And though our dearly departed Eddie Carr was indeed right (smacking a computer rarely works), I no longer care. My perpetually annoying Plustek 8200i SE film scanner deserves violence. It has wasted ninety minutes of my life, and now it sits with a strip of film sticking out of its scan slot. It vibrates pitifully and blurts an obscene electronic fart. It is no longer technology, no longer a film scanner. It is a four-hundred dollar whoopee cushion, and it deserves to be punched.

But since my wife sits comfortably reading at the far corner of the room, I restrain myself and gently touch the machine’s power button. In the heavy silence that follows I make up my mind. I’ll smile now, pretend to be fine, wait until nightfall. No one will ever know. When the house is asleep, I’ll drown my scanner in the pool.

Early next morning (being of sounder mind) I ruminate over coffee that there must be a better way to scan film. Because scanning film is awful. It is quite literally the worst part of shooting film.

The shooting is fun. The cameras are fun. The developing is, if not fun, at least interesting, allowing plenty of variables and room for experimentation and a sense of suspense. The resulting film photos are fun. Darkroom printing is fun. Even organizing our negatives is satisfying in a Marie Kondo sort of way.

But scanning film is tedious and boring and frustrating, and achieving good results is hardly assured. The machines are loud and bulky. They cost a lot. The scanning software is poor and cumbersome. The whole thing is just awful, and I’m not alone in thinking so. I remember an article written by Josh Solomon in which he rightly rants on the subject.

Josh is Grumpy About Scanning Film

Josh has been scanning film for ten years and he's just about had enough. Maybe a rant, maybe a cry for help. Poor guy.

And just when I’ve reached the nadir of both my coffee and my rumination, I remember that I’m a Nikon fanboy and that I own a full-frame Nikon mirrorless camera. And recall further that, for years now, Nikon has offered a truly refined way of digitizing film. The Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter. Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner?

I run to the bright red landline telephone in my office which connects me directly to B&H Photo’s Emergency Freakout Line, shatter the protective glass box that encapsulates it, and make the call. A day later my kit has arrived.

What’s in the Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter Kit’s box?

The Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter arrives in a long box emblazoned more than fifty times with the Nikon logo. Inside we find the following:

• Nikon ES-2 Negative Digitizer
• Nikon FH-4 Strip Film Holder
• Nikon FH-5 Slide Mount Holder
• 62mm Adapter Ring A and 62mm Adapter Ring B

And that’s all! Five pieces of finely made plastic which, over the course of my life, effectively buy me an extra few months of free time, with the added bonus that my film scans happen quickly and easily, and that the images turn out great. Imagine.

I will also need a Nikon macro lens with a 62mm filter thread, which Nikon offers in both of their major mounts. However the ES-2 cannot be used with all Nikon macro lenses, such as the Nikon Z 105mm which I reviewed earlier in the year. For me, a Nikon Z mount camera owner, my only choice is the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm.

Here are all of the lenses which Nikon makes that are compatible with the ES-2.

• Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G ED in conjunction with the included 62mm Adapter A (Nikon F Mount)
• Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D in conjunction with the included 62mm Adapter B (Nikon F Mount)
• Nikon AF-S DX Micro Nikkor 40mm f/2.8 G
• Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8 (Nikon Z Mount)*

*Used in this review

How it Works and Practical Use

Setting up the ES-2 is simple. In my use case, I attach the adapter ring to my lens, the ES-2 to my adapter ring, load a film strip into the film strip holder or a slide into the slide holder, set the camera to Aperture Priority, set the aperture to f/5.6 or f/8, point the camera at a light source, and shoot. The lens automatically focuses at a 1:1 reproduction ratio (true macro) and a photo of my negative or slide is made.

Only a few finer points must be considered.

First, I must make sure that everything is attached correctly and that the rotating adapter is oriented such that the image area is recorded nice and level.

Next, the light source used to backlight the negative or slide should be as uniform as possible (but truthfully, this is not super critical). A soft-light, LED light panel, or a diffused photo studio light works perfectly, but since the ES-2 has a built in light diffuser it works surprisingly well even in non-uniform light. I’ve shot some of my scans using a computer screen, a random LED strip light, even the sun.

After the film or slides have been scanned, I upload the images to my computer as I would with any digital camera, and edit the shots in Lightroom (Photoshop or whichever preferred editing software works too). I would also need to perform these edits if I had made the scans with a dedicated scanner, but in another win for Nikon’s solution, the images that I’ve made with my Nikon Z are infinitely more editable. I can create far more balanced and refined photos with the ES-2 system than I ever could with my scanner, and I’m further afforded greater creative control.

I’ve now used the ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter to scan the film photos that will be used in many of my upcoming film camera reviews and film profile articles. The time that it has saved me and the quality of the results is simply astonishing.

In the past I’ve scanned with macro bellows and slide copier attachments. I’ve used copy stands in which the camera dangles precariously vertically. I’ve tried flatbeds and Kodak Pakons. I’ve said “to hell with my wallet” and sent my film to be scanned by labs all over the country, spending my money to save my time.

None of these are ideal solutions.

The macro bellows and copy stands and flatbeds take up too much space, they’re slow to set up, and the results aren’t good. The dedicated, old scanners are expensive, take too long, and it’s easy to imagine that this aging tech is on its last legs. Sending the stuff out to labs is outrageously expensive, and if I’m honest, the results I get back from most labs have never blown my mind.

Nikon’s ES-2 kit is without a doubt the best (and only) true solution to scanning film quickly, effectively, and without compromise.

I can shoot, upload to my PC, and edit in Lightroom to completion an entire roll of film in ten minutes. Scanning that same roll with my scanner takes 45 minutes, and then another frustrating half hour attempting to edit my poor scans in Lightroom.

There’s just no comparison in which scanners make sense. No other method beats this kit in time, cost, results, or quality of life.

Cooper’s never looked better.

Half frame shots from an upcoming review of the Kodak Ektar H35 half frame film camera.

I’ve even found time to go through batches of old slides purchased online, including this old, deteriorating slide from Tokyo shot sometime in the ’60s (I think), and the shot from Hawaii below.

The Downsides

The only real downside to Nikon’s kit is that the ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter requires that we also own or buy a macro lens. While this is admittedly an additional initial cost, let’s consider the prospect from a camera nerd’s point of view. So, I have to buy a beautiful, amazing, niche-filling macro lens that will allow me to make photos that no other lens can make? Is this a bad thing?

Even if I have to buy both the ES-2 kit and the newest Z mount macro lens, the Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8, I’m spending a grand total of approximately $750. Consider that my Plustek 8200i SE film scanner cost me $400, and remember that it did one thing only, and it did it badly, slowly, infuriatingly. With Nikon’s kit and lens, I’m able to scan my film effortlessly, quickly, and happily, and when not scanning, I can use the lens as a standard 50mm lens and as a dedicated macro to make impossible photos of peppercorns [see the review].

And of course there’s the caveat that, if shooting negative film, we’ll need to know how to invert a negative in Lightroom. This is easy. Take the tone curves and invert them. Copy and paste for each frame.

For color negative film, the same is true. Invert each color curve and then fiddle with white balance, exposure, and tint, until we get the results we want. Once done for one image, create a preset and simply apply it to each frame of that type of film for the rest of your life. And if it’s too much work to bother fiddling with your color film shots, buy the Negative Lab Pro plugin for $99, which effectively reduces this process to a single click.

Lastly, I should mention that Nikon’s D850 DSLR, which works with this adapter and the corresponding F mount macro lenses, actually has a dedicated ES-2 Film Digitizing mode in which the camera automatically corrects negatives to positives. That’s pretty incredible (even if it only outputs JPEGS).

Final Thoughts

The road to finding a scanning solution has been long and annoying. I can’t imagine how much money and time I’ve wasted scanning film, nor do I wish to try. But I’ve finally found the answer. A Nikon Z series camera, a Nikon macro lens, and the ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter; these tools will allow me to shoot more film, save time, and waste less money. Without hyperbole, this is the best photography product I’ve bought in years.

Get your own Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter from B&H Photo

Buy a camera from our shop at F Stop Cameras

Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter Set

Buy Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter Set featuring Convert Film to Digital Files, Holders for 35mm Film Strips and Slides, For Use with Select Nikon Micro Lenses, Ideal for D850 Negative Digitizer Mode. Review Nikon null

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Solving Scanning with the Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Kit appeared first on Casual Photophile.

Yes, 100 years is indeed a long time.

And yet the 100-plus-year-old Contessa Nettel Piccolette still works. I shot it last week. And although it demanded many compromises (it’s obtuse in its operation, imperfect due to age, and the film is uncommon and expensive), it did what it was made to do. It made photos. Imagine that.

A Brief History of the Contessa Nettel Piccolette

In 1912, Kodak invented 127 film and a camera to shoot it. The Vest Pocket Kodak was a simple camera sized to fit into the average person’s pocket. It sold well, and in 1915 Kodak released a second model which they marketed to a world suddenly at war as “The Soldier’s Camera.” This  camera sold 1.75 million units to soldiers and civilians alike, an unprecedented sales success. True to the marketing, it seems many American soldiers did indeed carry them through Europe.

This sudden influx of Kodak’s best-selling camera no doubt influenced many German and European camera companies, and in 1914, a German camera company called Nettel began selling a compact 127 film camera known as the Piccolette.

This early Nettel Piccolette was a folding bed camera, rather than the strut-bellows design of the later Contessa-Nettel Piccolette, the difference being that a folding bed camera hinges open with a lens assembly sliding forward from the camera body, where a strut-bellows folding camera has a lens mounted on a panel which extracts directly from the body.

In 1919, a merger of Contessa Camerawerke Drexler & Nagel and Nettel Camerawerk formed a new company, Contessa-Nettel AG Stuttgart. This company specialized in stereo cameras, roll film folding cameras, and focal plane shutter cameras (something rare in those days). They also created a new and tiny strut-bellows version of the Piccolette. Incidentally, this is the version that I shot last week.

In 1926, Contessa-Nettel merged with three other companies to become Zeiss Ikon. The Piccolette survived this merger as well, and was produced largely unchanged under the Zeiss Ikon brand until 1930 or 1931.

A Vest Pocket Kodak Camera Retrospective

The Vest Pocket Kodak camera is over 100 years old. Here's everything about it, and why it's one of the most important cameras ever made.

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casualphotophile.com

What is a Piccolette?

Though the Piccolette is no doubt a loose copy of the Vest Pocket Kodak, significant differences between the two cameras do exist. To start, the Piccolette has a fully-developed film carrier where the Vest Pocket Kodak does not. This ensures that the Piccolette can be loaded with film more easily and with fewer problems, such as film tearing or sticking. In addition, the film panel of the Piccolette has an elegant curved end, which makes the camera more stable when shooting it from a propped stationary position. (The Kodak has an articulating leg for this purpose.)

Two models of the Contessa-Nettel Piccolette exist. The first (known as Model A) fails to incorporate the Brilliant viewfinder of the second model (known as Model B). This viewfinder is the traditional silvered prism found on many cameras of the era, and it rotates 90 degrees to be used with the camera in either landscape or portrait orientation.

Both models are fully manual cameras. The photographer must set the lens aperture and shutter speed manuals, cock the shutter, compose the photo, and trip the shutter to take a picture. Nearly all Piccolettes are focus-free cameras, though two models exist with manual focusing lenses.

Film is advanced by hand using a little crank. By peering through a red-film window on the back of the camera we’re able to see when a full frame has been advanced, and another photo can then be taken.

The earlier Model A Piccolette was offered with just one lens, this being a Meyer Goerlitz Doppelanastigmat Citonar 7.5cm f/6.3. The later Model B Piccolette, however, was offered with a number of lens and shutter options in Germany. Additional variants existed in Britain and France. This vast choice of lens and shutter combinations was continued with the final Zeiss Ikon version of the Piccolette.

Available Piccolette lens and shutter specifications:

• Achromat 7.5cm f/11 in Acro shutter (25, 50, 75, B, T)
• Berthiot Olor f/5.7 in Compur shutter
• Citonar 7.5cm f/6.3 in Compur, Derval, or Pronto shutter
• Contessa-Nettel Piccar 7.5cm f/11 in Piccar shutter (25, 50, 75, B, T)
• Contessa-Nettel Nettar Anastigmat 7.5cm f/6.3 in ACG Derval shutter (25, 50, 100, B, T)
• Anastigmat Hermagis f/6.3
• Meyer Goerlitz Nettar Anastigmat 7.5cm f/6.3 in ACG Derval shutter (25, 50, 100, B, T)
• Contessa Nettel Doppel Anastigmat Taronar 7.5cm f/5.4 in Compur shutter
• Anastigmat Perfect / P.P. f/6.3 in ACG Derval shutter (25, 50, 100, B, T)
• Anastigmat Photo-Hall 7.5cm f/6.3
• Anastigmat Splendor f/6.2 in ACG Derval shutter (25, 50, 100, B, T)
• Trinastigmat 7.5cm f/6.8 in Derval shutter
• Roussel Stylor 7.5cm f/6.3
• Zeiss Tessar 7.5cm f/4.5 in Compur shutter
• Zeiss Tessar 7.5cm f/6.3 in Compur shutter
• Zeiss Triotar 7.5cm f/6.3 in Compur shutter
• Front Cell Focusing Zeiss Tessar 7.5cm f.4.5 in Compur shutter
• Front Cell Focusing Zeiss Tessar 7.5cm f.6.3 in Compur shutter

Piccolette 100 Years Later

Never accidentally hold a beautiful camera. You’ll want one forever.

I’ve wanted a Piccolette since 2014 when a vendor at an annual camera sale in Boston made me accidentally hold one. At that time I didn’t know what 127 film was, what a Contessa was, or what a Piccolette was. I only knew that it was beautiful and that I would eventually own one.

And here we are.

I knew that the only way to properly write about the Piccolette would be to do so after shooting it. So, I needed to find some film. But, as Jeb so eloquently put it in his article on 127 film written in 2019, 127 film is “nearly dead and all but forgotten.”

And he was right. It’s hard to find. Kodak, the very people that invented the stuff, haven’t made any since 1995. And while film photographers and small companies have kept 127 film production going, it’s not like we can walk into the local camera shop and grab a roll or two.

To buy 127 film today we must be prepared to shop online and to spend more money than we’re used to for a single roll of film. B&H Photo does indeed stock brand new 127 film. This film is made from 120 format stock which has been cut down and spooled onto 127 film spools. A roll of Kodak Portra 400, which in the Piccolette will make 8 exposures, costs $34. A roll of Kodak T Max 100 black and white film costs $30 (a 36 exposure roll of the same film in 35mm costs $10.99). That’s not cheap.

B&H also stock Rerapan black and white film at a much more affordable $12.99, though that’s still only 8 exposures. We’re getting close to Polaroid economy.

Instead of buying new film I made a dumb decision, as I have many times before. I decided to shoot a 30-year-old roll of film through my 100 year-old-camera (because it was free). Casual Photophile is, after all, operating on a very tight budget (you could help expand that budget by subscribing to the site here…).

I had pretty low expectations for my chances of success. I’ve shot really old film before. When it works, it works great. But it rarely works. Pair these disappointing experiences with using a camera made before the first ever American radio station existed, before television, before sliced bread (seriously), and my expectations were low indeed.

I gathered my daughters and we went to the oceanside park that has so often been used for testing cameras. They screamed in the cold wind (we’re in month six of Massachusetts’ ever-lasting winter), posed for the camera, tolerated my promises of “Just one more, hold on…” as I fumbled my way through shooting photos with a hundred-year-old relic.

Adjusting shutter speed and aperture is easy. Shutter speed is controlled by a dial on the front of the lens board, and aperture is controlled by a lever below the lens. Beyond this, there’s nothing to do but frame and shoot.

The viewfinder is a mirrored prism, and peering down into its tiny square of silver it’s easy to get turned around. Up is down, left is right, and keeping the camera level is a massive challenge. A pop-up wire “sports finder” allows the Piccolette to be shot like a more standard camera, one with a viewfinder through which we’d look directly. But it’s highly inaccurate. What do we expect from a rectangle made of metal wire?

I shot eight shots in ten minutes, expecting nothing, and sent the film to my friend’s photo lab. A week later I received from him a text message.

“We have pictures!”

And we did. Though they’re not the sort of photos I’d frame and hang on the wall, or describe as “good”, or want to look at for more than a moment. But, hey, they are photos. And they were made by a hundred-plus-year-old machine! That’s not bad.

I suspect some of their low fidelity comes not from the camera, which has a beautiful lens and a nice accurate shutter, but from the fact that I once again foolishly used old, expired film. I’ll try to fix that and update this article when I can afford to shoot some brand new $34 Portra.

Buyer’s Guide and Final Thoughts

Photo nerds interested in buying their own Piccolette should be aware of a few notes.

Don’t buy a used Piccolette from some random weirdo on the internet, unless it’s being sold for under $40. The chances are too great that something will not be working correctly.

Instead, buy your Piccolette from a reputable camera shop, or at least from someone on eBay who professes to know something about the camera’s working condition.

Things to look for: that the shutter works, that the bellows do not have light leaks, cracks, or other obvious damage, and that the film transport works correctly.

If the lens is fogged or dirty, don’t worry. This is  quite easy to fix. Unscrew the lens assemblies and clean them as we’d clean any other lens (the front lens assembly simply unscrews, and the back lens assembly can be accessed by removing the film information window panel on the back of the camera and reaching through to the rear lens assembly). Make sure to understand which lens goes where, and in what order (and don’t flip the elements around).

Do I think the Piccolette is worth owning? I do. It’s a beautiful camera, and a historically interesting machine. I like that they’re simple, and that they (usually) work just the way they’re supposed to after so many decades. In fact, I’ve placed an order for fresh film hoping that my next batch of shots will be a bit more… good. Stretching my budget, again.

Though the cost of shooting a Piccolette, or any 127 film camera for that matter, is higher than shooting the average film camera, shooting a Piccolette isn’t something that a photographer will engage with every day. Like shooting film, generally, shooting the Piccolette is an experience, something to be slowly enjoyed. In that sense, the Piccolette is lovely.

Contessa Nettel / Zeiss Piccolette camera for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for piccolette camera at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

Get your own Piccolette from eBay here

Get your own Piccolette from my shop at F Stop Cameras

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Shooting a 100-Year-Old Camera – the Contessa Nettel / Zeiss Piccolette appeared first on Casual Photophile.

Filling the space for a dramatic ultra-wide in Nikon’s higher-end S series of lenses for their mirror-less system, the 20mm f/1.8 offers top-level performance and everything we’d expect from a “professional lens.” It’s superbly sharp. It’s amazing in low light. It controls flaring, ghosting, chromatic aberrations, and coma better than any lens I’ve ever used, and it’s weather-sealed and built to last. Yes, it’s a wonderful lens.

But it’s also big. And at $1,045, it’s one of the most expensive prime lenses in Nikon’s Z system (out-priced only by the $8,000 Noct Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 S and the $2,100 Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2 S).

Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm F/1.8 S Lens Specifications

Practical Use

The Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S is a physically simple thing. It’s minimally styled and about as elegant as a plastic-encased camera lens can get. All black, nicely textured for grip in certain places, and with a beautifully long knurled rotating control ring, it’s simply sleek and clean. The only flourish being a couple of minutely chamfered edges to offer a bit of reflective contrast between segments of the lens body.

There’s very little in the way of physical controls. There’s an auto focus / manual focus toggle on the side, marked A/M, and a rotatable electronic control ring around the barrel of the lens. This rotatable ring can be set to control various things – manual focus is its most natural control, but it can also be set in-camera to change the lens aperture silently, adjust ISO, or exposure compensation.

When using the ring in its manual focus mode, the lens focus is adjusted electronically. While not as direct as a mechanical focusing action, the Nikkor’s electronic focusing works well (if not being a bit too sensitive for ultimate precision). I’ve found that I simply rely on the camera’s excellent auto focus. Only when shooting video have I used the lens’ manual focus option (this precludes the camera hunting for focus mid-shot in a stationary recording).  The ring is probably better left as an aperture adjustment, especially for those of us who have become accustomed to using older manual focus lenses on older film cameras. But the nice thing is, we can choose our favorite methodology in the Z series cameras’ menu.

The lens is big, and a bit heavy. But it’s a modern lens. It’s packed with lens elements and incredibly advanced auto focus motors, weather-sealed, etc. We can’t expect a modern camera lens to be as light and small as the older manual focus Nikkors. That would be nice, but it’s just not realistic.

Despite its weight and size, the 20mm Nikkor Z balances beautifully on my compact, full frame Nikon Z5. I control my parameters with the dials on the camera, near-instantly adjusting aperture, shutter speed, and exposure compensation to quickly achieve whatever I can with every shot.

Image Quality

My lens reviews aren’t the most technical that you’ll find on the internet or in print publications. I don’t do laboratory testing or MTF charts. You can find those elsewhere if you need them. But I’ve studied them, and to briefly summarize what the scientists have found in the lab – the Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S is a much more optically sophisticated lens than the Nikkors that preceded it. I mean, it better be. It’s got 14 lens elements, three aspherical elements, three ED elements, and nano-crystal coatings. That’s a lot of stuff.

Compared to the lens’ closest predecessor, the older Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G for F Mount DSLRs, the new Nikkor Z 20mm is far sharper. In the center of the frame, even wide open, the lens absolutely trounces the old glass. For reference, shooting the new 20mm WIDE OPEN we get sharper results in the center of the frame than we would get from the old 20mm WHEN THAT LENS IS STOPPED DOWN TO F/4! That’s simply stunning, especially when we consider how good the old 20mm was (and is). I used that lens a lot. It’s an amazing lens. The fact that this one is sharper by such a large margin simply boggles the mind.

The only caveat that should be noted about the sharpness of the new 20mm is that it doesn’t continue to improve as far up the aperture scale as some other lenses I’ve used. By f/4 we have reached absolute peak sharpness across the entire frame. After f/4, diffraction begins to lower sharpness. For this reason, aperture adjustment beyond f/4 should only be used to control depth of field or light, not simply to increase sharpness.

Focus shift when closing or opening the aperture is so minimal as to be a non-issue. Best practice with most cases is to choose your aperture before focusing, anyway, which will naturally happen in AF shooting. But even if you’re some sort of weirdo who chooses aperture after half-pressing the shutter release button, you’ll be okay. There’s not enough focus shift to harm your shot.

Image stabilization is handled in the body of the Z series camera, rather than in the lens. Which is probably a good thing, given how large this lens is already. Adding optical image stabilization would only make it larger. As it is, the camera offers about five stops of image stabilization, and this, coupled with the Nikkor Z 20mm’s very fast aperture, should allow the most caffeinated and jittery of photographers enough stabilization and light to shoot the 20mm in low light situations without suffering motion blur.

Close focusing distance is very close, at 0.66 feet. This allows for some creative use of perspective and interesting close-quarters portraiture (if one is so inclined). Just be aware that the ultra-wide nature of the 20mm naturally creates a sort of distortion when shooting up-close subjects. It can be a bit unflattering, in the traditional sense of portraiture. However, many excellent photographers have used ultra-wides for decades to make interesting shots of up-close subjects. Don’t be a slave to convention.

The lens shows barrel distortion close to 2%, which is admittedly a lot, and worse compared to the 20mm F Mount lens. But this can be fixed with a single correction in Photoshop or Lightroom. For users not using Adobe products, you’ll need to rectify this distortion manually (still easy).

The lens does vignette heavily, worse (of course) when shot wide open. Like the just-mentioned distortion, however, this is easily repaired in post processing. (So easy is it to fix vignetting on the computer, in fact, that I’m almost reaching the point where I don’t want to mention vignetting in lens reviews anymore…).

Ghosting and flaring are controlled beautifully. Shooting directly into the sun poses no problems for this lens. There’s no bright blasts of light, reflections, and virtually zero veiling flare (a lowering of contrast across the whole image caused by internal reflections in the lens).

Bokeh (the quality of the blur in out of focus areas of a photo) is, well, it’s a 20mm lens. We aren’t buying this lens to blur the background like a 50mm f/1.2. But with the lens’ impressively close minimum focusing distance, we can get decent subject isolation (even if the backgrounds can be, at times, a bit busy).

Coma performance is incredible. Unfortunately, you’ll have to trust my word on this or cross-reference with other reviews, because the shots that I made which showed how well the lens handled coma are gone. I lost the memory card on which I’d stored the astro-photography that I made with this lens, along with an entire week’s vacation worth of family photos from the woods of New Hampshire. In addition, the computer that held these shots failed catastrophically when my beautiful daughter dropped it down a flight of stairs. Very sad. And the lens was long ago returned to my friends at B&H Photo, who had lent it to me for review. When I inevitably buy this lens for myself (which I will do) I will update this review to show off its astro capabilities (which are great).

So, yeah, the Nikkor Z 20mm is optically amazing. As close to perfect as any of us will need. It’s a much better lens, optically, than anything that came before it in the Nikon F Mount range. This is perhaps due to the Z Series cameras’ incredibly short flange distance, which puts the back of the lens so close to the cameras’ sensor. But don’t quote me on that. I went to school for word typing, not light science-ing.

Why Everyone Should Shoot a Wide Angle Lens

Every photographer should try a wide or ultra-wide angle lens at least once. You're bound to get hooked.

Should You Buy It?

It must be said that the 20mm focal length isn’t for everyone. I imagine that some users will find the lens’ ultra-wide focal length a bit needlessly extreme. It’s easy to get lost framing such a wide shot. We need to get close to our subject to fill the frame, but getting too close creates a perspective that can be a bit unnatural, even jarring.

For astro photographers or landscape artists using Nikon’s Z Series cameras, it’s a no-brainer. This is the ultra-wide lens to own. It’s wider and optically better than the Nikkor 24mm F/1.8 S (and it only costs $50 more than that lens). And compared to Nikon’s zoom lenses of similar focal lengths, these being the Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S ($1,350) and the Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S ($2,500), it’s less expensive and has a much faster maximum aperture.

Sure, $1,050 is a lot of money for a camera lens (you can get one slightly cheaper, used, on eBay). But this is a lens that a buyer will own for, what, ten years? Twenty? Nikon seems pretty committed to their Z series cameras. My Nikon Z5, already a slightly older model in the range, shows no signs of its age. This is a camera that I will easily use until 2030. And given Nikon’s history with the F Mount, it’s pretty clear that the company cares about ensuring that their lens systems will still be relevant and usable for fifty, sixty, seventy years. (Nikon’s F Mount was first created in 1959 for the original SLR, the Nikon F – and it’s still going.)

Final Thoughts

By the end of my time with this lens, I’d come to the same conclusions that I’ve come to every time I’ve used any of Nikon’s newest range of Nikkors. It’s amazing. The high end Nikkor S line of professional mirror-less lenses are better than I am. The Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 S is a tool so precise and capable that my creative ability is dwarfed by its technical ability. It’s just another phenomenal ultra-wide, and any Z Series user looking for a dramatic and special lens need look no further.

Buy your own Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm F/1.8 from B&H Photo here

Shop for a used Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm lens on eBay here

More Images

Buy your own Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm F/1.8 from B&H Photo here

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S Lens Review appeared first on Casual Photophile.

I had long scoffed at the idea of a point-and-shoot. After all, had I not gotten into analog photography for the labor of love? The endless minutia of operating outdated equipment? Focus, frame, meter, shoot, advance, repeat! How could any camera that did not at least allow for total manual override possibly be adequate. I laughed at those who spent their hard-earned money on Olympus MJUs and XAs, on Contax T2s and Nikon 28TIs. Such baubles were not for the likes of me.

And yet, somehow the black brick wormed its way into my thoughts. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a camera that slipped into a coat pocket? A camera which would take minimal place in my hiking pack, in a carry-on? And how could I ignore the stunning pictures that invaded my Instagram feed on the daily, reputedly shot on the very cameras I laughed at. As my Nikon, capable and mighty as it was, sat idle, a simple truth formed in my mind: point-and-shoots take excellent pictures because they are always there with you, ready and asking nothing more than for you to press the shutter button.

Many of you are probably reading this impatiently. I realize this preamble is likely uninteresting for those of you who already knew this truth, but it is part of my apology to what has become my daily driver, my quiet companion, and frankly, my favorite camera I own.

On to the nitty-gritty.

Released originally in 1983, the Minolta AF-C is a compact plastic brick of electronic and mechanical wizardry. To my knowledge, two versions were released with the only significant difference being the newer version was offered in a silver finish with a maximum possible ISO rating of 1000, as opposed to the original ISO which topped out at 400. The small wheel on the front which sets the ISO is the only manual control on the camera, and allows for thirds of stops between ISO 25 and 400/1000. That’s it. The AF-C takes care of the rest.

Tucked under a sliding face plate which also operates as the camera’s “ON” switch are the sharp little 35mm f/2.8 lens, the CdS metering cell which handles exposure, and the infrared auto-focus assembly. Sliding this guard requires a gentle but continuous force, and the camera will only turn on and unlock the shutter button when fully open, a nice feature considering mine lives in my back pocket. I have never once been concerned about accidental exposures or scuffing any of the glass surfaces.

On the front face we also find a small switch with a paired LED which operates a self-timer. Activating this switch (which I’ve only done twice and by accident each time) causes the light to signal a 10-second timer, during which the camera purrs contentedly before triggering its shutter. The smooth plastic top plate is as sparsely and efficiently populated as the rest of the camera, adorned with the rewind knob (which produces an excellently metallic noise when pulled to open the back), the shutter button, and the small film counter which includes a “safe-load indicator”. Bellow, on the bottom plate is a small door for the battery compartment, a tripod socket, and the rewind button.

Specifications:

• Camera type: Compact point-and-shoot
• Image Area: 24x36mm (full frame)
• Lens: Minolta 35mm f/2.8, 6 elements in 6 groups
• Focusing: Infrared autofocus, 3ft to infinity. Focus hold.
• Exposure: CdS metering cell, front facing.
• Aperture-shutter: between lens electronic automatic.
• Viewfinder: 0.47X, -1D with frame lines, autofocus zone marks, and LED indicators for focus and low-light.
• Film winding/re-winding: Grooved thumb wheel advance. Release button and manual rewind.
• Frame counter: Frame counter window with safe-load indicator.
• Self-timer: 10-second timer with LED indicator.
• Metering range: 1/8th at f/2.8 (EV 6) to 1/430 sec at F/17 (EV17).
• Film Speed: ISO 25 to 400/1000 set manually.
• Flash: Dedicated EF-C accessory unit. X-sync at 1/40th, automatic. 3-6ft at ISO25, 3-16ft at ISO200 and over. Flash-fill in daylight 6-10ft recycle time, approximately 2-4 seconds.
• Battery: 4 LR44 1.5v or 2 CR1/3N equivalent 3v. Flash unit uses 2 AA.
• Dimensions: 42 x 67.5 x 105mm (1-5/8 x 2-11/16 x 4-⅛ in.)
• Weight: 215g (7-9/16 oz.) plus batteries

My AF-C was sold alongside its matching accessory flash. Equally as diminutive as the camera, the flash screws firmly into the left side with a small front facing thumb wheel. The unit requires two AA batteries, which probably weigh about as much as the whole camera when attached and loaded. As such, I have not used it often, but the times I have it has given me good exposures. I’m sure that if you follow the maximum recommended distances printed on the rear of the flash unit, it will serve you well.

Let’s wind our way back for a second and talk about that lens. Lenses are the whole reason we faithful buy Minoltas, right? Some of the best glass of their era, all for bargain prices! In this way the Minolta AF-C does not disappoint. Equipped with a humble little 35mm 6 element/6 group lens with a whisper quiet Seikosha shutter tucked in there, my AF-C consistently produces sharp, punchy results. While slightly prone to flares, I have found this lens to have excellent contrast and color, as well as great sharpness across the frame. Clearly Minolta took care to ensure that their reputation for lens quality would be upheld by this little automatic jewel.

While entirely plastic, the camera feels far from cheap. Every surface is sturdy, and the leatherette that wraps around the mid-body is pleasantly textured. Every moving part of this camera feel well engineered, producing just the right amount of tactile feedback and some sort of satisfying sound. Is it strange that I am obsessed with the little noises this camera makes? Sliding the face plate makes produces a definitive thunk-click. Advancing the film a pleasant tick-tick-tick. Firing the shutter blesses us with an adorable pssst-kachunk as the auto-focus motors move the lens into place at the last second. Truly a delight, and very discreet.

On that point, the Minolta AF-C’s discretion is one of its best characteristics. Small, quiet, and compact, this camera lends itself to being carried at all times, ready to snap the kinds of shots that only present themselves to the prepared. Shooting with the AF-C is remarkably fast and simple. A bright viewfinder and clear frame lines make composing easy and quick. In the center of the viewfinder is a second set of lines, this time a vertically-aligned rectangle, which delineates the camera’s autofocus zone. The AF-C has a focus lock feature when the shutter button is half pressed, so be sure to keep this in mind and for moving subjects to only shoot at the last moment. Two small LEDs in the finder will inform you of either: correct focus (green without red), correct focus, but inadequate speed for hand held shooting (green and red), or impossible to focus and inadequate light (red without green). As the camera measures focus from the center of the image, you will frequently find yourself using the focus hold feature to focus, compose and then shoot. Since the AF-C’s motors only move the lens into place at the moment the shutter fires there is no audible or visual indication of correct focus, you have to trust the camera, but I promise it will not let you down.

Even with its attendant electroflash unit, the Minolta AF-C will fit into an average coat pocket or can be tucked away in any small bag, making this a great choice for travel and street photography. Load some high speed film to ensure a narrow aperture, and you can trust that the camera will handle the rest deftly and quietly.

Now back to the reason I decided I needed to write all this up. The other day, while bicycling far from home, I swerved to dodge an oncoming family and my dear AF-C, hanging loyally from my belt, was savagely smacked by a bollard. Gripped with panic, I immediately pulled over to inspect the damage, fully expecting this to be the end of the camera. I would like to reassure the reader that my Minolta survived its mistreatment without issue, and continues to function with its usual excellence. What I realized in that instant, however, was that I really, truly love that little camera. I love to shoot with it and to carry it around. Having it with me and knowing that at anytime I can snap a shot I would be happy with means a great deal. I’ve learned to trust its circuits, and to allow them to do the mundane work of focusing and exposure.

And so I apologize. To not only my Minolta AF-C, but to all point-and-shoots. To all the daft little electronic cameras that will someday wear out and no longer function. To all the plastic bricks with their average lenses and sometimes mediocre construction. To all the battery sucking, borderline disposable light-tight boxes. To all the over-hyped and over valued compact film cameras of the world, I salute you. You have shown me the truth, that the best camera in the world is the one I have with me. That the greatest lens in the world is useless when tucked away safe in a backpack or at home on a shelf. That electronic wizardry can be good, and that letting go of control can help perfect one’s craft by removing the minute tasks that we already do well enough.

All of this to say, I love my Minolta AF-C, and so should you.

Get your own Minolta AF-C from eBay here

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post A Love Letter (and Apology) to my Minolta AF-C appeared first on Casual Photophile.

[This guest post was written by Tony Huynh. Tony is a clinical pharmacist by day who relishes photography as a creative outlet that forces him to slow down, harness his creativity, and see the world in a different way. He also loves tinkering and enjoys all things mechanical, which makes analog cameras and the process of shooting, developing, and printing film the perfect marriage of his love of science and photography.]

Hardware and Software

Flatbed Scanning Setup :

• • Scanner: Epson V550 Perfection ($120 USD refurbished)
  • ANR Glass Inserts: Scan-Tech (~$72 USD for 2x35mm and 1×120 glass inserts)

DSLR Scanning Setup (photos of setup) :

• • Camera: Canon EOS 70D (tethered to iMac)
  • Lens: Vivitar (Komine) 55mm f/2.8 macro (~$80 USD) + Olympus OM to EF adapter (~$11 USD)
  • Light source/negative holder: Skier Sunray Copy Box ($160 USD – I have v2; v3 just announced)
  • Camera support: Bogen 22B Special enlarger base (<$40 USD) + Manfrotto 488RC2 ballhead

Lab Scans :

• • Provided by Indie Film Lab (“large/corrected” JPG scans)

Methodology Used

Scanning and processing methods:

• • Flatbed scans: Used SilverFast 8 SE, scanned as 300 ppi, 3200 dpi and exported as TIFFs. NegaFix was applied for the film stock (Kodak Tri-X) and images had auto-adjustments applied on pre-scan, but no further edits were done before export from SilverFast.
  • DSLR scans: negatives captured as RAW images at f/8. Camera focused on grain manually at 10x magnification using Live View. Fine-tuning of alignment and focusing of the setup accomplished with the aid of Vlad’s Test Target, which adapts the USAF 1951 resolution chart onto 35mm film in a manner that allows for evaluation of sharpness and focus across a 35mm frame.
  • 35mm negative captured as a single image. 6×6 medium format negative captured as six separate images which were stitched into a panorama before export from Lightroom as a DNG.
  • All post-processing for both flatbed and DSLR images was done through Photoshop using the lab scans as a reference to closely match all comparison images. Edits were primarily limited to dust removal, levels and curves adjustments, and smart sharpening. Lab scans did not receive additional processing after receipt from the lab.
  • 6×6 DSLR scan had to be resized to reduce the file size for uploading to the internet.

The Results

Click on the links below for full resolution images.

• • 35mm Scans – Flatbed / DSLR / Lab Scan
  • 6×6 Scan – Flatbed / DSLR / Lab Scan

My impressions:

Image Quality – It should be obvious that the flatbed scans are significantly softer than both the DSLR scan and the lab scan, both of which are exceptionally sharp. The grain on the DSLR and lab scans is clearly visible, whereas on the flatbed scan it is very muddy and of poor quality when viewing at 100%. When comparing between just the DSLR and lab scans, I have a much harder time identifying any significant differences that I would attribute to the quality of the scans versus the quality and differences in the edits. The sharpening appears to be applied more heavily on the 35mm lab scan, and the whites have been clipped a bit on the 6×6 lab scan. At a normal viewing distance, though, I would say the flatbed scan is perfectly acceptable for 90%+ of use-cases.

Ease of “Scanning” – Without a doubt, the process of scanning with my DSLR is significantly faster than using the flatbed Epson V550. Not much needs to be explained here, but this also will be largely dependent on your individual setup. The hardest part of any DSLR or mirrorless scanning setup is providing a stable support for the camera that’s easily aligned, and then the next most crucial element is the masking of the negative to avoid stray light, which can reduce contrast or cause flare or reflections in the resultant image. Having a dedicated negative carrier and light source, as well as a sturdy “copy stand” of sorts eliminates much of this for me. Using the DSLR method I can “scan” a whole roll within minutes, whereas it can take me  approximately 10 minutes to scan one image with my flatbed.

Ease of Processing – I found the flatbed scans much more difficult to edit in post than the DSLR scans. This may come down to the fact that the flatbed scans have some adjustments applied by SilverFast versus working with unedited RAW files for the DSLR images, thus your results may vary and my results may have been different if I elected to not apply NegaFix or auto adjustments in SilverFast.

TL;DR:

• • DSLR/mirrorless scanning is much sharper than an entry-level flatbed for both 35mm and medium format, (can be) much more efficient, and is comparable in quality to lab scans. See our main image in full res here.
  • Cost of entry will most likely be higher with a DSLR/mirrorless, even excluding the camera body, though can be done more economically than my setup with a little creativity (possibly at the cost of efficiency).
  • Flatbed scanner results will likely be perfectly acceptable for most use-cases. Just make sure to set your expectations accordingly.

Comparison of 6×6 scans using Epson V550 with stock film holder + ScanTech ANR glass inserts scanned at different heights (distance of negative from scanner bed glass). “Stock” represents no height adjustment, followed by ~0.5mm incremental increases in height. Images are 100% crop of scans straight from Silverfast without any post-processing or adjustments applied.

A Note on Flatbed Sharpness

I had received some comments from a fellow photographer questioning the sharpness and focus of my particular Epson V550 scanner. They recommended that I do some testing to ensure that my scanner is in focus, out-of-the-box. While I did respond stating that my methods account for the general use-case of a flatbed printer by the mass consumers and that maybe only 1% of users would ever consider going so far as focus-testing their scanner (since it is not really designed to be adjusted), I decided to do little bit of additional testing with my V550 as requested, and for the sake of completeness.

Because the stock film holders of the Epson V550, unlike that of the V7XX and V8XX series, do not offer the ability to make height adjustments, I took the advice of another commenter and used sticky notes adhered to the underside corners of the stock film holder to achieve incremental height adjustments of ~0.5mm (as an FYI to those interested, it takes seven sticky notes to achieve a ~0.5mm height adjustment).

Here is a comparison image showing 100% crops of 4 different scans of the same 6×6 image at stock height versus raised from the scanner bed by ~0.5mm, ~1mm, and ~1.5mm. All scans were done in the same manner using SilverFast 8 SE without any adjustments or edits and exported as TIFFs.

In my opinion, there is no significantly discernable difference in sharpness across all scans, and further height adjustments are unlikely to change this, given the limited allowable space within the scanner bed with the lid closed and the fact that aftermarket products such as Betterscanning holders are designed to allow no more than 1mm of height adjustment, suggesting that further adjustments are unlikely to be considered necessary or beneficial. Users who have reported any differences in sharpness through adjustment of focus anecdotally have noted these results on V7XX and V8XX scanners, which have height-adjustable stock film holders and also advertise using a dual-lens system for optimal sharpness and focus for both prints and negatives.

Many thanks to Tony, who was kind enough to do this good work and to allow us to publish it here. Another article on converting color negatives digitally will be published next week. Look forward to that.

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Digitizing Negatives at Home – a Comparison of Methods and Results (DSLR vs Flatbed vs Lab Scans) appeared first on Casual Photophile.

His most recent work, entitled “An Empty Valley” explores the people and history of the region near the city of Carrara in the Apuan Alps famous for its rock quarries. The project explores these quarries and the people that use them to make a living. “On one side this tough nature hardly allows space for man-made constructions,” he says about the region. “Yet on the other side it lets quarriers reach its very heart with their apparently unnatural lengthwise cuts.”

Even though the region is heavily impacted by the quarries, it remains a diverse place. “One may also find a shepherd writing poetry, or a quarrier with a university degree; and even meet a hunter who prefers using his legs for trekking to using his rifle for killing, or a sculptor considering his solitude an opportunity,” Moni says.

We wanted to bring you Ettore’s work, and share some of his thoughts with you. He was gracious enough to give us some time. Here’s that conversation.

Who are you, where do you come from and where are you now?

Hi, my name is Ettore Moni. I am Italian and I live in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, located in the northern part of the country.

How and when did you first become interested in photography?

Photography started to enter my life following the death of my father when I was twelve years old. I came into possession of a Pentax and everything started from that point on.

What were the biggest challenges you faced when starting as a photographer?

I think the biggest challenge when you start is to understand your way, and this only happens with living life and being interested in everything.

What about photography do you find most interesting or meaningful?

There are photographs that are interesting but they don’t strike you, they don’t show you anything new, they don’t open up new visions or ideas. There are others that instead strike you, and from there you see things in other ways. Photography can change you.

How did you get yourself through that phase?

I went through the period shooting everything and everyone with a 35mm camera. I had no idea what I was doing, I was just shooting. I was not interested in anything specific, I was shooting just to remember what I saw.

What are some of your current projects?

My latest project has been a research on contemporary churches in northern Italy.  It was due to come out this April but has been postponed until September because of the Covid-19 crisis. It will be released in September along with a book featuring seventy images. I have other projects in mind and that I wanted to start this summer but unfortunately everything is at a standstill at the moment. I prefer not to talk about it in detail, but they will always be projects on the territory and Italy.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face with your work?

Sometimes, especially here in Italy, there can be difficulty having authorization to photograph and letting people understand what you are doing. In some locations there is very little photographic culture and many times people are afraid that your photographs will be used for purposes that are not purely artistic.

What photo are you most proud of and what was the process in creating it?

The photos all have their own story and I am fond of them all. Perhaps the one I like most is the photo of the interior of a quarry in my project “An Empty Valley.”  Shooting it was a unique experience that changed my perception of quarryman and the work that they do. I came away from the experience with friendships. In order to do it, however, it was necessary to spend months in the quarries and become friends with everyone. This was a great life experience and the photo itself was only a moment of a long period lived on the site.

If you had to introduce someone to photography using one photographer as an example, who would you choose?

I would use more than one, I don’t think there is a single photographer capable of having all the right keys, but surely I would start with the well-known names of American photography without forgetting Germany, etc.

What photographers are you currently following?

Years ago I would have said Alec Soth and Joel Sternfield. But now it’s more difficult. I collect photo books and follow everything that inspires me and somehow opens up new visions for me, including the work of Geert Goiris, Yann Gross, Pablo Cabado and Felipe Russo.

What equipment do you most enjoy using? Does your choice of camera impact the way in which you work? (Camera, film, lenses, etc.)

I only work in the 4×5 and 8×10 formats, and of course on tripods. I use an Italian 4×5 camera that was handbuilt in Tuscany and an 8×10 Chamonix, and I also own a Toyo.

What are the biggest challenges photographers face in 2020?

For analog photography, speed is always a huge challenge, especially with large format photography. But I think this type of photography makes up for the lack of speed with quality and the study of the subject. 

See more of Ettore’s work on his website and Instagram.

If you are or know of a photographer you’d like us to interview, please reach out via email to contact@fstopcameras.com. 

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The post The People and the Land of Northern Italy, as Seen Through the Lens of Ettore Moni appeared first on Casual Photophile.