California Views
The Pat Hathaway Photo Collection
Mr. Pat Hathaway, Photo Archivist
Historic Monterey, California • (831) 373-3811
Historic Monterey, California • (831) 373-3811
Posted by Pat Hathaway | July 6, 2026
The Fourth of July weekend is officially in the rearview mirror, but the fireworks in my living room are still going off. It’s Monday morning, the coffee is brewing, and Big Boy Dan is currently shouting at the television screen.
If you’ve been following the Wimbledon saga, you know Dan’s grass-court betting strategy has been an absolute disaster. We are now into Day 8 of the tournament, the Round of 16, and Dan is officially out of answers.
Over the weekend, Novak Djokovic quietly surpassed Roger Federer’s record for individual victories at SW19, notching his 106th win. Federer was actually sitting in the Royal Box watching it happen. Dan, however, was watching his parlays go up in smoke. He had heavily backed Alex de Minaur, only to watch him drop a five-set heartbreaker to Flavio Cobolli this morning.
Dan is now blaming the court groundskeepers, claiming the grass on Centre Court is cut a millimeter too short. You can read up on the actual match statistics over at the official ATP Tour site, but the reality is that Dan’s “baseline geometry” theory was fundamentally flawed from day one.
To escape the tennis-induced complaining, I spent the holiday weekend working on a new photography experiment. Judge Roy Bacon has been relentlessly lecturing me about how my modern Sony mirrorless camera lacks the “soul” of my old analog gear. I decided to call his bluff and build a hybrid.
I dug into the equipment safe and pulled out a vintage 1981 Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 manual focus lens. It’s a heavy block of pure glass and brass. I bought a dummy adapter ring and mounted this 45-year-old mechanical masterpiece directly onto the front of my Sony α1 II.
The result is a Frankenstein rig that forces me to shoot completely manually—no AI tracking, no autofocus, just my eye and the focus ring—but captures the image on a 50-megapixel digital sensor. It is the absolute best of both worlds. The vintage glass has organic imperfections, heavy vignetting, and a beautiful, dream-like bokeh that modern, surgically corrected lenses just can’t replicate.
I took the ATV and this hybrid camera setup down the coast toward Big Sur for the holiday weekend. Shooting a manual f/1.2 lens wide open gives you a terrifyingly thin margin of error. If you breathe too heavily, your subject is out of focus.
But when you nail it, the image sings. I shot some portraits of the rugged coastline and the morning fog rolling through the redwoods. The contrast is spectacular. It has the distinct character of the 1970s surf film I was scanning last week, but with the immediate gratification of a digital workflow. I’ve uploaded a few of the best high-resolution test shots to the California Views Gallery Hub so you can see the results for yourself.
I emailed the gallery link to Judge Roy this morning, along with a simple message:
“Modern sensor, vintage soul, Roy. Checkmate.”
He hasn’t responded yet. I think I finally left him speechless.
BigBoyDan: Cobolli got lucky, Pat. De Minaur slipped on the baseline. The groundskeepers ruined my weekend.
JudgeRoy: Adapting a legendary Nikkor lens to a digital toy is a crime against optics, Patrick. But I will admit, the focus drop-off on those redwood shots is… acceptable.
If you’re curious about adapting vintage glass to modern mirrorless bodies and want to understand why a 40-year-old manual lens is still highly sought after, check out this breakdown of the legendary Nikkor 50mm f/1.2.