No Kings Protest

Nikon EM

Self portrait - Nikon EM - Series E 50mm f1.8 AIS

Nikon EM

s/n 6904057

During lunchtime at work, I sometimes go to the nearest camera store, Foto Forum for a few minutes to escape and refocus. My work is intense, sitting at a computer and working through files of ECG. I’m in my head and thinking, I need to get up and take a break. There are times that I’m not hungry or just need to walk annd move, photography is my spirit animal so a quick trip to Foto Forum or a nearby bookstore does the trick. 

I saw my first EM in the store glass cabinet, it was small and simple looking. I knew I wanted it but it was grossly overpriced. So funny because on that day, I bought a Nikkor 28mm f2.8 AI lens in excellent shape for $25. But anyway, I already owned an FE2 and an F3, two great 35mm film cameras. I didn’t need another camera but for a hundred dollars, it seemed way too much for a simple looking camera so I passed, thinking about my intrigue for the Nikon EM.

I went back to work wondering about the EM. At home I looked at my Nikon System book and found the EM and I read up on it. It was released in 1979, the year I graduated. At that time, I owned and operated a Canon TX, a large manual camera in comparison. I recently saw one at Wilson Camera, it was on display on a shelf in a “non working gear” area and immediately I went into comparison mode. Holding the TX, it was large when doing a side by side with the EM. The Canon TX is big, the Nikon EM is small. I could only imagine owning a EM back in the day so to speak and it was expensive in comparison to the TX. My Canon was a basic manual SLR 35mm however, it had shutter control. The EM was designed differently. Reading more about the EM, it is an aperture priority camera with a light meter needle indicator and a warning beep if you under or over expose when operating the lens aperture. 

Interesting.

I read more and looked up a couple of YouTube videos on it. I decided to investigate further and purchasing one was planned. As I read about the design, development and marketing, I came to understand that the Series E lenses were also developed at the same time and marketed together. The EM was actually a missing piece of a kit that I had been unknowingly building. I already had three Series E lenses that I had unwittingly purchased from listening to suggestions from photography friends. The Series E lenses were basically designed along with the EM. 

I searched eBay and found my EM for $20! 

The camera arrived and I cleaned it up and loaded it with a roll of Provia 100. I chose a combination of the Series E 50mm and the 135mm, shooting photos around the house and on a walk with my sheep-a-doodle, Desilu. Finishing the roll and turning it in for processing, a good portion of the roll had what I thought was a light leak. Taking it to a social media forum, it was collectively decided it was a sticky shutter issue and on top of that, it was intermittent. Reading further about ownership of the 40 year old EM, the light seals, the foam used in the film door chanel deteriorates, crumbling and these little pieces get into everything inside the camera and fouling the shutter was common.

I decided to try again and bought another one from eBay. Again the light seals were deteriorating but not as bad on this one. I removed the loose foam and cleaned up the camera the best I could. I loading up a roll of Provia and I took a few photographs here and there and brought the camera on a trip to photograph petroglyphs at Painted Rock. I used up the roll and turned it in for processing. I received the roll back and no shutter issues this time. I found and ordered a light seal kit from a link in a YouTube video on the Nikon EM.

I decided I was going to maintain an EM and always keep one in my kit. In this age of disposable single use everything, I’m going to keep this one out of the landfill and out of a shoebox in a closet, my closet.

Currently, after using one many times, the impressions I retain are the EM is small, lightweight and fun. A super basic camera that does a nice job with the aperture priority needle indicator in the viewfinder. In addition to the basic function aspect, I can mount any of my manual focus lens in my Nikkor lens kit.

The F mount system is key to my EM ownership.

I like the idea of an inexpensive and petite 35mm that I can carry nearly everyday. Even with the motor winder attached, it is relatively lightweight and small.

As I operate my highly configurable D780 and the great light meter in my F3, I’m going to see just how well I can coax great photos out of the EM. 

My Nikon EM kit includes the MD-E motor winder, the SB-E flash, a Series E 50mm f1.8, a Series E 135mm f2.8 and a Series E Zoom 75-150mm f3.5. 

I’ve already got a few good shots with the 50mm and the 135mm, after I complete installation of the light seals this weekend, I’ll mount the zoom and shoot some street photography with it.

Moving forward, I’ll detail my progress and enthusiasm for the Nikon EM here.

I have great enthusiasm for is inexpensive yet very capable little camera. In the viewfinder of my photography, I’ll use the EM as a litmus test of my fun. 

If it isn’t fun, I’m not doing it. The EM is a fun camera.

Nikon EM (Maintenance and Repair)

Series E 50mm f1.8 AIS

Series E 135mm f2.8 AIS

Series E Zoom 75-150mm f3.5 AIS

Nikon EM Manual

MIR: Nikon EM

Ken Rockwell: Nikon’s First Crappy 35mm SLR

My first Nikon EM had intermittent shutter issues.

vignette #1 - from the empty pool of time

Basic principles of importance are what I choose to search for first in anything that piques my interest.

The concept of time is enigmatic.

It always has been but one person was able to put it into a perspective that I could fathom. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to have spent a few moments with a rabbi discussing the concept of time and he was able to put it into very few words that I’ve been able to retain. 

He told me a story. A child of five years old, their whole life, the complete experience is all of five years whereas a twenty-five-year-old has lived five of the child’s lifetimes but unless he (or she) looks at the concept with that lens, time may simply be something measured by a watch, a phone or the calendar in the kitchen. That twenty-five-year-old does not see themselves as had lived five lifetimes in comparison to the child or trying to understand that whole of their life constitutes only one third the life of a grandparent.

The passage of time is life.

And while we wear a watch or throw away a calendar, do we really pay attention to the time that has passed? It just depends on how much time you have left. Do you have to do your hair to be ready to get in the car to drive to work? How much time do you have? If others set the rules for your concept of time, does that mean our time is short? I know sometimes when I’m at work, it’s a little while after lunch and my work day is over at 4p, and that is a long time away…

I’m learning to enjoy that slow passage of time.

But the problem with enjoying those long moments shortens my life. The enjoyment of time moving so slowly, so much, so many times, I have a huge stack of slow moments behind me. At this time, I have less in front of me than I have in my memory storage.

Soon I will be sixty five. Some see retirement as the time to stop working. As a young adult, that’s all I looked forward to as I went to work and stacked those long moments. They were seemingly uncomfortable and on someone else’s agenda. I wanted to be off work and go surfing or soaring, skateboarding, something I wanted to do. I want to do what I want to do and I had to endure someone else’s time in exchange for the power (read money) in order to spend my own time doing what I wanted to do.

Now that I have enough money (read time) to retire, is that what I want to do?

Is time like money? Can I buy time? Learning that concept is something we do, hopefully at an early age. It has been an idea that I’ve instilled in myself and in my own children. You trade your time for money and it’s best when you enjoy what you do when working because if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.

It’s time for me to get to the reason why I’m creating this exercise for myself. When I was much younger, two lifetimes ago, I did not know that the whole of my life now, two lifetimes in the future now, would be a conglomerate of interests that where so diverse and unique that I could not imagine that others could have the same experiences.

Every year I go to the doctor and have a complete physical exam. It’s what I do to take care of myself we stood at the monitor and pondered over the exray. “Looks good.” we almost said in unison. “There is the granuloma from when I had Valley Fever as a child. I always remember to tell them, “Compare the last exray.” 

A week later my doctor called, “Adam, your chest X-ray was positive.”

“What?”

“Increased density of the hilum, you need a CT”

“G~d dammit I thought to myself, what does that mean?”

I pulled up a browser, put it in the search function and started to read. And went down deep in the rabbit hole of Doctor Google.

Lung cancer, malignant and un-curable.

I had six months to live.

I’m going to die, a withering slow death I thought.

I didn’t even think about heaven or hell, I thought about the time I had left. Let me tell you, time became a concept that I now fully understood. I did not have much time left but how did I want to spend it?

I became instantly depressed. I started to cry. I told my wife and my son.

How am I going to be happy ever again?

Was it the Porsche that I’ve always wanted? Was it the trip to Switzerland that I have wanted to do? What am I going to do? Why am I so afraid? Everyone dies, no escaping it but I don’t have much time left. What makes me happy?

Helping others.

I help others live longer lives at work.

I’m going to keep working.

Work. I wanted nothing more than to go to work. 

Helping people at work is what fulfilled who I was. Helping people live longer lives gave peace to my soul. Prisoners, mean people, assholes, it didn’t matter, life was their journey, it didn’t matter, life is so precious and that is what was so important to me and that’s what I chose to do with mine.

I go to work.

Months later I remember calling out his name in the waiting room, he stood up with his wife and they walked with me to the device exam room in our office. 

“Thank you for saving my life. The tears welled up in my eyes, “I don’t like crying at work but this is an exception.” “I called 911 and they took me to the hospital, and I got a pacemaker.” “I know, I spoke to the paramedics and told them what was going on and what might happen, they thanked me. I read your chart, it did happen but you are here!”

I had worked with a prominent cardiologist to help our patient get to the hospital immediately to receive care. He had a malignant EKG and his heart was stopping and I wasn’t having any part of letting that happen.

In the meantime, before this happened, I had scheduled my CT, a visit to the pulmonologist and everything came back clear, normal, the X-ray was an over read, a simple suggestion to follow up. My wife knew, my doctor did too but I went there and it’s a slippery slope…

I was back to a life of not knowing how much time I had left.

That’s how it should be, I’m living a life of in the moment, a life of mindfulness.

Looking back, I’m seeing elements of my interests, as kooky as they may be seen, to have meaning. The Ninja, my study of religion, skateboarding, hang gliding, surfing the snow, surfing ocean waves, flying the airwaves. I was a manbird and living my dreams of soaring on the wind. All those thoughts and ideas are intertwined making up the person that I am. My work, family, marriage, interests, children and the Community of Humanistic Judaism that I am involved with.

Time is something that is innefible.

No amount of my bullshit will explain it but I can manage it when I can. Do not waste your time and if you do, waste it wisely.

I understand that time spent fishing is not held against you. Funny, when I go fishing, I feel like a five year old… wait!

.

First Attempt: Moon Photography

2nd Try, the Strawberry Moon - Tuesday, June 10, 2025 at 9:45p

Tonight was my second try. I spent about an hour figuring out how to make the display show exactly what the image will be. Enlarged the image, focus it sharp. Optimize white balance, color, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and more. I’m learning by doing. Reading, watching videos. 

Anyway the below is last night first try, above is from tonight, second try. It’s a good lesson as I’m learning the menus, sub menus, control over my digital camera, photography.

Thirtieth image with the Nikon D780 with AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 G ED VR FX

I thought it would be easy. Simple as changing a few settings. What it taught me is that I don’t know how to quickly change basic camera controls. I got close but the image is not sharp. The above picture is the result of about an hour and a half of figuring it all out. How to put it in manual mode, set aperture to f11, shutter speed to 1/125 sec, iso to 100, VR (Vibration Reduction) off, Auto Focus off, Manual Focus on, Live View on… 

There are other deeper settings that I had to adjust.

And now back out and place the camera back to its original settings.

But I’m really enjoying learning basic function, learning how to take pictures of the moon. Next attempt will be much quicker and I’ll focus on a sharper image.

First Try, Second Photo 

First Try, First Photo

Phoenix Area Hiking