gazette The Periodical for the Nikon Devotee Founded 1992 • Issue no. 69 Nikon D850 Overview The Resurgence of Film by Becky Danese One Hundred Reasons to Celebrate News from Gray Levett by Gillian Greenwood Latest Lens Releases and much, much more... Grays of Westminster • 40 Churton Street • Pimlico • London SW1V 2LP • England T: 020-7828 4925 • [email protected] • www.graysofwestminster.co.uk The Grays of Westminster Gazette 1 from Gray Levett Gray from Welcome many dealers offering the same type News Why Nikon?... of precision photographic equipment I am often asked why I chose the as Grays of Westminster. There was Nikon brand both personally and nothing to distinguish us from dozens professionally. This is best answered of other camera stores. I considered by telling you about an interview I that a change of course might well gave to Nikon Japan for their 100th avoid the company being caught up in Anniversary website. The interviewer the decline and financial loss that was A Century of Nikon began by asking me to name the first decimating many of the businesses at Nikon I had ever held. the time. A very warm welcome to this edition of the Grays of Westminster Gazette. I remembered the moment very clearly. It was in the late 1960s; I was working as a young sales assistant in a camera shop called N Hartle Photographic on the south coast of England. One day a customer walked in and asked me to help him with his camera. It was a brand new black Nikon F Photomic FTn fitted with an F-36 motor-drive unit and he did not know how to load the batteries into the motor drive. I thought it was the most beautiful piece On July 25th 2017 Nikon reached its of camera engineering I had ever seen 100th anniversary. One hundred years or handled. It oozed class and I knew of continuous invention, evolution and then and there I had to own a Nikon constant re-invention. It is a cauldron one day! I could not remotely afford of ambition, an ambition to provide one and over the years I made my way quite simply the best optical designs, via various roads and trails through a make the best cameras and merge the range of different 35mm SLR cameras best technologies to give you the perfect until at last, one day, I finally acquired vehicle for capturing your images. a Nikon and never looked back. I also own my own black Nikon F which sits The solution to my problem came opposite me in my office. from an improbable area. On a very N Hartle Photographic late 1960s hot day in July 1991, I was walking Why an ‘Exclusively Nikon’ through London’s newly renovated store? Docklands seeking shelter from the heat. I ducked into one of the many The other question I have been large warehouses converted to house asked many times is why Grays of shops and restaurants for a chilled Westminster became an exclusively beer and spotted a store called the Nikon shop. During the early Christmas Shop which, even in the 1990s the UK was facing a looming heat-wave, was packed with customers recession, high interest rates and rising buying Christmas tree trinkets. In unemployment, which was beginning spite of its unlikely merchandising for to affect many of the consumer the time of year, this highly specialist markets. It seemed to me that within enterprise had somehow caught the the photographic trade, the mood imagination of a market in recession was apprehensive and there were and was flourishing. 2 The Grays of Westminster Gazette Unmistakably… Nikon design. The F-mount is noted for its rugged construction and outstanding I began to think that if you could run reliability; Nikon has maintained the a successful business selling products basic structure of the mount for the that are only in use for about three last fifty-eight years of its use, and weeks of the year, it might be possible currently some 400 different Nikkor for Grays of Westminster to offer lenses are compatible with the system. a specialist service just selling one The fact that you can fit a pre-AI brand and be equally successful. I Nikkor lens onto a Nikon Df and had long admired Nikon for their shoot straightaway is extraordinary. In superb engineering and for the quality fact, not only is the F-mount unique for its degree of compatibility with of their lenses. After a full analysis Levett Gray from I concluded that periods which had a whole range of present and past been particularly successful for us over Nikkor lenses but its singular design the previous few years were coincident would also be able to accommodate with the times that we sold more future system advances. Furthermore, News Nikon equipment than any other the DSLR cameras are always so brand. Furthermore, to my knowledge well-made, and the superb optics of Grays of at the time, there was not another the Nikon lenses is one of the core Westminster® exclusively Nikon store anywhere else achievements of Nikon’s remarkable Gazette in the world. skill in innovative engineering. We still sell a lot of second-hand manual focus ® So I made the decision to re-create Nikon lenses to the movie industry Grays of Westminster exclusively…Nikon 40 Churton Street, London Grays of Westminster as a specialist where they are mounted on high- SW1V 2LP England outlet for Nikon enthusiasts and definition movie cameras. professionals alike. We would sell Telephone 020 7828 4925 Facsimile 020 7976 5783 the latest Nikon cameras, lenses and As I end this introduction, I raise E-mail [email protected] ® accessories, in addition to second- a glass of something sparkling and Website www.graysofwestminster.co.uk hand equipment, and we would congratulate Nikon on their remarkable also become an exclusive purveyor achievement. A centennial is a very Editor Gray Levett of vintage classic Nikon, in other significant moment in the history Features Editor Gillian Greenwood words a focal point for Nikon users of an individual and no less so for a Technical Editor: Becky Danese Design & Art Direction everywhere. There have been company. Nikon have created products Jesse Wilson – www.beyondmedia.co many adventures over the past 32 that have been used to photograph Contributing Photographers years since I entered the world of some of the most astonishing moments Grahame Austin, Becky Danese, Michael Eleftheriades, Tony Hurst, Konstantin Nikon. Some of these adventures in the history of this planet and beyond. Kochkin, Simon Stafford have appeared in the pages of this There has always been a passion and Contributing Editors publication, while others still wait to commitment to excellence which is a Becky Danese, Gillian Greenwood, Gray Levett be summoned from the memories at part of the DNA of this most illustrious Special thanks the back of my mind… company and one which I am proud Mark Fury, Jeremy Gilbert, John Walshe and honoured to have been a small Follow us on Twitter @NikonatGrays Blog graysofwestminster.blogspot.com Why I Love Nikon… part of. Social Media Mgmt. WorldWidePR.net I love the fact that Nikon have At Your Service… retained the original F-mount virtually Ordering & Payment unchanged since its release in 1959. In an increasingly impersonal world, How to Order Over the years there must have been we’re proud to have a dedicated team Telephone 020 7828 4925 a number of persuasive arguments of people to assist you with your Nikon From outside the UK +44(0)20 7828 4925 to change the F-mount but Nikon needs both in the shop and on the end E-mail [email protected] Post The Order Department have remained loyal to their original of the phone. Whatever you need, Grays of Westminster whenever you need it, we are entirely 40 Churton Street at your service as we have been for the London SW1V 2LP England past 32 years. + How to Pay Grays of Westminster accepts payment by: For credit card information please enclose confirma- tion of the cardholder’s name and billing address, if different from the sender’s details. A daytime telephone number must also be included. Gray Levett Founder © 2018 Grays of Westminster. All rights reserved. No part this publication can be reproduced without prior written permission Westminster The Grays of Westminster Gazette 3 Nikon Overview Overview By Becky Danese Nikon The D850 was announced The D850 is altogether bigger. Bigger The resolution could be considered on the 6th September in terms of sensor resolution, slightly daunting – 45.7 megapixels is certainly 2017 creating a frenzy bigger in terms of physical size, and the highest number that Nikon of excitement for the definitely bigger in terms of all-round have ever had to date, but with the newest addition to Nikon’s shooting thanks to a variety of features. improvements in their processor and professional FX line up. the fact that the buffer is so large in the The Sensor: 45.7 Megapixels D850, the only thing slowing one down Although a replacement for the D810 will be the speed of their memory cards had been anticipated, as it stands Nikon The full-frame sensor is the first of and their computer processor. intend to keep both cameras running Nikon’s cameras to feature backside simultaneously, for obvious reasons. illumination. What this effectively The Processor: EXPEED 5 means is that the sensor is lit from The D810 is still a capable camera behind the sensor, rather than Not just a number, the EXPEED in its own right and perfect for those from a layer within it, meaning that 5 processor is the same as that in who need large files for studio or those pixels tend to be brighter and the flagship D5, which means that landscape work.