In 2016 my wife and I visited le Grand Train, a short-term food court event held in an old SNCF railyard on the north side of Paris.
After my usual whinging and thrashing over what to carry by way of camera I finally settled on one of my Sony NEX-5T, a straight-through adapter, and the Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/2 Ai I had at the time. On the crop-sensor NEX the full frame equivalent works out to around 52mm's, or what we used to call a "standard" focal length.
Soon after, I sold that lens. Of course, me being me, I soon regretted the sale. I'd gotten around 150 bux out of it to help finance the purchase of something else I thought I desperately "needed." My aging brain can't remember what I bought, but I can still remember that lens.
On the rendition of the images I took that day... I don't know... there is just "something" about them that appeals to me, even now. Some of it is the Capture One "gold" somethingorother preset I had access to at the time. Some of it, I felt, had to be the way the lens renders when shot wide open.
Here are two color image examples from le Grand Train.
Artful Headlight
le Grand Train
Nikkor 35mm f/2 Ai
Business End
le Grand Train
Nikkor 35mm f/2 Ai
The lens wasn't "clinically sharp" at f/2, but compared with modern lenses it could certainly "hold it's own." If I needed "clinically sharp", I could certainly get things to look like anything else in the lens kit with a little "smart sharpen" or "capture sharpen" during processing.
As a side note, I believe Lightroom and RawTherapee have similar "capture sharpen" functions. This can be applied to a file as a way to offset anti-aliasing sensor filters as well as to offset lens "softness."
A couple years later I was browsing That Auction Site out of boredom. I came across an early Nikkor-O pre-Ai copy. Patiently I waited for the auction timer to count down. Patiently I watched as no one bid. Patiently I hoped I could win. Patience does not come easy to me. I did the best I could. Trying to be virtuous and all that... et... voila! I sniped it for less than 50 bux, delivered. When it arrived it was in even better condition than I'd thought from looking at the auction photos. Happiness ensued.
LensTurbo II focal reducer
This "Second Chance" Nikkor-O, like its Ai series successor, renders beautifully. Wide open this single coated lens exhibits just a hint of "sparkle" in the highlights that the multi-coated Ai version I had did not. The out of focus rendition behind the point of focus is Nikon's typical gorgeous smooth under-corrected spherical aberration yumminess that sends me over the moon in delight.
These days the "Second Chance" 35mm f/2 practically lives on a pretty, very low shutter count Sony A7 that I'd also picked up for cheap.
With the re-opening after a long, difficult pandemic, I'm hopeful there will be plenty of future opportunities to use the combo A7/Nikkor-O. It'd be fun to come away with a few more good images.
LensTurbo II focal reducer
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