Random Bits from Boredom

Sunday, 21 June 2026

Sleeping Legacies: Nikkor AI/AI-S Cult Classics

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Many new comers exploring Nikkor's vintage F-mount AI/AI-S lineup are usual presented with the same set of legendary lens, but its often...
Monday, 27 April 2026

Lazy tooling: Magick Image Annotations

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Preparing various images of different sizes for a standardised dsiplay can be hugely time consuming and manual. How can we be lazy about t...
Saturday, 25 April 2026

Short Tele, Alternative Legacy: The 85mm f/2 AI-S

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When discussing short Nikkor telephotos or classic portrait lenses, a number of lenses come to mind: the 105mm f/2.5 AI-S and the 85mm f/1...
Thursday, 16 April 2026

An economical wide alternative: 28mm f/3.5 AI

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The 28mm f/3.5 has a long history reaching back to 1960, with the Auto-H, and cumulating in the Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 AI/AIS of the late 70s/ea...
Saturday, 21 March 2026

A joyless jaunt: 135mm f/2.8 AI Repair/Service

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The 135mm f/2.8 AI was produced from the 1977 - 1981 and lived in the shadow of its faster f/2 sibling and also had competition from the 105...
Monday, 26 January 2026

Reverse the macro trend: the Nikon BR-2A Macro Adaptor Ring

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Getting into macro photography has its challenges, typically given the need for a suitable lenses. However, there is another option with re...
Saturday, 24 January 2026

Widely Regarded: Nikkor 20mm f/4 AI

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The Nikkor 20mm f/4 AI (and its near identical predecessor, the K ) was the optical successor to the very well regarded Nikkor-UD 20mm f/3.5...
Thursday, 1 January 2026

Precision Macro: Using the Nikon D300 with LiveView and Focus Peaking on Linux

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Macro photography is a game of millimeters. When you are shooting at 1:1 magnification, the depth of field is so thin that eve...
Tuesday, 23 December 2025

The Designated (JIS) Driver

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The general guidance for vintage Japanese lens repair is to use JIS drivers to avoid stripping the screw heads so what and how many do we ne...
Saturday, 20 December 2025

Serv(ic)ing A Micro legacy: Micro Nikkor-P Auto 55mm f/3.5

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The Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 series of lens has had a long history with the first iteration arriving in 1961 and lasted nearly 20 years with...
Saturday, 29 November 2025

Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI repair / service

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I've loved this lens for a while now for its a ability to resist flare like no other vintage Nikkor I've used, but I've put off...
Sunday, 19 October 2025

Old school shade - vintage lens hoods

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Rick Housh's archived Geocities Lens hood page was the bible for helping us finding the right lens hood for our vintage Nikkors - whils...
Saturday, 23 August 2025

Commodity old school 35mms

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The 35mm focal length was a classic "candid" lens, for street photography/photojournalism etc but for me it was always a compromis...
Friday, 4 April 2025

Cleaning, Repairing and Servicing a 50mm f/1.4 AI

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The 50mm f/1.4 AI and its optical formula was inheritted by its successor and beyond which meant it was in production from the late 70s to ...
Sunday, 2 March 2025

Just One More: 50mm f/2 AI

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Having serviced and owned a number of Nikkor 50mm I asked myself how many 50mm do we actually need ? It turns out that just one more in the...
Saturday, 25 January 2025

Helicoid Grease options: Japan Hobby Tool #10 and NPC FC-4 / BC-13A

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Helicoid grease is a specialist item that is difficult to source and suitable options are limited. Even with options, the lens manufacturer...
Sunday, 5 January 2025

The Eutopian Light Mod? The Beauty Dish

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As an amatuer photographer interested in lighting I was almost always drawn to a beauty dish, and I remember quite a lot of interest for Tod...
Wednesday, 1 January 2025

Budget Monolight: Godox MS300 practical observations

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The Godox brand has been pumping out budget lights for a while now and in recent years the options for entry level monoblock has fallen away...
Saturday, 7 December 2024

Regreasing an overly dampened Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AI-S

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My Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AI-S was a favourite for many years and was one of my first manual focus lenses and the dampened, but not stiff, focus...
Saturday, 30 November 2024

An old zoomer today: Nikkor 80-200mm f/4.5 AI

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The Nikkor 80-200mm f/4.5 AI was a compact professional grade zoom produced from ~1977-1981 - it was regarded highly at the time with some p...
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