Author: An

Hello everyone!

It took me almost two months to make time to update my blog. Recently, my child got hand, foot, mouth disease again, for the second time in less than four months. Meanwhile, my workload at the end of the year was also very high. However, I still tried to take advantage of many lunch breaks to go out and take photos. For the past few weeks, I have switched to using the Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 and Zoom-Nikkor 28-50mm f/3.5 AI-S lenses. In the future, I will talk about those lenses. But today, I will continue with part 2 of the article about the 35mm f/2 AI lens. You can read part 1 here.

As mentioned in the previous part, in this second part, I tested the Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI lens with a Nikon D3X camera. Similar to part 1, the photos are also arranged in the same order, with each test including all 8 aperture stops, from f/2 to f/22. However, this time I will also include the previous photos for your convenience in comparison.

Continue reading “Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI – part 2”

Hello everyone!

So I have spent more than a month using the Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI lens with my Fujifilm X-T3 via the Metabones Speed Booster adapter. In preparation for this post, I took quite a few test photos – then rewrote, re-edited, and re-shot more times than I care to admit. I’m trying to develop a consistent review style that I can apply to future lens tests, so this first attempt has been a bit of a learning curve. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start – and I’ll refine the process as I go.

Originally, I intended this to be a full review of the 35mm f/2 AI. But after reviewing the photos taken with the Speed Booster on the X-T3, I realized that to properly evaluate the lens, I should also test it on a native Nikon body. So for now, this post will focus on photos samples and my initial observations.

All test shots were taken across the full aperture range – from f/2 to f/22. If you’re viewing on a computer, the photos are arranged in two rows: f/2 to f/5.6 on top, f/8 to f/22 below. On mobile, they appear in four rows, with two apertures per row. For some tests, I’ve included cropped images (center, mid-frame, corners) to highlight specific characteristics. The layout remains consistent throughout.

Continue reading “Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/2 AI – part 1”

Hello everyone!

Over the past few days I’ve been reading quite many articles and comments about the Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/2.0 Ai lens. I’ve been shooting with this lens for the past two weeks, so I’m planning to write a bit about it soon.

While researching, I came across a concept several times that I didn’t understand: “retrofocus”. So I did some more reading, took notes, and today I want to share with you some of the things I learned about retrofocus – a very clever optical design to solve a specific technical problem.

What is retrofocus?

You are probably familiar with the word “retro” meaning old-fashioned or relating to the past, carrying a sense of nostalgia. When used as a prefix, it means “backwards”, “reversed” or “behind”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the prefix retro as follows:

retro- (prefix)
1: backward
2: situated behind

The term “retrofocus” refers to a wide-angle lens design in which the back focal length (BFL) – the distance from the rear surface of the last lens element to the film/sensor plane – is greater than the optical focal length of the lens.

For example, with a 35mm focal length lens, the aforementioned distance will be greater than 35mm.

Why is that necessary? The main purpose is to create enough space inside a single-lens reflex (SLR, including DSLR) camera body to allow the mirror to flip up and down with obstruction.

Continue reading “Retrofocus”

Hello everyone!

So I finally sat down to write and posted my first blog post. It’s been three and a half years since I opened this website!

It must have been more than ten years since I took advantage of my lunch break to take pictures on the street with my camera. There was a time, almost every noon I took my Nikon D90 and walked around, taking pictures of this and that. But then, for various reasons, this hobby was gradually neglected for many years afterwards.

About three years ago, I have started to shoot more, since I got married and then welcomed two little angels one after another. I like to take pictures of my beloved ones, capturing everyday moments and special memories of the whole family.

Gradually, my passion for photography resurfaced strongly. In addition to photography, I began to learn more about cameras, lenses, and buy more equipment, and also wanted to maintain this hobby for a long time.

This afternoon, for the first time in more than a decade (!), I took my camera to the street to take pictures. The main reason is because two days ago, I bought the Metabones Nikon G to Fuji X Speed Booster mount adapter, I was so excited that I wanted to experiment more. The thing was that when I took out the camera to take less than a dozen photos, it started to rain, I had to end the shoot after only 5 minutes, and rush back to the company! Haizzz…

Continue reading “A rainy afternoon, the first few photos”