The pleasure and freedom of walking and taking in life with a simple camera and a single lens. Unburdened with weight and excess stuff, the body, and more importantly the eye, stays fresh much longer. You might miss a couple of photos because you didn't bring those three other lenses, yet the gain is much greater than the loss. At least that's my experience.
It could be a point&shoot or a Holga. For me, it's usually a Rollei TLR or a Nikon F2/F3 with a 45mm pancake lens. I'm very fond of the latter combination, and have often preferred it to a Leica. In an interview, the late and great Mario Giacomelli, when asked about his camera, remarked that he wanted a "working man's camera", and sent his delicate Kobell to Milan to have everything removed that he deemed unnecessary. (You should check it out. It's wonderfully bizarre). For me, the F2/F3 are a working man's camera: spartan, robust.
I prefer the 45mm focal length over a 50mm. 45mm feels right. Maybe that's why I have both 45mm pancake Nikkors: The ancient GN-Nikkor and the much newer 45mm-P version. Both are wonderful. The old one had some Guide Number coupling feature for flash (hence the GN name), which I've never used. Other than that, it's a bit weird in that the focusing is reversed, and the focus throw is very long for mid-to-infinity distances and then gets a bit short for near distances. Mine also survived a fall making the focusing very rough at some distances, turning it into a working man's lens...oh yeah!
~
The working man's camera the working man had with him for the above photos:
Omar I totally agree with you, though I feel the lighter heft of the F3 is more conducive to all day carry. F2s can really wear a hole in your shoulder, especially combined with that old style Nikon leather bra strap strap ';0)
ReplyDeleteI like the bog standard Nikon cloth strap, or a Domke gripper. The F3 is my go-to holiday carry about - that grip just makes things a lot easier.
As for lenses . . never used the pancake, but in a close-enough to that focal length, the old 35mm f2 "O" Nikkor (pre-Ai) and the 50mm f1.4 pre-Ai are really great lenses.
Actually, there's a bunch of them that are superb - I like the 24mm CRC pre-Ai, the 28mm f2.8 Ai (though actually the much disparaged 28mm f3.5 [the lens McCullin used] is an excellent performer and really quite small) and the 50mm f1.8.
Some lovely photographs as always!
With the F2, I prefer the plain prism instead of the metered heads. Add a tiny pancake and the weight is no problem IMO. I use the Nikon cloth strap.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mention it in the post, but a huge plus with the F2/F3 (probably all F's) is the viewfinder. Good eye relief and so easy to focus everywhere on the screen. This summer I made a discovery when I had the F2 (with plain prism and an all matte screen) with me, plus a 55/2.8 micro Nikkor. I don't know whether you've used one of those 55's, but the focus throw at mid-distances, say between 3-10m is so small that achieving critical focus in that range is quite difficult and it's very easy to get out-of-focus pics. Not with the F2. Even in the 100m range I could visually differentiate sharp/unsharp in the viewfinder with the tiniest change in focusing. I was very impressed with that.
In many of your posts you sang praises to the 35mm O Nikkor. I haven't been able to find one in good shape so far. I do have and use the Zeiss 35mm/f2 Distagon instead. Optically it's amazing (although with noticeable barrel distortion, which bugs me), but it's also quite large.
Yeah you can get a whole F3 for the price of just the plain prism alone over here! Madness. Actually, my favourite for handling is the original F - mine has the metered head, though the meter doesn't work, but the head adds a degree of weight for low light picture taking and works really well. What I love about all the Fs is the 100% viewfinder - a proper WYSIWYG before the term was even thought of!
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame you're not closer - I think I have a couple of spare F2 screens somewhere. And yes I do have a 55 - the 1960's one that was modified for shooting parts of the original Star Wars - it is incredibly sharp.
As for Distagons, I like them a lot - they can, in certain lights, capture real atmosphere - not sure how they do, but they seem to to my eyes.
Somehow, I've never even held an F in my hands!
ReplyDeleteOh I recommend it - somehow it feels different to the F2, but obviously of the same ilk. The Photomic head really adds to the balance in some weird way.
ReplyDelete