Nikon's FUN Lens

I've probably had more fun using this lens than any other lens I own. It's also the lens I've made some of my most personally satisfying photographs with.

Around 1979, Nikon introduced the manual focus 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor Ais lens. It was an instant hit. In the Nikon world, "micro" and "macro" mean the same thing. This is a lens which serves double duty as a reasonably fast normal lens with the added benefit of being able to focus down to about nine inches. These lenses were being built by Nikon at the very pinnacle of their manual focus lens manufacturing process. Focus is smooth and sure, f/stops click into place perfectly. The 55 Micro-Nikkor is very, very sharp at most every aperture. It's so good, it was considered a benchmark lens at the time. There was even an autofocus version of this lens in later years.

This lens lives on my Nikon FM2n body most of the time and I feel confident taking it out for a day of photography without worrying about carrying another lens. F/2.8 is fast enough for most everything I do and if I happen upon a flower, spider web or some detail worth getting up close to, this lens does an amazing job. One of my favorite things to do is spool up a roll of film and shoot things around the house. Here are the keys on my Royal Quiet DeLuxe typewriter...

I bought an old 8mm movie camera at a flea market. Didn't realize it still had film in it. I should have checked first. Might have been interesting to see what was on it...

I found this buoy walking on the beach...

My Brownie Hawkeye...

A reflected selfie from my kitchen sink faucet...

My favorite whiskey. Obviously :-)

Rain on the window...

A classic camera...

Memories of some wines I've enjoyed...

My images would be even sharper if I mounted my camera on a tripod. All of these were shot handheld and sometimes with shutter speeds as low as 1/30th of a second. At some point, I really should put the camera on sticks and give this lens the opportunity to show what it can do. Honestly though, it's just so much fun grabbing the Nikon at the spur of the moment and shooting an ordinary household object up close. I'm always very satisfied when my shots come back from the lab.

I often hear people say things like "if I was stranded on a desert island with only one camera or one lens, this would be it." I don't want to be stranded on a desert island and it wouldn't be that much fun to shoot just one lens the rest of my life, but if I had to do it, I could probably keep myself occupied with the 55 Micro-Nikkor, an f-body that didn't depend on batteries and a big stash of TMax or Tri-X. If you shoot Nikon and want a versatile lens, get one of these. It's Nikon's FUN lens!