Yes, I am a volunteer... no, you can't use my photos for promos.

[Squeaksmyalias]

Thanks Midorikawa, I was thinking along those lines. I wanted a 2nd opinion to make sure I wasn't missing anything. This lens is coming off a broken camera, and because we couldn't figure out what was wrong with the camera I wanted to make sure it was normal vs it being part of the problem the camera was having. If that makes sense, I'll experiment see what I come up with. I appreciate the help.

[Midorikawa]

Sure thing. It takes a really good eye to be able to expose right with no light metering, but it can be done, and when done right, they come out amazing.

For example: linky linky. <---this was with my Nikkor-H 28mm lens from 1959. Dark, but that was intentional. This is the main corridor of a school built in 1903 just north of here, and since abandoned. I got permission from the property owner to be there. :-)

[Andara Bledin]

Ooooh, nice. Abandoned schools are particularly disturbing, for some reason.

^-.-^

[Squeaksmyalias]

Ooooooooooooooooo wow, took a look at the rest of your site. Amazing stuff.

I'm dragging my friend out tomorrow for more practice, she is hating me because I'm forcing her to model too. I'm giving her bacon for it, no seriously she gets a BLT out of it. It's great when you can pay your friends in bacon.

[Midorikawa]

Ooooh, nice. Abandoned schools are particularly disturbing, for some reason.

I've always thought peaceful and quiet, much like a cemetary. The only noise in the school were the hundreds of pigeons that infest the building now. It's a beautiful building, and wife and I had lots of fun going through it.

[bean]

Even with an ancient lens, the camera, even an ancient one like the D1x, will give you exposure info.

Shooting full manual is definitely an art, but it's not rocket science, nor is it brain surgery, especially if the camera has an LCD to review shots with.

If I shoot full manual, I choose the aperture I want, then adjust shutter speed as needed.

Even my last film SLR, a $70 Pentax, had a light meter built in. That thing was a massive pile of shit, but using the meter gave some properly exposed photos.

Midorikawa, that is a BEAUTIFUL photo! It's exposed perfectly, if you ask me. One of my hobbies is the good old "urban exploration", i.e. exploring old/abandoned/closed buildings.

[Midorikawa]

Actually, I talked to Nikon on this one. The new Nikons use communication with the CPU in the lens to determine light metering, rather than a sensor in the pentaprism/pentamirror like they did back when this lens was made. Most websites say the lens is not compatible with my camera, and I suppose it's technically not, but it still shoots photos beautifully. I don't have any light metering because in 1959, there were no integrated circuits, and definitely not any circuits small enough to fit in the lens of a camera.

This is the lens I used to shoot the image:


Because of this, the aperture and focal length show as N/A in the EXIF information in the shot. See for yourself.

[Squeaksmyalias]

The lenses work! ow I hurt. Decided to test on the side of a mountain.
I'm thrilled, I have a vintage plane and car show coming up in may. Now I just need to practice getting to know the settings before then so I can set up quickly and I should be good. Yay....Now I'm going to go curl up somewhere and whimper.

[bean]

Most websites say the lens is not compatible with my camera, and I suppose it's technically not, but it still shoots photos beautifully.

The beauty of SLR's... even if the lens isn't "compatible", if it will physically mount to the camera, you can still shoot in full manual! And full manual is a real art form (until you get a light meter anyway).

If it's a digital SLR, you can really experiment with full manual settings without wasting film. Just keep adjusting until it looks right - and most SLR's made in the past 30+ years (both film and digital) have exposure meters built in anyway.

That lens is definitely older than me, but hell, it's physically compatible, that's all that matters at this point.

[Squeaksmyalias]

I adjusted until it looked right, I got some neat shots that way anyway. I prefer mad science photography you end up with interesting things that way.

So we have a mad scientist, and a Nikon ninja, Bean what would you like to be? We could start fighting crime