Great Lens Adventure

The Great Lens Adventure began last May with about twenty participants signing up. Over the months a few of those decided to depart and a couple of new members were added to the list. At the moment Nikki is traveling across the continental United States to the last three persons from the list and will then be passed back to Ben in Sydney, Australia. Leighton, who has been taking care of the blog created for this adventure, and I are aware there are a number of folks who joined the conversation on the thread after this process began who would make worthy candidates for sharing in the lens adventure. After some discussion and communication with Ben, we've concluded it is best to end the adventure after the folks currently "signed up" have been given time with the lens. We certainly appreciate everyone who has made a commitment to this thread and expect even without Nikki passing from hand to hand, that we'll continue to share in celebration of these wonderful lenses. Whether we find another project to share with one another is not clear at the moment, though I can't help but recall the conversation from another time when we spoke of creating a wiki in which to share reviews and advice. There was also talk about creating a book with photos from Nikki's journey. I've no idea whether there is energy within our community to tackle either of these or any other kind of "project" but before the lens adventure began, I doubt many among us thought we could do such a thing with such grace.

So, if you missed out on spending time with Nikki, I'm sorry. But if you were inspired by what you saw, you can always go shopping, as many of those who used Nikki have already done. We are here, after all, because we love these lenses and are willing to invest in them. Kit building really is forever, made all the less painful when the object of our desire was designed and built for manual focusing. There are always new/old lenses to try… Exciting isn't it?

Ronny _Olsson wrote:


Nikkor 135mm f/2 Ai-s by Ronny Olsson, on Flickr


Nice image Ronny. The background really sets off the main subject.

CGrindahl wrote:
Great Lens Adventure

The Great Lens Adventure began last May with about twenty participants signing up. Over the months a few of those decided to depart and a couple of new members were added to the list. At the moment Nikki is traveling across the continental United States to the last three persons from the list and will then be passed back to Ben in Sydney, Australia. Leighton, who has been taking care of the blog created for this adventure, and I are aware there are a number of folks who joined the conversation on the thread after this process began who would make worthy candidates for sharing in the lens adventure. After some discussion and communication with Ben, we've concluded it is best to end the adventure after the folks currently "signed up" have been given time with the lens. We certainly appreciate everyone who has made a commitment to this thread and expect even without Nikki passing from hand to hand, that we'll continue to share in celebration of these wonderful lenses. Whether we find another project to share with one another is not clear at the moment, though I can't help but recall the conversation from another time when we spoke of creating a wiki in which to share reviews and advice. There was also talk about creating a book with photos from Nikki's journey. I've no idea whether there is energy within our community to tackle either of these or any other kind of "project" but before the lens adventure began, I doubt many among us thought we could do such a thing with such grace.

So, if you missed out on spending time with Nikki, I'm sorry. But if you were inspired by what you saw, you can always go shopping, as many of those who used Nikki have already done. We are here, after all, because we love these lenses and are willing to invest in them. Kit building really is forever, made all the less painful when the object of our desire was designed and built for manual focusing. There are always new/old lenses to try… Exciting isn't it?

I was happy to be a part of the lens adventure! Who would have thought something like this would be possible? Yet it happened. Again, thanks to Ben for donating the lens!

Ben, I hope Nikki holds a place of honor in your house!

Monty

CGrindahl wrote:
I had to take a shot with the 300 f/4.5 AI-s ED-IF, a lens that Scott has on the market. It remains one of my favorites. It is small enough to hand hold with ease but gives me fair reach. This is the leaf I shot above with the 105 f/2.5 P AI'd


And here is a closer crop...


This was shot close to minimum focusing distance.

Curtis, are you trying to make me have second thoughts about selling? Nice images!

montym wrote:
CGrindahl wrote:
Great Lens Adventure

The Great Lens Adventure began last May with about twenty participants signing up. Over the months a few of those decided to depart and a couple of new members were added to the list. At the moment Nikki is traveling across the continental United States to the last three persons from the list and will then be passed back to Ben in Sydney, Australia. Leighton, who has been taking care of the blog created for this adventure, and I are aware there are a number of folks who joined the conversation on the thread after this process began who would make worthy candidates for sharing in the lens adventure. After some discussion and communication with Ben, we've concluded it is best to end the adventure after the folks currently "signed up" have been given time with the lens. We certainly appreciate everyone who has made a commitment to this thread and expect even without Nikki passing from hand to hand, that we'll continue to share in celebration of these wonderful lenses. Whether we find another project to share with one another is not clear at the moment, though I can't help but recall the conversation from another time when we spoke of creating a wiki in which to share reviews and advice. There was also talk about creating a book with photos from Nikki's journey. I've no idea whether there is energy within our community to tackle either of these or any other kind of "project" but before the lens adventure began, I doubt many among us thought we could do such a thing with such grace.

So, if you missed out on spending time with Nikki, I'm sorry. But if you were inspired by what you saw, you can always go shopping, as many of those who used Nikki have already done. We are here, after all, because we love these lenses and are willing to invest in them. Kit building really is forever, made all the less painful when the object of our desire was designed and built for manual focusing. There are always new/old lenses to try… Exciting isn't it?

I was happy to be a part of the lens adventure! Who would have thought something like this would be possible? Yet it happened. Again, thanks to Ben for donating the lens!

Ben, I hope Nikki holds a place of honor in your house!

Monty


+1 Curtis. It has been an honor to be included in this adventure. Truely a great group of people, most of which have never met each other, except through the words on this thread. Thanks to Ben, Leighton, and Curtis for making all this all possible.

Not at all Scott, though the lens will never leave my kit. For the price, and here I'm referring to what you're asking as well as what I paid for mine, it IS A STEAL in terms of value for money. I love the lens and despite the fact it doesn't get on my camera very often, when it does it always shines. At the focal plane is about as sharp as a lens gets... sorry Jose... and the bokeh is luscious.

But I know you have good reasons for making this change in your kit Scott. I trust everyone on this thread to make good decisions in that regard. Of course, when Gregory sold ALL but one of his awesome MF Nikkors I couldn't help but groan. That feels more like a sacrilege than anything else.

Good luck finding a home for that lens.

CGrindahl wrote:
Not at all Scott, though the lens will never leave my kit. For the price, and here I'm referring to what you're asking as well as what I paid for mine, it IS A STEAL in terms of value for money. I love the lens and despite the fact it doesn't get on my camera very often, when it does it always shines. At the focal plane is about as sharp as a lens gets... sorry Jose... and the bokeh is luscious.

But I know you have good reasons for making this change in your kit Scott. I trust everyone on this thread to make good decisions in that regard. Of course, when Gregory sold ALL but one of his awesome MF Nikkors I couldn't help but groan. That feels more like a sacrilege than anything else.

Good luck finding a home for that lens.

Thank you Curtis. If it sells, that is good. It will provide fuel for my next bout of NMFAS. If it does not sell, then it is not meant to be, and will I still have a very nice lens.

mp356 wrote:
Thank you Curtis. If it sells, that is good. It will provide fuel for my next bout of NMFAS. If it does not sell, then it is not meant to be, and will I still have a very nice lens.

If it doesn't sell and I unload some things (after paying off some bills) I might hit you up if you still have it. I miss 450mm on my D7k

Its a winner Kevin. Ray uses the lens on his D7000 and does some great work with it. At 450mm I'd likely be using at least a monopod. Fortunately, the one Scott is selling has the tripod mount which seems to have been misplaced for most of these lenses when they come to market. I was assured by the seller I'd have no difficulty finding a replacement, but that has not proved to be the case...

Georg, Leighton, Ray and Reagan - thanks for commenting.

Georg - I took two series of shots - the first exposing for the sky and the second for the road, bushes etc. Then I processed them as a group in camera raw, after which I tried to stitch them together but ran out of RAM. Next step was to make two panos one of the sky and one of the land, resizeing each and saving as jpeg. Finally I made a new pano out of the two earlier panos, put in an overlay layer and did a bit of dodging and butning, adjusted levels slightly, resized and sharpened.

I must admit I was pleased with the result and the entire job took about 15 minutes. I find PSE 6 quite adequate for my level of PPing expertise, and while I've been toying with an upgrade, can't find enough extra features to justify the spend.

That's a fantastic pano Peter. Very emotive, the rugged country and the open road.
I love road trips - the solitude of being in the car and not another soul for miles around. Being able to stop whenever I want. To take panos or what ever that catches my fancy. Man, machine, an open bag of chips and a cold soda in the cooler sitting snugly off the backseat; all this with a mixtape in the stereo. Or the mp3 player on shuffle, these days :P
Was that 380km on an unsealed road?

Georg, that young girl can ham it up for the camera really well. Dreaming for school holidays eh? Would you have considered masking the subject and applying a slight Gaussian blur to the background, eliminating the messy bokeh?

LR4 Americo.Rodriguez 2013-4 by aNikkorGuy, on Flickr

a boat at SF California


LR4 Americo.Rodriguez 2013-16 by aNikkorGuy, on Flickr

LR4 Americo.Rodriguez 2013-42 by aNikkorGuy, on Flickr

CGrindahl wrote:
Actually, small batch brewing would be a breeze for you Leighton. Here's everything you need to know...

How to Make Beer

I had a friend who was eternally asking me to pass along the Grolsch glass beer bottles with a flip top that I quite regularly emptied. He shared the finished product, of course, and it was remarkably good. It would make a wonderful project for cold winter days...

I'm trying to talk my wine making SIL into making beer, no luck so far.

I love your expose on the plant, your use of light and shadow while shooting the local fauna has always been top-notch!

georgms wrote:
Leighton, the bokeh above of the 50/1.4 S or SC is a wee bit enhanced by the SEP-treatment.
But this lens can literally "kill" a picture with it's bokeh. Here's a shocking example from early 2010 - a staged shot in the school (dreaming about the coming holidays). Please note the rendering of the kids in the background.
I hate to have admit this, but the modern AF-S 50/1.4G or 50/1.8G are much better in this regard.

horrible background rendering: Ai'd Nikkor S or SC 50/1.4 wide-open on a D700, bounced flash, staged shot


Georg you're right about the bokeh, but in this particular image, it didn't hurt a bit! Fantastic capture of this girls expression, well done.

a.RodriguezPix wrote:

LR4 Americo.Rodriguez 2013-4 by aNikkorGuy, on Flickr

Something different from you Americo, and I love it! I also like it better without the big watermark.

Zichar wrote:
That's a fantastic pano Peter. Very emotive, the rugged country and the open road.
I love road trips - the solitude of being in the car and not another soul for miles around. Being able to stop whenever I want. To take panos or what ever that catches my fancy. Man, machine, an open bag of chips and a cold soda in the cooler sitting snugly off the backseat; all this with a mixtape in the stereo. Or the mp3 player on shuffle, these days :P
Was that 380km on an unsealed road?

Thanks Chin.

No only about 50km was on dirt - the rest tar.

leighton w wrote:
a.RodriguezPix wrote:

Something different from you Americo, and I love it! I also like it better without the big watermark.

Agreed - very nice images.