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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Vintage

This Vintage Nikon 15mm F5.6 Makes the Coolest Images

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/07/2021
3 Mins read
Blue Moon Rare Camera Story Nikon 15mm f5.610

Last Updated on 03/17/2023 by Lara Carretero

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I think we can all agree that people love old Nikon lenses. And that’s really going to be the case with this vintage Nikon 15mm f5.6 lens. It’s not a fisheye: it’s a wide-angle lens with all the yummy character people have been missing for a while. Modern lenses have had the character engineered out of them and are often way too sharp. But for a solid price, you can get this lens in wonderful condition from the Rare Camera Store. 

Welcome to the Rare Camera Store: a joint initiative of The Phoblographer and the wonderful folks at Blue Moon Camera. We work to bring you some of the coolest and rarest items for a great price.

You’re probably thinking this is the famous Nikon fisheye lens. But that’s not the case: you’d be thinking about the Nikon 8mm f8 lens. That lens went on to have a ton of influence. Getting that lens would be hard and very expensive. This Nikon 15mm f5.6 is going for a much more affordable price.

According to the listing at Blue Moon Camera:

First produced in March of 1973, this Nikon 15mm f5.6 Nikkor QD-C lens was the widest angle non-fisheye lens built by Nikon at the time.  This super wide angle lens has a field of view of 110 degrees with an aperture scale running from f5.6 to f22.  It has a minimum focus distances of 30cm (1 foot) and has a built-in rigid hood to protect it’s bulbous front element.  This 15mm f5.6 Nikkor QD-C lens features four built-in filters: L1A (skylight), Y48 (yellow), O56 (orange), and R60 (red).

This lens is the Non-AI variant and is therefore only compatible with Nikon SLRs cameras that mount Non-AI lenses.

This lens is clean and ready to use. It comes with original Nikon metal front cap and case. 

You can mount this lens on pretty much any Nikon full-frame DSLR and almost any Nikon film camera. More importantly, you can put it on a ton of other cameras using an adapter. This will produce some extraordinary images. We did a deep dive on Flickr for photos using the Nikon 15mm f5.6. We’re pretty amazed at how good the images can be, even with film. We’re really in love with this image from M. Patrick Kavanaugh. According to the description, he shot Kodak Ektar 100 film using a Nikon F4E and the 15mm f5.6 lens. I mean, how could you not like that image?

Even though this isn’t a fisheye lens, the the Nikon 15mm f5.6 can sometimes make people think this is the effect if they didn’t know better. And I’d also use it for all the cool things that I’d use a fisheye lens for. Specifically, I’d have a ton of fun photographing skaters with this lens. Something that would be incredibly fun is having them jump over me while I use this lens and shooting with stroboscopic flash. That way I’d have a whole trail of the skaters flying above me. Otherwise, I’d use second-curtain flash and probably get them trailing behind a bit. Or, of course, you can just use it to go photograph landscapes. Take note though, this lens isn’t one of Nikon’s weather-sealed lenses. So if you’re using it with an adapter, be careful. Also, bring extra cleaning accessories like a Rocket Blower or an Arctic Butterfly.

Go pick it up from Blue Moon Camera.

blue moon blue moon camera fisheye lens nikon nikon 15mm f5.6 rare camera store
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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