Walking Through Tokyo’s Rainy Streets at Night with the Blackmagic & Nikon NIKKOR 50mm AI-S
I recently took a trip to Japan where I dedicated each day to shooting either video or stills. Since I was a kid, I always imagined that one day I'd want to go to Tokyo, specifically at nighttime, and shoot in the city after it had rained, seeing the neon lights reflect off the city streets, the people walking around, the culture, all of that. I made the trip happen in October of 2023.
This video is completely shot with the Nikon NIKKOR AIS 50mm f/1.2. I had this one re-housed in a plastic housing by CineHousing. The lens performs really well. I think wide open it's a little hazy but for 50mm on a crop sensor, I think it gave me the distance that I needed to be discreet but also enough range for some close-ups.
Street photography & video is like essentially just being a trained people watcher - and it's a great way to practice framing and composition all the while enjoying the sense of not really knowing what could happen next. The spontaneity of being able to enjoy myself, and not force moments is a breath of fresh air coming from the more agency side of the industry. I think it's one of those things that is very calming and it's simply for me a way to again get out of my own head, and to simply put in the reps. This video was graded with an entirely new grading technique I've learned over the last few weeks so demoing a look I made as well.
- If you'd like to know how to convert your own Nikon NIKKOR or any vintage lens to EF I made a video you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/LN_h9bB3CVc
- I've also made a video on Cine Housing you can check that out here: https://youtu.be/PkhnQpZYjBE
- If you want to see a similar video shot on the Sigma 18-35 1.8, a really wonderful lens you can check that out here: https://youtu.be/Du5prrjmx4k -
Let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like to know how I shot this - happy to make a video about it. :)
(All hail YouTube compression. Makes me do a big 😟 but it is what it is. I will let it be what it is, in light of not wanting to turn this video into a watercolor by denoising too strongly, or adding too much grain to compensate, because that wasn't the original intent.)
