Akaky

3 hours ago, Ken Katz said:

Don't have this lens but if it looks like the one on the top of this page:  https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f18-ais-pancake.htm#id

then the yellow lines on the silver ring refers to f11, and the blue and orange lines refers to f16 and f22 respectively.  So if you set the focus ring so that the zone you want to focus at is within one of those colored lines pairs, and you set the aperture accordingly, then that is zone focus.   They probably didn't include any indication for wider apertures since the amount of DOF available using a 50mm lens on a FF camera is so limited that it is not very useful for zone focus or hyperfocal distance focus.

Thanks for the info!!!

 

35 minutes ago, mike_halliwell said:

Errr, what actually goes wrong?

..and don't just say they're out-of-focus....🤣

Well, it is out of focus, but I am buying a diopter to fix that. It's that I've used Canon FD lenses for years and I know how to read them. This Nikkor was a bit of a Rosicrucian mystery and I couldn't find anything on the Net that spelled it out for me. Thanks for answering.

I know that this is going to sound incredibly stupid, but I can't figure out how to zone focus on this lens.  I've been zone focusing on Canon lenses for twenty years without a problem and now, all of a sudden, I've got problems. I got a Nikon FM2N and the fifty as a present last year and I want to use it, but it's going right by me. Are the colors of the  numbers significant or am I just being incredibly obtuse here? I know the answer is going to be very simple, but I am still not getting it. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

• What do you photograph?
  
• To whom does it matter?
  
• Why is it relevant?
  

I photograph people, usually musicians or people listening to musicians. I like to watch people having a good time. It doesn't matter at all to anyone except me. As for relevance, why does it have to be relevant? Relevance is greatly overrated, if you ask me.

She also worked in the movie industry. She was an Oscar nominated screen writer and film editor.

<p>Thanks for the advice, everyone, Katy appreciates it. And she is getting the camera fixed.</p>

<p> Since I own more than one camera, I am now the official family go to guy on this sort of thing, even if I don't want to be, so please bear with me here. My cousin recently bought a Bessa R3M and its rangefinder has become slightly uncalibrated at infinity. She is also reading the photography how to books and she wants to know the following: can she use zone focusing with an uncalibrated rangefinder until she gets the thing fixed and still get a good photo? I am an SLR guy so I had to say I didn't know, but I would try and find out for her, which is why I am here. It seems to me that it should be possible; all she would have to do is cover the rangefinder window with something and know her distances, but I don't want to tell her something that isn't so. So, anyone, is what she is asking me possible or not? TIA</p>

<p>Calico, the same color as Schrodinger's cat</p>

<p>I remember reading once that the problem the grand panjandrums of the railroad industry faced in the era of interstate highways and jet travel was that they thought that they were in the railroad industry instead of the transportation industry, so when the passengers they'd always relied on for their business found new and faster ways of getting where they wanted to go, the old railroad men weren't ready for the change. It's the way the business world works; someone comes along with something new and the old companies either adapt to the new way of doing things or they go under or get bought out. Kodak should have seen the handwriting on the wall; they were, after all, the people who invented digital imaging in the first place.</p>

<p>Actually, I like all of the advice given here on the weddings and social events forum. It always reminds me that I never, ever want to shoot a wedding for as long as I live and I can tell you all that this forum has provided with no end of excuses of getting out of this sort of thing. I mostly shoot street stuff and convincing people, especially family and friends, that I am not an inexpensive alternative to a professional is something of a problem for me; for family and friends, the fact that I have more cameras than fingers is proof that I must be a "real" photographer. In reading some of the posts here, I'd say that a good many wedding photographers have every right to be angry, defensive, and bitter.</p>

<p>I shoot Canon and I only do some events (and definitely not weddings, <strong>ever!</strong>) but here's an old saw that works every time: it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. No matter how many batteries you have, bring a couple of extras and a recharger too. Remember, Murphy of Murphy's Law fame finds most of his victims amongst the unprepared, the optimistic, and those who spend an inordinate amount of time wandering around hoping for the best.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4671892677_d79b0a8805_b.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" /><br>

...and you'll see stuff like this</p>

<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4398770610_5c1e91a0c8_b.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="640" /><br>

Just go up the Hudson....</p>

<p>Cap, if you're in the States, <em>the</em> place to get affordable b+w film is Freestyle in Hollywood. They sell rebranded Foma, Fuji, and Kodak for under US$3 for a 36 exposure roll. Sorry if I'm telling you something you already know.</p>

<p>Ryan, dont let the camera decide your focus; if you are using AF, then set your focal point to the center dot, put the center dot on your model's eyes, and then lock the focus. Then shift the camera if you want to obey the rule of thirds or just shoot if you dont. But dont let the camera decide what you're shooting. And photographing pretty girls helps a lot; the inherent interest of the subject matter will usually make up for failures in composition.</p>

<p>Camus, try <i>Henri Cartier-Bresson: the man, the image & the world</i>. It's a comprehensive look at HCB's career from the 1920's until the 1970's. It comes in softcover as well.</p>

<p>Ed, I dont know enough about Nikon's gear to give you advice about it, but here's something I do know: no matter how many batteries or memory cards you have, it will probably not be enough. Make sure you have at least three batteries (fully charged, of course) for each camera as well as five freshly formatted memory cards for each. Will you need all of that? Maybe not, but believe me, it's better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them, a life lesson I learned the hard way.</p>

<p>Right from the get go, I should point out that I am not a wedding photographer and that the only event I've ever shot was a quinceanera I did for a friend. I shot it with a Rebel XT and I edited the pictures with the program that came with the camera and tweaked them all with Picasa. The pictures came out fine and everyone loved the pictures. That being said, the night of the quinceanera I was sweating an arsenal full of bullets. I dont think I was ever so nervous in my life; a woman can marry any number of times in her lifetime; a girl turns fifteen once. I wanted to do this right and all I could think of was how much of a disaster the pictures were going to be. I didnt have any problems with the camera; I knew the camera, what it could and couldnt do, and so shot accordingly; it was just that I wasnt sure I was up to to shooting an event ( I usually shoot street and landscapes). I still think that everything turned all right was partly dumb luck and partly because I knew what the XT could do and I knew how to make the camera do it. I didnt put the thing on P, JPEG, and medium resolution, and then hope for the best. So I dont think it's the tool, but what you do with it that counts. This, of course, is a conclusion I came to long after the quinceanera was over; at the time, what I really wanted was the newest pro dslr Canon had and a handful of L lenses. In any case, I think I would be leery of going to any wedding James Nachtwey was shooting; I would prefer to enjoy the ceremony and not worry about the incoming mortar fire.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/3721067695_68c38481aa_o.jpg" alt="" /><br>

Grand Central Terminal, May 2009</p>

<p>How come none of my landscapes have nudes in them? I'm in North America and the best I've ever been able to come up with is a college student with fake boobs full of beer.</p>

<p>So long as they aren't dirty pictures, and how could they be now, why not? (I'm sorry, but I've waiting for someone to use this stupid pun and if they won't, I will.)</p>

<p>I never talk to the people I photograph on the street. I wasnt aware this was even an issue.</p>

<p><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xIuOhy9wnNk/SyrGjJSGUFI/AAAAAAAABdg/V1U-NFmfLXY/s320/0117758-R1-E002.jpg" alt="" width="257" height="320" /><br /></p>

<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2603/3824570906_abb6f496c5.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="334" /><br />New York City, August 2009</p>

<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2598/3721068139_e3150bd673.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="400" /><br>

ditto</p>

<p>Felicia, you say you are going to a concert; what you're not saying is how big the venue is. If you have seats in the back of a very big arena, then a 50mm f1.8 will not help you. Even with the crop factor you will have, at best, a 80-90mm equivalent. If you are much closer to the performers, then the 50mm will come into its own. The wide aperture plus a high ISO will let you get shots you otherwise couldnt get without flash.</p>

<p>Four that dont work and six that do.</p>