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Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8
180° all-seeing!
The self-portrait below was not taken in a blimp... but in an inflated storage depot. Back in the early 1970s when I used to work for Granada Television in Manchester, this “bubble” was used to store scenery for the regular studio productions. I was fascinated by the design and pattern of the structure’s self-supporting skin and the space within it. On entering through the double airlock doors all I could hear was a click followed by a gentle hum as the compressor cut-in to pump more air in to replace what had escaped when I entered.
On several occasions prior to this particular visit I had made some interesting compositions using my own widest lens, a Nikkor 20mm UD, as well as a hired 15mm f/5.6 extra-wide-angle, but I soon realised there was only one way to capture the enveloping capsule-like structure in its entirety... and that was with a fisheye lens.
At the time I had an 8mm f/2.8 Fisheye-Nikkor more or less permanently attached to one of my Nikon F bodies (maybe a Nikon F2 as that model had been available for a couple of years when I took this shot). This lens was a great improvement on the previous 8mm f/8 Fisheye-Nikkor which I'd borrowed a few times from Rank Audio Visual who were the official importers for Nikon in the '70s. These were pre-N.P.S. (Nikon Professional Services) days but I'd done a number of advertising jobs for Rank AV, involving Nikon and Akai Video equipment, so was able to borrow oddball equipment through their Press Office.
The later fisheye lens enabled the camera's reflex mirror to be used for accurate viewing, focusing and framing whereas the earlier 8mm (as well as the 6mm f/5.6, 7.5mm f/5.6 and 10mm f/5.6 Fisheye-Nikkors of the period) could only be used on the Nikon F series cameras with the reflex mirror locked up, and semi-accurate viewing made through supplementary viewfinders attached to the camera's rewind crank hot shoe mount... ingenious at the time but awkward to use as it had to be taken off every time a film was rewound into the cassette and changed.
Even with reflex viewing I couldn't see exactly what I was going to get from the camera's viewpoint flat on the ground... but I knew that wherever I was running, jumping or standing still, I would be somewhere in the shot because a 180° Fisheye-Nikkor sees all.
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