My Nikon story

"In 1976, one of my mothers colleagues gave me a Canon AE-1. He handed it to me, as if it was a present, but at the same time said I could pay him back when I had earned the money.

That was the beginning of my Nikon story.

If he had taken the time to ask me what camera I actually wanted, he might have heard the name "Nikkormat", but he didn't ask and I was only 16 and afraid to reject his "gift".

Instead I worked in the local cinema the following year and paid him back every cent the Canon had cost. You could say that I saw a lot of good films to pay that camera.

My interest in photography began the year before that. The Kodak instamatic was quite popular with young people. Lifestyle photography was the new way to see things, much inspired perhaps by the late 60's photo journalism and taking pictures was no longer difficult. We started using photos in a more casual way during that period.

My mother was a journalist and I grew up in newspaper offices. When I started talking about the smart, new cameras with the flat design, my mom, knowing very well how I always wanted things, said it would be a waste of money and if I should take pictures, I should use a proper camera. She found her old Contessa Zeiss-Ikon camera and asked me to start shooting with it. "If You still like taking pictures next year then we can talk about a "real" camera."

The Contessa was actually a very good camera. Though being a rangefinder camera it took some ok photos and I began learning about shutterspeeds and f-stops.

My first Nikon encounter came with a James Bond film. In 1973 EON films produced "The Man with the Golden Gun" starring Roger Moore. In one particular scene Bond was seen looking at a shopwindow - filled with Nikon equipment. Well, allready being interested in photography this was a sight to see! Not only the Nikon F2 but a whole range of accessories too.

I began looking into the names and brands of cameras available in the mid-seventies and as with many other product groups I found two major companies competing. Being a customer it could seem as an advantage standing there, with money in hand, just waiting for the best offer. But it very quickly became clear that it was a bigger decision than one would think at a first glanze. Choosing the system that suited one best was the actual problem. Both Nikon and Canon made great cameras and lenses. Both had good reputations among photographers and amateurs, so the choice for the beginner suddenly depended on things not easily explained. The "feel" of the camera, the "spirit" of the system and, not to forget, the possibility of loaning accessories from your friends.

The 1970's must have been a good decade for Nikon. The Nikon F camera had cemented its reputation among press photographers and when the Nikon F2 was introduced it was a state of the art sight to see standing in the shopwindows. I remember seing one of these F2's mounted with a 250-exposure filmback and even though I probably never would find use for it myself it was an amazing sight with a tremendous sales effect. Just the fact knowing that You COULD attach one of those things to Your F2 - if neccessary - was enough for me.

I knew I could not afford the F2 at that time but Nikon also made the NIKKORMAT and this was close enough for me. Using the same lenses it seemed like the perfect start to a system, so NIKKORMAT became the object of my dreams (camerawise that is...)

Well, at the point where I began taking pictures in a more serious way one of my mothers colleagues decided to loan me the money to buy a good camera. Unfortunately he did not consult me before doing so and I suddenly found myself standing in the livingroom with a brand new Canon AE-1 in my hand. Not wanting to hurt anyones feelings I thanked him and aggreed to pay him back with a small amount every month. But somehow this mistake made me want the Nikon even more.

That chance first occured in 1978 - but boy was that worth waiting for!

I began my training as a photographer at Nordic Photo Team / Berlingske Tidende in june 1978. One of the first things I remember from the meeting with this new world was seeing all those Nikons. All the photographers, I believe except two, used Nikons. They all had F2's with motordrives and there were lenses everywhere.

A repro-stand in the middle of the darkroom section had a Nikon F mounted with a Micro-Nikkor and was only used for taking photos of the prints that came out of one of the big Muirhead telephoto machines. It was a back-up solution for the days production and the Ilford Pan F films were just developed and filed for later use. This camera alone represented a Pro entrance to my newly discovered world of photography.

The NPT often needed photos showing their photographers in action, which was a fine opportunity for the apprentice to join the pro’s on their assignments. Here I went to the Royal Theater with Steen Jakobsen for a photo session.

…He even managed to talk the photographers from the other newspapers into posing for me in the shot from behind the dancers.

At the NPT I noticed one particular thing about the lenses: As an amateur photographer the most popular lenses were the 28mm and the 135mm. Remember we're talking film-days so this was a wideangle and a telelens. In those days a 50mm or 55mm came along with the camera when You bought it, at least when buying at the local photo dealer. So with this "normal"-lens allready in the bag the amateurs choice was adding a wideangle and a telelens to the bag. After that came a motordrive, or maybe a databack, if You were the lucky owner of a camera that could have one attached.

But at the NPT I learned the first day, that the 50mm or 55mm was in fact of no use other than that of the Micro-Nikkor for repro. It may have been a matter of taste in those days, but the "normal-lens" range was regarded as uninteresting. So the advice was: Buy Your camera body separately. Then buy a 35mm and an 85mm or a 105mm. This set of 2 lenses would cover most assigments unless off course You were specialized in football or other sports that required longer telelenses.

On a very sunny day in the summer of 1978 I went to the shop “Foto-C” in Copenhagen. NPT bought their equipment here and being an apprentice at NPT I could open an account without problems. I went to the shop and after only a few minutes of consulting I bought my first Nikon F2A and a 105mm f:2.5 Nikkor. I was on top of the world!

...Just had to try the F2A at every chance given - Here a selfportrait in a shopwindow.

A few days after buying the F2A, we, the apprentices, fooled around in the studio with our equipment. Me with my Canon AE-1 and my precious new Nikon F2A.

I still had my Canon with the 50mm lens but with the possibility of loaning lenses at my work it quickly became uninteresting. NPT had about every lens available for Nikon. I remember testing various wideangles and even fisheye lenses I had only seen in the Nikon brochures. It was really a dream come through.

The sticker that opened doors …!

I made a calendar with my very good friend Kim, a gifted illustrator and musician, for a girl we knew from college. The model in the photo we called "Back to work" is Tine who was not only a wonderfull girl - she was also the first model I ever photographed in a studio, which was around 1980.

During the time of my education I met another photographer with whom I started a studio. We both had Nikons and suddenly our equipment collection were expanded. We now had Nikon F2’s and Nikon FM’s and various lenses, motordrives, filters etc.

The early studio days. Waiting for the model to finish the Make-up.

Here she is again - "Tine on the rocks" - relaxing between takes at a photosession at Kullen, Sweden, May 1981.

At the end of our education we decided to do most of our school-work on 35mm film. It was a very radical and unpopular choice from the teachers point of view, but the rules did not say anything about camerachoice, except for the few assignments that called for work with Hasselblad and Sinar. So we went for the freedom of movement and made all our photos from an emergency-central, with everything from routine car-starting to hardworking firemen, with the Nikon's.

The Hasselblad and Sinar were used for a few packshots and some photos of an ambulance in the fast lane, but the rest was done with Nikons, Tri-x and FP4 films and my all time favourite developer – HC110 from Kodak. Largeformat cameras have their moments too, but they just never have appealed to me. Ironically I have been working with them for years since then, and the quality they deliver, especially when used correct, is off course unquestionable. But for movement, freedom of composing and spontane photos they are out of the question.

A close encounter with Kate. Kate Bush gave a concert i Copenhagen in 1979. I had a "ringside" position at the stage during her first two songs. At one point I changed lenses and when I raised my camera again with the 105mm, Kate was just in front of me and looked straight into the camera! I was so shocked I forgot to take a picture... I also shot some colorslides which proved to be the only ones from the concert when I put them in the NPT archive, so they ended up in various magazines in scandinavia.

So, we graduated and went to Copenhagen were we had already clients waiting for us.

The majority of our jobs in those days were either fashion or editorial work. We both preferred the Nikons for these assignments, and at one point we even convinced an advertising agency to produce a shoe-catalogue with 35mmm photos shot on Kodacrome.

Back then it was considered a strange way to do it, but the agency went for it and we made quite a good catalogue actually.

Fyn

In 1985 I moved to the isle of "Fyn" in the middle of Denmark. I had to start all over again and the only equipment I had was my Nikon F2 and a 105mm lens. I was lucky to be contacted by a photographer who needed an extra hand working for many of the local newspapers. We shared the contract and went out every morning, covering different areas of Fyn. I bought some additional lenses at this point; the 24mm, the 35mm and an extra body so I could take both color and black and white films.

With the exeption of footballmatches, where I had to loan longer telephoto-lenses, I managed to cover almost everything with this camerabag.

Jethro Tull, Midtfyns Festival 1988.

Lou Reed, Midtfyns Festivalen.

Me, my F2A and my Mitsubishi Pajero 4-Wheel-Drive - What more can one ask for? (photo by Niels S. Andersen)

When the danish Queen, Margrethe 2., visited Odense in 1987, my Nikon gave my quite an experience.While waiting for the cars to arrive to the Royal ship (cars arrive in the background here) I saw the man who was about to take a walk with the royal dog Balthazar. I asked him if I could join him and he said that was okay, if he could try my Nikon! He told me he was very interested in photography and had been looking at the Nikon F2. I gave him my camera and he handed me the leash to the dog. After a short instruction he asked me to pose with the dog...

... and here's the result! Voila - One of the more memorable details from the royal visit.

The 90's - My most expensive decade ever..!

1990 marked the beginning of a whole new era for me. My childhood fascination of butterflies suddenly woke up again and before I knew of it, I had chosen photography as my way of "collecting" these small og fragile creatures.

My first attempt on photographing butterflies was made with my F2, the Nikkor 105mm 2.5 and an extension tube borrowed at the studio where I worked. It worked well, but I began looking into the real macro-lenses almost at the same time and the 105mm Micro-Nikkor was the obvious choice.

As for the camera I also woke up another dream. Back in 1985 I was the photographer for a radiostation (yes, I made photos for radio...!) called "The Voice" located in Copenhagen. This station was so popular among young people that it was decided to make a magazine as well. In one of the early issues we had an editorial look at presents for the man who had everything. I went to a giftshop and photographed Champagne-toothpaste and caviar-soap and on the way back to the office I made a visit to Foto-C where I had bought my first Nikon. The Nikon F3 had been launched in a titanium version and I used this opportunity to have a look at it. The man in the shop was kind enough to let me take a photo of it and we used as one of the giftideas.

The 1985 Nikon calendar had the usual add on page 3 and 4 and this year it showed the launch of one of the space shuttles in NASA's Space shuttle program. Nikon had built special cameras for this project so what camera was better suited for the man who might take a flight with a spaceshuttle anyway ?

Back to the butterflies. The F3/T was the ultimate camera for naturephotography in my mind. So I let my F2 retire and bought a black F3/T. I was in cloud nine! Mounted with the 105mmm Micro-Nikkor it was probably the best solution for butterflies at the time. I shot all my early butterfly photos with this combination and only the constant test of films made the difference in quality. At this point I became aware of the advantages in using Kodachrome and though this was a quite expensive solution it was also the sharpest and best quality possible.

This butterfly was one of my earliest photos using the 105mm AF Micro-Nikkor..

But!... Constantly on the lookout for new equipment this decade became a very confusing one for me. Canon made the EOS-1 and it was in terms of technology an interesting camera. Now working as an advertising photographer I no longer needed my own camera for press-photography, so I made the shift to Canons new EOS-1 and a 100mm macro.

I had some fine results with this camera, but for the first time in my career I felt the strange confusion that comes when a camera, despite its qualities, just does not feel right in Your hands. It was a modern camera and perhaps too modern to me. Somehow it gave me the impression that it worked best when it took control of everything, and I, being used to work manually, just didn't like the competition from the technology...

So I began looking at all the manual cameras.

I remember a brochure from Leica in this period. On one of the last pages it showed the R6-2 frozen down to well below zero. A pair of hands, in solid insulated gloves, held the R6-2 camerabody covered in a thin layer of ice.

I dont know what happened to me, but suddenly I found myself selling the Canon EOS-1 and ordering the Leica R6-2… Talk about the effect of a single photo!

I never found myself even near the cold conditions showed in that photo, but on the other hand, it is good to know, that Your camera wont let You down, should You ever get lost at the Antarktis and discover a new species of pinguins. I continued my butterfly photography with the Leica and a 60mm macro lens – no ice, no cold, no pinguins…

The camera seemed solid and it was all manual. But the sound of the shutter alone would scare the livings daylights out of any insect, and every butterfly in the neighborhood would be scared away only split-seconds after the first take!

Having allready spend a handsome amount of money on the shift from Nikon to Canon, and from Canon to Leica, I had serious troubles admitting to myself that I had made a mistake. But the really hard fact to realize was, that my photos had not improved in any way with any of my shifts. I was even disappointed with the 60mm macro lens from Leica, and its an awful feeling standing there, after years of shifting camera-brands, having to admit that it was all wrong decisions.

But then came the Nikon F5

The F5 was the camera that rocked my world again. The design alone proved to be so elegant that it compensated for the F4 that I never really felt attracted to. I dont think the F4 represents the highlight of the Nikon cameras, but ironically we have many of the F4's where I work now. They have proved to be extremely reliable working horses at the hospital where they have been used for general purposes and medical photography in many years. They are rock-solid and had it not been for the rapid development of many other cameras in that period, they just might have had their breakthrough eventually.

But as with many other cameras throughout time, the first customers and reviews verdict often tend to apply to all the following judgements.

I made the shift again, not really remembering where I got the money from, and I believe my wife gave up and no longer tried to understand my reasons...

This time I bought the F5 with the new 20-35mm Nikkor and a 60mm AF Micro-Nikkor. This combination proved to be the best I had tried for years, and only the weight of the F5 was an issue for me. The 60mm became a lens I used for years and today I regard it as one of the most usefull lenses in the Nikkor program. More about that later.

With the launch of the F100 I made a shift again, and for a period that was my tools when shooting butterflies in the field.

At one time I discovered that my Nikon Bellows did not work well with the F100 because there was no mirror-up function. I went back to the F5 again, changed my mind again later, went back to the F100 and had it not been for a very, very understanding wife and a very generous photo-dealer I had been broke today!

Digital future

In the mid 90's we began shooting digital in the studio where I worked. We used a Sinar with a digital scanner back mounted and had to scan for several minutes.

Though being a very early and, compared to todays standards, primitive quality, it marked the end of the films for me. It was obvious that the future was digital and no matter what anyone had of personal preferences it was clear that digital would be the way to go.

In the late 90's I used an F-301 with the 60mm lens. This was a very fine combination as far as weight and handling was concerned. With the use of the Kodachrome films the results were as good as with the F5 and F100, and I therefore sold these cameras while they could still make a good price.

The early 35mm digital cameras were very heavy and did not have a resolution that could threaten my Kodachromes. I therefore made the descision to "hybernate" through the years of digital evolution and simply be a spectator untill I saw a camera that could match my slides.

Back home, when shooting family photos and everydaylife, I fell for an offer from the local dealer and I bought a small Canon digital camera. I had to return it within a few days though since the picture quality did not match my expectations.

The Nikon Coolpix 990 did however, and I bought it for a lot more than I like to think of, but the quality of the photos impressed me, especially compared to other digital cameras in that pricerange.

At the beginning of the new millenium I had all my equpiment stolen. This meant that I now should start all over again looking for equipment. Around this time the digital SLR's began showing signs of the quality I was waiting for, and I decided to go for a Canon 10D with a few lenses. I didn't have to take many photos before I realized that I had been the unlucky owner of a camera with serious back-focus issues. I returned it for a full refund, and shortly after I bought the Nikon D70 and a new 60mm AF Micro-Nikkor. This was just like coming home... After years of waiting I found myself enjoying the old feeling of holding a reliable camera in my hands. It produced sharp and crispy photos, and with the D70 I could take up model photography again.

Model photography had been a category I really missed in those years. I knew I would want to work digital, but untill the D70 the quality just wasn't good enough for outdoor use. I had made several fashion-shots with the LightPhase / Phase-One digital-back on the Hasselblad, but only in the studio.

Now I started concentrating on photography as a creative hobby again. The butterflies worked well with the D70 and the 60mm and this lens also proved to be one of the best portrait lenses I have ever used.

The D200 naturally followed the D70 after a few years and with the extra pixels I could now satisfy most demands on resolution for stock photos etc.

At this point I began looking into the "old" lenses again. With the D200 also came the possibility of using many of these old jewels, and the Ai and Ais-versions suddenly becomes interesting again.

Me and my D200 with the 20mm Nikkor Ais...(photo by: Lars Søjberg Madsen.)

... and the result...

I prefer working manually and after having worked with a Nikkor 17-55mm for a while I decided to go with the primes. The 17-55 however was also a jewel. It produces outstanding photos and though it may not be an all-pro argument, the JPG's taken with the 17-55mm didn't really need any serious post-processing to look perfect. Just a small detail one notices...

But the feel of the manual primes has appealed to me for more than 30 years now. I like the smooth feel when adjusting sharpness and the longer distance from infinity to nearest distance, which makes it even more precise when shooting difficult objects like butterflies. For some purposes I will still recommend the new AF versions of the primes, but this is really a matter of improvements made on newer lenses made for low light situations, and You have to be very critical to Your work to go deep into the lenses individual specifications.

For more information on the Nikkor lenses I will recommend a visit to Bjørn Rørsletts site: www.naturfotografen.no

Now, so far I have concentrated on the semi-pro Nikon's. Thats because they were the ones in my economical range as a private person. At work however, I got to work with the whole range of cameras - from the early Kodak/nikons to the D1, the D2X etc.

Looking at these cameras today may cause a little smile to appear, but dont forget that if You look at the Nikon 90S, with the NC 2000e Kodak-thing under, the D1, the D2 and now the D3, You're actually looking at an evolution that in terms of the human evolution would cover a period of several hundred years. From the dark ages to the space shuttle age.

Yes, it's going that fast. Comparing the D1 to the D3 would be something like comparing a television from 1970 to a modern flat-screen plasma-thing.

I was impressed with the D2X at one particular time: I was shooting a session with four chinese scientists at the hospital where I work, and I grabbed the D2X just to give it a try. At the laboratory I realized that I had no white walls or ceiling to bounce my flash into so I was forced to use it directly. Now, most people at the hospital are dressed in white and I took it for granted that I would have to work with the photos in Photoshop when I returned to my PC. Normally I would make separate layers for the white cloth and other layers for surroundings, skin etc. But no, at this session I was truly amazed to find the JPG's fully usefull - as they were. The dynamic range of the D2X and the software simply generated usefull photos right out of the camera. I hadn't seen that before, so I regarded this as one giant leap for photo-mankind...

So why didn't I buy one of the pro cameras at this time? Well, as allready stated the price was too high for me as a private person, but what bothered me more was the small chips and the cropping factor. I really missed the way I could make use of the DOF with a 50mm on the old fullframe film-camera, and this issue became my sole argument for not even trying to raise the funds.

D3

The D3 is with no doubt the object of many dreams at the moment – mine also. I had the pleassure of trying it at a fair in Århus november 2007, and my testshots, though being very improvised, showed me what to expect. I took one photo in particular that impressed me: Using the new NIKON AF-S 14-24MM 2,8G ED I shot a photo of the interior of the place with a very highlighted window at the top and some very dark/black details in the bottom. The details and resolution of this shot, made at ISO 400, are very convincing. And when I opened the jpg. in Photoshop I was amazed to see how much detail I could find in both the window and the black bags when adjusting the levels. I could see nothing of the noise I would have expected if I used my D200 so this little improvised test was enough for me.

Future

I'm sure we will see innovations and technology we cant even dream of within just a decade. 32-bit is probably just around the corner along with new improved ways of making everything faster, more precise and overwhelming.

Back in the days when we used films only, the cameras were only mechanical darkrooms holding our films, and the films were the real issues for most photographers. That is, after the choice of the camera had been made off course.

Today the cameras, and the chips in particular, has a much bigger influence on the final photos. Therefore the competition will be harder and cameras wont last as long as in the old days.

I have never taken part in the Nikon / Canon - discussions. Both companies makes great cameras, and the constant competition on pixels, dynamic range, autofocus etc. onlu works for the advantage of the customers. We get the new technology faster than ever before, and You can buy high-quality cameras at low cost today. The same goes for the lenses that are now improved all the time.

The important thing for a photographer is to choose the tool that feels great in hand, and then go out and shoot some photos.

That’s the way it has always been – and always will be.

Tekst og fotos: Kent Bovin

Alle fotos og tekst er copyright Kent Bovin og må ikke benyttes i andre sammenhænge uden Kent Bovins skriftlige tilladelse.

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