. The Nikkor-H.C indicates only a new lens coating and was introduced in 1972. Later - in 1974 - a better lens coating was introduced, along with a rubber focussing sleeve and a diamond pattern ridged aperture ring. Minimum focus was reduced to 45cm from the previous 60cm and the H.C designation was dropped. The lens was now known simply as the Nikkor 50mm f/2. Nikon classified it as a ‘K’ version. It lasted until 1977 when the lens was modified to AI standard, but remained the same in all other respects. The AI version continued until January 1979, having been superseded by the slightly faster f/1.8 version in 1978. The design of that lens has six elements in five groups.

An afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4. This photo was made in a dimly lit potting shed with the 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.

A sunny afternoon spent in The Courts Garden at Holt, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with three vintage Nikkor AI lenses: a 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5; a 28mm f/3.5; and a 200mm f/4.