Lensbaby Step Up/Shade, Tiffen Haze 2A, Nikon ML-L3

Today I received the Lensbaby 37-52mm Step Up/Shade, Tiffen Haze 2A filter, and Nikon ML-L3.

I cringed when I had to pay twenty five dollars for the Lensbaby Hood/Step-up Ring, but calmed down once I received it. It’s probably one of the best quality step-up rings I’ve ever seen, and came with it’s own little draw-string bag, which can serve double-duty. The B+W equivalent (which wouldn’t work due to the way the Lensbaby Optic retracts into the Composer’s body) would have been $36.50.

The Tiffen Haze 2A is my first 67mm filter purchase, based on some heady research (which I’ll talk about later.) Suffice it to say that it’s one of the most effective, albeit non-coated, UV filters on the market. And, it’s relatively inexpensive.

The ML-L3 will give my D90 “cable-release” functionality for pinhole work. A nice feature is the “click-to-open, click-to-close” functionality of the bulb setting when used with this remote. This should make manual timing of long exposures a bit more convenient.

Size Doesn’t Matter

Canon FD 35-105mm f/3.5 vs. Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6

I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of my two equivalent standard zooms, the Canon and the NIKKOR.
The Canon on the left is larger and has a 3x zoom range. The NIKKOR on the right is considerably smaller and lighter, and has a 5.x zoom range.

Sample Image: Polaroid Pinhole Camera

4x5 Polaroid Pinhole Photo

This is an example of an image taken with a homemade 4x5 pinhole camera using a Polaroid 545i back with Polaroid Type 55A film. This film yields both a 4x5 positive and a negative.

My Third Lens…For Real

For my third lens, I was looking for something that would work with both the N80 and D90 bodies, and I do need a “normal” focal length for the N80. My original plan was the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G. On the N80, it would be a wonderfully fast normal lens. But on the D90, it would be a wonderfully fast portrait lens. Such is the advantage of the DX format.

Now the Lensbaby Composer, being around 50mm, would technically be a normal lens on the N80, with no vignetting, and makes a nice portrait lens on the D90. But, it’s fully manual, and on a Nikon body that means no metering. Not a problem for the D90, since the “Review” mode lets you see the captured image, and the histogram shows your exposure. Potentially a problem for the N80 however. At the very least it means lugging around my Minolta Autometer IV F.

The AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4 will be around for a while, and the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm really made an impression on me. Since it will prove slightly more useful on the D90, I didn’t want to take a chance on it becoming unavailable, so it won out over the NIKKOR.

It arrived today, and is simply stunning. On the N80, it’s a little wider than 50mm, never a bad thing in my opinion. It’s 1-2/3 stop faster than the 16-85mm zoom, and all-metal, not than I’m at all opposed to the high quality polycarbonate of the newer NIKKOR lenses.

Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2.0 SL II

On the D90, it’s a little long, but not appreciably so; it’s only 7-1/2mm longer than a “normal” 35mm lens would be, but a whole 15mm shorter than the 50mm NIKKOR. It has the familiar feel of silky-smooth manual focus, which is better than ever thanks to the electronic focus confirmation. Gone is the uncertainty of split-image/microprism/matte screen focusing. It’s a faster way of manually focusing. Unless I’m shooting sports, I’m equally happy with autofocus, or this electronically-confirmed manual focus lens.

It’s also ideal for infrared work on the D90, being faster and having a real focusing scale (it’s also nice to have a hyperfocal scale again.) With 52mm filter threads, I can use the R72 filter I’ve been using on the P5100, plus the many other 52mm filters I’ve collected over the years. The NIKKOR 50mm requires 58mm filters.

But wait, there’s more. It comes with a very compact domed metal hood, into which screws an included 39mm coated close-up lens, which gives me nice mid-range macro capability.

Voigtländer Ultron 40mm with domed hood and close-up lens installed

There are two other lenses in the SL-II series as well. One is the Voigtländer Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SL-II, which at 87mm would also make an ideal portrait lens on the D90. The other is the 20mm f/3.5 Color Skopar SL-II, which would make a nice 30mm wide lens on the D90. Although it’s in the range of my 16-85mm f/3.5, and not appreciably faster, I’m sure it would be sharper and is certainly more compact. But, there will be many lenses ahead of that purchase.

I did not remove the Ultron 40mm from my D90 for about two weeks.