Bill Smith's Photography

 Somewhere, a Leica purist is having a seizure at the thought of a non Leica lens is on something as storied as a IIIf, in this case a Nikkor H 50 F2 lens in M39 screw mount. Nippon Kogaku long before making the Nikon F and even before making their version of the Zeiss Ikon Contax rangefinders, of course simplifying in some areas like the shutter, and improving apon others. Nippon Kogaku also made lenses not only the S-mount for their range finders but also in M39 Leica screw mount. A lot of third party lenses got made with that particular lens mount.  So the legend goes war photographers working in Korea discovered Nikkor glass while on leave in Tokyo and found them to be steller performers. i've shot with the S mount version of this lens and the F mount descendent and been super pleased with the results. My Nikkor H 50 F2 came with a Canon 7S and a Canon 100 F3.5 lens, running a Nikkor lens on a Canon body just felt, weird, on a Leica screw mount body or with an adapter on s...

 I don't walk through High Park all that often, mostly because I'm either midtown or in the Beaches/East End when I'm in Toronto. It's a lovely spot for urban hiking and those living near High Park have a treasure on their doorstep. I would spray yourself with insect repelant near Grenadier Pond during mosquito season, and avoid the park entirely during Cherry Blossom season but those are my only caveats.   Shooting on Color Plus 200 gave me a nice retro feel, especially shooting with a Nikon F from the very early 1970s. Pity the price spiked during the now times, that's purely on Alaris, and don't get me started on their business decisions.  Camera: Nikon F Photomic FTN, Nikkor S 50 F1.4 lens.  Film: Kodak Color Plus 200. 

  Haven't shot with Kodak Color Plus 200 in a while, so of course I had to shoot a roll while in the city. The formery cheap and cheerful colour negative film in Canada at least is only a dollar cheaper than Portra 400. I have a hard time squaring that circle but I switched to Cinestill 400D, Flic Film Elektra 100 and Lomography 100 and 400 respectively. I'm keeping Eastman Kodak going strong for colour film.  Canera wise I ran with my Nikon F2S this walk. It was made from 1973 to 1977 and a step up from the F2 Photomic, the difference being the LED meter read out, the sensors were the same Cds cells. The F2S is differentiated with the taller DP-2 prism head. I don't shoot with this particular 2 variant often. I'm reaching more for the regular photomomic and F2A or the top of the line F2SB or F2AS. That said the F2S looks cool and of course a version needs to be in my collection.  Camera: Nikon F2S, Nikkor Pre Ai lenses.  Film: Kodak Color Plus 200.  ...