My first picture, on the way home from Tucson where I bought it
I really like a Nikkor 20mm f2.8 AIS and Nikon Series E 28mm f2.8 AIS is a nice lens too, really, not really but I kept it this last sweep to reduce my lens collection. Why not split the difference? I wanted a wide prime and I read that this lens is sharper than my AF-S Nikkor 14-24 f2.8 G ED FX, and I like Ken Rockwell’s reviews.
I had gotten up this morning at 4:30a and drove down to Tucson to the WPHS annual Camera Show & Sale. The drive isn’t bad, it’s just fast and busy the whole way. The freeway had construction that completely blocked southbound traffic. I got re-routed through Sacaton, never been through there. I’ve flown over it in my hang glider but not through it. Southbound traffic at 5:45a was light.
Back on the freeway, I listened to music and it was sweet. Some old, some blues, none I borrowed but I married music and looking through the windshield.
I found this lens on a table filled with gems, crinkle finished shaft drive glass. I picked it up, I put it down and walked away and thought about it. I had about an hour total time and went back and closed the deal.
I bought it for one hundred and twenty dollars and it is new, not a scratch on it. D lens goodness.
F mounting it on my digital camera, I bright it to work and took it out for a spin after work.
These are my first few shots.
Ok ok, I’m really liking this lens. It’s on the normal end of a wide angle. I don’t do post processing so it’s easy for me to see quickly just what I’m going to do with it. I do believe this will be picked more and more as I learn to use it. Above is my first whack at it. I drove through a neighborhood close to home. This is a planning mission every time I go here, looking for a lot for my new home when I win the lottery.
But this lens…
I like it a lot.
Ken, below can tell you much more about what he likes about it.
Me?
It reminds me how I see saw things when I was younger.
Western Photographic Historical Society Camera Show & Sale
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65th Annual ~ 2025
March 8, 2026
The ride down was interrupted by the I-10 being closed. I was GPS’d a bid D route around the closed off section going into Sacaton. Back on the highway, it was uneventful with no racing, just a lot of melancholy as the Gorillaz have a new album out with death as the overtone. It’s a pretty upbeat album with lots of eastern or Indian influences. A sitar, flutes, whistling and some Arabic rapping. I dig the album, it’s called, The Mountain.
At the event, I was actually the first one in! But the vendors were actually talking and shopping each others tables. I heard one gentleman complain, “I paid for an eight foot table but only got a seven foot table!”
Who makes a seven foot table?
Whatever…
But it was very cool to spy each table. There was very little in the way of Mamiya and 645 lenses or anything. I was after a 35 or 45mm Secor C or N lens, none found.
But I scored and I scored big! I got nearly everything else I was looking for super inexpensive and I bought some nice extras. I bought a AF Nikon 24mm f2.8 D, a Leki Photo monopod hiking pole, a Sekonic Studio Deluxe light meter, an Architectural photography book. The F3 hot flash fitting, the Optech camera strap and the Sekonic were $20. The book was $5 and the gorgeous mint 24mm f2.8 D lens was $120. That is a smoking deal, I scored and it made me happy! There was one vendor that had the D crinkle lenses I desired. I had to circle around thinking, we mocked a bit back and forth but it was good and it was a smokin deal.
The ride home was smooth and uneventful. No detour N bound. I had a brunch meeting to attend so I went straight there. I mounted the 24mm and grabbed one shot…
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65th Annual ~ 2025
Tucson is about a two-hour drive south of the “evil empire” of Phoenix, so I’ve heard Tucson locals say. I could not agree more when comparing the vibe. Tucson is layed back and it’s well, it’s Tucson. Close proximity to proper mountains such as Mt. Lemmon, the US most southerly ski area. Another hour south and you are across the border and in Mexico. A little more than an hour to the southwest and you find yourself at Baboquivari and the cave where I’itoi lives. According to the O’odham, this is the creator of G~d and the cave is the exit of the underworld. This is Tohono O’odham territory…
Wait, I’ll get back on track.
I’m headed to Tucson for a camera swap meet by the 65th Western Photographic Historical Society held at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. I need a certain old Lowepro camera bag and I’m hoping to find one here. I’m in the formative stages of, “the Idea” and each component has importance. I’m also hunting down a Nikon D780, a particular digital camera seemingly suitable for my love of old manual focus Nikkor lenses.
My Forester is a comfortable ride and the drive to Tucson is flat and quite boring. I know just about every turn and area of the desert by memory. I’ll be passing by Picacho Peak where there is a petroglyph area, but this is not the time for that, I’m on another mission this time and I’m going to stay focused.
I had found the Nikkor 28-50mm f3.5 lens hood at eBay. I had been tracking one there for about $60 but it was bent and the set screw was too. In my head I had already thought how I was going to repair it but it SOLD! Yikes! I didn’t think it was that rare but when I saw one for sale for a few hundred dollars, I knew that the articles I had read about it being rare were probably true. I put in the search term in eBay and bam, there it was, the Nikon HK-12, $25 delivered.
Is it true?
I looked at my notes, and looked up a pick of it mounted on the lens, “yup, that’s it.” And I bought it right then and there. I’ll still drive to Tucson and look for one, I’m sure others don’t really know how rare they are and some don’t even care.
Who uses old manual focus lenses these days anyway?
The drive went smooth, I know it well and I jockeyed with various people for position on the I-10. Traffic is like a chess game, you can take a defensive position, or you can just race towards the goal. I do not use traffic against the person, that would not be cool and lots of people that race are out of their league. There is the guy with the new car that doesn’t know it yet and the fender bent or sideswiped car that you know it’s not their first rodeo and they just don't care about their car, or you.
This morning it was a frumpy lady. Driving a Jeep Renegade she kept cutting me off and I decided to put some distance between us, long story short, the Forester has a quicker throttle response when using launch control (AVH - auto vehicle hold and Sport Mode which is a quicker throttle response) and I easily beat her off the line at the light, she took the right lane as we merged on to the Southbound I-10 and she got merge shut down a half car length behind me. She stood on her horn, and I just laughed as she passed me on the freeway going 95. About 2 miles later when she settled down to 80 and forgot about me, I was in cruise control at 85mph and got a good look at her as I passed. Looked like a old woman wearing a lace dress and had a tight bun, so not looking like an aggressive driver. She scolded me as I passed pointing a finger at me, it was super odd but that’s how life is on a busy freeway in a city of millions of people.
An old lady driver speeding, it was surreal.
Tucson is beautiful, the mountains we bathed in good morning light and the Jewish Community Center was beautiful. I was there at 9a sharp, paid my $5 early entrance fee and started to walk around. There were all kinds of vintage cameras of all kinds. I saw lots of people with smiles clutching new acquisitions. I almost bought a Nikkor AI 24mm lens but a Quick Look at Ken Rockwell indicated to me that this was not the lens I was looking for.
Do I want this or do I need this?
Long story short is I bought a Nikon EM for $5 that had a series E 50mm on it. That was my deal and I should have not purchased as I don’t need it. I did take it home and cleaned it and will sell it on eBay with the rest of my EM extras.
I found a small Nikon School reference book for my bag and a Nikon AS-1, I bought it by mistake, I thought it was for the F3, damn it.
My purchases from the 65 WPHS Annual Camera Sale was a Nikon School reference book for my photography bag.
The ride back was uneventful with no racing, just rocking to PWEI (Pop Will Eat Itself) and enjoying the lyrics.
As I stand on Tempe Butte looking out over the Valley of the Sun, the city disappears… it is replaced by a whole different view of colors, patterns and most importantly, people. I’m here to record the petroglyphs but I’m finding that it’s really far beyond that. My home is in Phoenix, my house is about three miles away as the crow flies, even closer to the S'edav Va'aki Museum where I am a member of the Phoenix Chapter at the Arizona Archeological Society.
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Scott Wood giving a presentation on the archeology of Perry Mesa
Phoenix Chapter, Saturday March 7th, 2026
March Meeting: J. Scott Wood will discuss his observations about Perry Mesa. Scott received his MA in archaeology from Arizona State University. He worked at Pueblo Grande Museum and at the ASU Office of Cultural Resource Management. He is retired from the Forest Service and is widely considered an expert on the Tonto National Forest, particularly because of his knowledge of ceramics. He has authored and co-authored dozens of publications and articles and his book, Checklist of Pottery Types for the Tonto National Forest is referenced all over the world.
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Mural on the building where our meetings are located at the S'edav Va'aki Museum
Phoenix Chapter, Saturday February 4th, 2026
Our speaker will be Felipe Molina. Mr. Molina is a life-long resident of Yoem Pueblo (Marana) and member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. He is an oral historian, a teacher of Yaqui language and culture, an experienced and accomplished deer singer and practitioner of other parts of the pahko, and an author and mentor to young Yaquis. A sought-after ceremonial leader, he has performed at many public gatherings internationally. Molina will continue to work with a group of apprentices, teaching and learning traditional Yoeme foodways and cultural expressions. See attached links:
Mr. Molina will present information about his Yaqui (Yoeme) history and culture, which is an extremely interesting aspect of the history of both Sonora and Arizona.
The following Saturday (2/14/26) AAS will sponsor a field trip to southern Arizona where we will visit some of the important Yaqui sites. The field trip is open to all AAS members (limited to 20 participants) with Phoenix chapter members receiving an early notice of the event.
When my parents lived in Tucson I visited most of the sites we will visit on the field trip. Even though I’ve been there before I will be the first person to sign up. For those of you who would like to learn more about the history of Mexico, Sonora and the Yaqui I can recommend these books:
Felipe Molina resident of Yoem Pueblo (Marana) and member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe
I meet Tim Askelson and Sam Baar, two members of the Society. Sam and I talked about the classes he teaches, Tim spoke about photography and the Petroglyph, the newsletter of the society.
I want to know more about the indigenous people and their way of life in the area where I live.
I’m well on my way. As a young man, my parents used to go to the Catholic Church in Guadalupe so my interest in the Yaqui runs deep. Mom and Dad lived in a nice home in Arcadia. Devout Catholics, my father a Heart Surgeon. He attended the humble church in Guadalupe. As he parked his Porsche in the church lot, it was out of place but he always talked of being home and feeling that way. He told stories of getting on a Yaqui bus and ending up on the border of Mexico, crossing without papers completely trusting his friends, the parishioners, his stories about them were told to me while we were in Yugoslavia on religious pursuit, but that was a long time ago…
I sat there listening to Mr. Molina, the memories came pouring back.
