A quality lens is a photographer’s most critical purchase. Camera is secondary. In other words, it’s the glass, stupid. Two years ago I bought quality glass – a dated Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AI – for my Nikon F2A film camera (which I no longer own). It works like a dream on my Nikon FM2n film and Nikon D200 digital cameras, allowing me to shoot in low-light conditions without a flash. And the best part, I think, is its narrow depth of field, which can capture dreamy, surreal scenes (see image of the antique piano below).

Camera guru Ken Rockwell says the 35mm f/1.4 was found in every photojournalists bag in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He says its performance has been surpassed by the modern 35mm f/2.0 AF and 28mm F/1.4D AF. In his review of the AI-S model, he writes, “Typical peformance for a spherical f/1.4 wide lens: blurry wide open, improving greatly as stopped down.” I’m not a guru, but I know what I like. And I like images with extreme sharpness and blur.