Specialising in the Exceptional - Nikon FM in Gold

The Vintage Department at Grays of Westminster seeks out only the very best mint or near mint examples of Nikon equipment for our customers. On this advert we feature a very rare camera. It is a Nikon FM in a gold finish.

It was produced to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nikon and the birth of the first Nikon compact 35mm SLR in May 1977. This example is fitted with a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor AI lens serial no. 60024 which matched the serial number of the camera. It was also supplied with a Nikon certificate in a gold-backed Perspex block. There were approximately 300 Nikon FM gold cameras produced, but apparently they were never officially available for sale.

Manual and Electronic

Q: I enjoyed Richard Sibley's article on pancake lenses (AO 26 March), but was curious about the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P lens that featured in the piece. Despite being a manual lens, it has electronic contacts so that aperture information can be communicated with the camera. Are there any other Nikon manual-focus lenses that also have electronic contacts so they can be used with automatic exposure modes on modern DSLR camera?

A: I spoke to Gray Levett of Grays of Westminster www.graysofwestminster.co.uk , who kindly lent us the 45mm f/2.8P lens featured in the article. He told me 'Nikon had a 500mm f/4P Nikkor IF-ED optic in its manual lens range, and produced, to special order, the 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8P Nikkor IF-ED which was the Godzilla of all manual-focus Nikon lenses. We had one here briefly and, if I remember it correctly, it cost £53,000. Its specification is: focal length 1200-1700mm, aperture f/.5.6-f/8, lens construction 18 elements in 13 groups (3 x EDs), weight 16kg, dimensions 237mm diameter x 880mm long (overall), filters 52mm drop-in. It was designed to cover an American baseball field, or baseball diamond as it is sometimes known.

Specialising in the Exceptional

The Vintage Department at Grays of Westminster seeks out only the very best mint or near mint examples of Nikon equipment for our customers. For example, on the right-hand page is the very rare Nikon Model H Field Microscope. This is a portable microscope based on the design of their Nikon rangefinder cameras. It enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest field microscopes, eventually being selected by NASA for a place in Skylab Missions in the early 1970s, where it was known as the “Skylab Microscope”. It employed inverted optics with an especially large prism, along with a built-in three-position objective revolving nosepiece. The range of the optics covered 4x, 10x, 40x, 100x (oil immersion) - and 10x wide-field eyepiece lens. It also offered illumination provided by daylight or a built-in incandescent lamp, powered by two self-contained penlight batteries.

If you have Nikon equipment like this that you wish to dispose of, or indeed any high-quality Nikon, then kindly contact us by telephone 020-7828 4925 or if you prefer, you can email us at info@graysofwestminster.co.uk for our highest offer.

Specialising in the Exceptional

A Nikon F-36 Motor Drive (for the Nikon F camera) + Cordless Battery Pack, Motor Drive adaptor plate, connector, Japanese instruction manual, warranty, complete in maker’s boxes NEW (ONE ONLY) £2,000.00.

Specialising in the Exceptional

The Vintage Department at Grays of Westminster seeks out only the very best mint or near mint examples of early Nikon cameras, lenses and accessories. For example, on this Advertisment is a very unusual Nikon F camera with the serial number 6500000 fitted with a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S Auto, scalloped focusing barrelled lens. if you have Nikon equipment you wish to dispose of, then kindly contact us by telephone 020-7828 4925 of if you prefer, you can email us at info@graysofwestminster.co.uk for our highest offer.

The award served as a fitting tribute to the magazine's photo-science consultant (pictured) who died in October last year aged 83.

The award, sponsored by Grays of Westminster, was presented by its founder, Gray Levett, to Geoffrey's widow Carolyn.

Speaking at the awards presentation ceremony in Whitehall, London Amateur Photographer (AP) Editor Damien Demolder said: 'Tales of how Geoffrey unmasked the Cottingley Fairy fakes and his work surrounding the John F Kennedy assassination have already been told in the numerous obituaries that have appeared across the globe, from the Guardian, the Telegraph and the New York Times.

'What I think is more important is what Geoffrey means to the readers of AP. Our first connection with Geoffrey Crawley came in the 30 October issue of AP in 1963, when the then technical editor, Neville Maude, tested some of the first samples of Paterson's Acutol developer.


'Acutol is a film developer formulated by Geoffrey, who went on to create Acuprint and Acufix, and then the FX-39 one-shot high-definition film developer.

'Geoffrey had come to the attention of Arthur Dalladay, the editor of the British Journal of Photography (BJP), in 1960, when he submitted an article on the subject of how developers worked. Along with his explanation he included alternative formula to popular commercial chemicals, a point noted by Donald Paterson the founder of Paterson products and the inventor of the modern plastic spiral.

'Paterson decided to market some of Geoffrey's formulations under the Acu brand, and they became extremely popular with the Amateur Photographer audience of the time. Geoffrey continued to work for Paterson until just a few years ago, when the company decided that further research into chemical formula was unnecessary.

'When Geoffrey joined us after editing the BJP for 21 years, he was already a familiar figure with the more serious end of our readership, and he was welcomed with trumpets and drums. The readers were very excited and those who knew him less held their breath as they read his first lens reports for the magazine.

'Geoffrey went on to write a regular series in addition to the lens tests, called Geoffrey Explains, in which he laid bare some of the finer points of photographic theory.'

Damien paid tribute to a man with a 'cavernous mind' and an 'eye for detail and investigation', whose generosity gave thousands of people a better understanding of photographic practice, and whose modesty 'had to be fought for him to allow us to use his full name, rather than just his initials, on his articles'.

Damien added: 'One reader summed it up very well when he wrote "The photographic world has lost a great man, but we are all greatly privileged to have learned from his knowledge. May he continue to live on in the minds of those who have learned from his knowledge. And may his legacy be better photographs from those he has taught".

'Geoffrey's unfinished symphony is 'How Black and White film works', a piece he was apologising for having not finished right up until his last days.

'I could pick it up and finish it myself, but I know that what I'd write would be nothing compared to the insights that Geoffrey would reveal. We'll never know how it would have ended.'

Excerpted from the Amateur Photographer website. Read the full story here:
amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Photography_legend_honoured_at_AP_magazine_awards_news_305163.html

We are delighted to announce that Grays of Westminster have just received the What Digital Camera/Amateur Photographer Good Service Award 2011 as voted for by What Digital Camera readers and website visitors.

This special award was presented to Grays of Westminster at the prestigious Amateur Photographer Annual Awards ceremony on 20th January in London.

If you were one of those who voted for us, it is very much appreciated and thank you very much.

We would also like to heartily congratulate Nikon for winning the following categories in this year's Amateur Photographer Product Awards presented at the same event:




Please note that the Cashback offer on the Nikon D3100 ends on 31st January 2011


To find out more about the full range of Nikon equipment and services that Grays of Westminster can offer you, a personal visit is highly recommended. If this is impractical, alternatively please visit our informative website, www.graysofwestminster.com Indeed, a veritable Aladdin's Cave of Nikon awaits you! Our Mail Order Department can be contacted by telephone 020 7828 4925 within the UK or +44 (0)20 7828 4925 from outside the UK, by fax 020 7976 5783 or www.graysofwestminster.com Whatever option you choose, we look forward, as we have done over the past twenty-five years, to being of service to you.

Kind regards,

Gray Levett
Founder

The Gold Standard

Grays of Westminster stocks the entire range of Nikon digital SLR cameras: D3X, D3s, D700, D300s, D7000, D90, D5000, D3100. Additionally, Grays of Westminster stock the extensive range of autofocus (AF), AF-S (Silent Wave) and DX & FX Nikkor lenses, manual focus Nikkor lenses plus Speedlights and a vast range of Nikon accessories from eyepiece correction lenses to lens hoods. New Nikon equipment supplied by Grays of Westminster comes with a special two-year warranty.


Specialising in the Exceptional

The Vintage Department at Grays of Westminster seeks out only the very best mint or near mint examples of Nikon Rangefinder lenses and accessories for our customers. For example, on this page is a stunning set of 7 black Nikon Rangefinder lenses: 2.1cm f/4 W-Nikkor-O, 2.5cm f/4 W-Nikkor.C & finder, 3.5cm f/1.8 W-Nikkor-C, 5cm f/1.1, Nikkor-N, 8.5cm f/1.2 Nikkor-P.C, 10.5cm f/2.5 Nikkor-P.C, 13.5cm f/3.5 Nikkor-Q. If you have Nikon equipment like this that you wish to dispose of, then kindly contact us by telephone 020-7828 4925 or if you prefer, you can email us at info@graysofwestminster.co.uk for our highest offer.

The exercise of selecting the Top Forty Nature Photographs of all time is both an honour and a tremendous challenge. It may not be possible for anyone to create a definitive selection of the forty 'best' or 'most important' nature photographs, if only due to the vast variety of criteria that must be considered. But the international League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) decided to try anyway and made their announcement this week to help celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.

The international League of Conservation Photographers is a fellowship of the top professional photographers from around the world working today.

More than 100 photographers and editors associated with the iLCP nominated images that they considered to be 'the best' in what they felt represented aesthetics, uniqueness, historical and scientific significance, and conservation efforts. The photographers were not permitted to self-nominate.

The prestigious Top Forty nominations represent the work of 25 photographers including the legendary Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Eliot Porter. Four of Brandenburg's images were included in the final selection, more than any other photographer. "To have 4 of my photographs chosen by my peers as part of the top 40 nature photographs of all time is indeed the highlight of my career. I am honoured beyond words," said Brandenburg.

The four Brandenburg images selected were: Oryx on Namib Desert, Namibia, southwest Africa; Gray Wolf near BWCAW, Ely, Minnesota; Arctic wolf, Ellesmere Island, Canada; and Bison on Frozen Landscape, Blue Mounds State Park, Luverne, Minnesota. They may be viewed on his blog or website at: www.jimbrandenburg.com Within this past year, the Arctic wolf image was named one of 100 most important photos in Canadian history in the book 100 Photos that Changed Canada.


The oldest nature photograph included in the Top 40 is of three frightened deer in the north woods of Minnesota near Lake Superior by George Shiras, published in 1921 in National Geographic Magazine.

Jim Brandenburg's long career of conservation efforts was honoured in 1991 by the United Nations. He received the World Achievement Global 500 Forum award in recognition of his using nature photography to raise public awareness for the environment. Jim and his wife Judy are the founders of the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation (BPF), whose mission is to preserve native prairies in southwest Minnesota. The BPF has helped to preserve approximately 1000 acres to date with Touch the Sky Prairie, a division of USFWS Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuges. Touch the Sky Prairie is near Brandenburg's hometown of Luverne, Minnesota, USA.

The complete collection of the Top Forty Nature Photographs may be viewed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilcptop40/sets/72157623774840478/

International League of Conservation Photographers: www.ilcp.com
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