About the 85mm F1.8 Nikkor
Marshall Griffin - Actor - Kensington 2008
This is a picture of a friend of mine – Marshall Griffin – he is an actor. When I lived in London, I used to take his picture quite a lot. This is a much later picture – we’ve all moved on from there. I was living and working abroad and had just dropped by for the day.
I took this photo with a very worn 85mm F1.8 Nikkor (the huge non-ai version). I was using Fuji 400 colour print film. And I just love the look of it. I sold all my old Nikon film gear – and bought a load of digital Pentax lenses – and I could never get the same look as this. The way the background blurs and it rolls from sharp to out of focus. So I ended up buying some more Nikon kit again.
I still have the Nikons – but now have bought a Canon 50D. It doesn’t have “that” look either – but it is more versitile. And it doesn’t get wrecked by rotten processing. Or need (as much) spotting.
