Hanging by a filament.

Spiders web.Nikon F – Micro Nikkor 55mm f2.8 AIs lens.

The Spider’s Web

It hangs where daisies mauve and white
Stand dreaming in the morning light,
A spider’s web, a fairy thing
Whose threads to daisy-petals cling,
And quiver in the sunlit air;
And on the cobweb here and there
Round beads of amber dew are hung
By elfin fingers deftly strung
Along each gleaming silver thread.
The hairy spider-witch has fled,
And crouches in a huddled heap,
Beneath a daisy, half asleep.

And for this hour of sun and dew,
The web belongs to me and you!

 Enid Blyton Book of Poetry 1934

Nikon F4 with the AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G.

 

My Nikon F4 with the AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G.
Made with the D800 and 55mm f2.8 micro Ai-s Nikkor, so opposite ends of the same reasoning.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see how well (if at all) my F4 worked with the 35mm Af-s f1.4G: I can confirm that the F4 lives up to its reputation of being able to take any lens Nikon has ever made.
The lens performs very well with one caveat; no f stop ring meant the only modes I can use are: Program high, program & shutter priority. So the down side was hyper-focal focusing was not an option (overcome by focusing about a 1/3 of the way in to the image) happy days. In shutter priority I could select for aperture by turning the speed control knob and as I quite often use the camera in manual it was not a problem.
The AF focusing was decisive and fast so no worries there, in actual fact it probably means that batteries will last a lot longer. Although in all the years I have had the camera, I have never needed to replace the AA or rechargeable type in the field.
This means that I might just talk myself into buying the  AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. The 50mm f1.8 AF that I am using at the moment, has become very imprecise when focusing (age and a lot of use!) also I have the 55mm Micro Ai-s for the manual cameras.
As a matter of interest; why the f1.8 & not the f1.4 – the answer is exactly the same as with the previous 50mm AF lens; price and diminishing returns….. Looking at both lenses, the f1.8 is sharper over most of the range I use and at less cost, so at the price I could afford to do exactly what I am now considering; if I wear it out – get a new one.

If anyone is interested in the two books the camera is sitting on; they are from the Folio Society, see below from their site.

The Icelandic Sagas book image from Folio Society.The Icelandic Sagas
Magnus Magnusson (ed.)
Illustrated by Simon Noyes
Punctuated by a series of eerie illustrations by Simon Noyes, these great Nordic stories of mythology & exploration are chosen and prefaced by Magnus Magnusson.