Retrospective Travel Blog: Chicago 2022
April 2022 was a turning point for me and the confidence I had in my photography skill. I had been watching lots of YouTube travel videos of my favorite creators and finally decided I would take ONLY a film camera on our planned trip to Chicago. Prior to this I was using a very competent Mirrorless Nikon 1 J2 I had gotten from a friend. It served me well in its bright orange super compact body, but it was time for me to just jump in and give up the security of knowing instantly what my photos looked like. This would also be a warmup for our next National Parks trip planned for later that summer, and to be honest it worked out better than expected.
When I was choosing what camera and lens combo to take, I ended up taking the only autofocus body I had at the time, a Nikon N8008s. It is a very early model, built sometime between 1992-1995. The autofocus is slow and noisy, but accurate once you get the hang of it. The light meter is also accurate, and I never worried about it getting the exposure just right in bright light, shadow or even at night while wandering through the theater district. It just works. I paired it with a zoom lens that is also not really known to be anything other than an “adequate” do it all tool. The NIKKOR 28-85mm 3.5-4.5 AF is a good match to the N8008s as they are both good at everything and excellent at nothing. I also wanted to take something I would not be terribly upset if either one ended up being broken or lost. I did end up having a heavy glass door slammed closed on the body but not even a scratch was sustained.
Walking with this hanging around my neck for 2 days was a little cumbersome, but it felt less heavy than most of the other autofocus cameras I’ve had. I also got more compliments on this one than I’ve ever gotten for any camera. Shout out to Zach at the Downtown LEGO store. I did make a mistake and loaded it with Black and White film before we went to the top of the Willis Tower, but it still made some nice photos. Much better than I took in the early 90’s when we went with my youth group, and it was still called the Sears Tower. The sunset wasn’t amazing, but it deserved better than BW film.
On the way back to the hotel all the streetlights were coming on and made the buildings feel like they were coming to life. We were staying in one of the hotels attached to a theater and those last few blocks of walking were brilliant.
Chicago during daytime was slow to wake up. We made it to Cloud Gate (The Bean), and it was almost deserted. They were filming a scene for Chicago PD and said we could stay to the side as a part of the background extras. I was the only one interested, so we wandered back over to the sculpture, and I took what I would consider a selfie from the inside of it. I felt very much like I was working on a random college project and it was 1995 again.
The rest of the day was spent walking to and through the Museum of Natural History, Soldier Field and then some casual shopping while trying to avoid obvious tourist traps and dark alleyways. Of course, we did have to have Chicago Style Hot Dogs at Portillo’s…It was worth the 2-mile walk. Trying to squeeze a full Chicago weekend into just under 1000 words is tough, so I’m going to let the photos tell the rest of the story.
Overall, I was very pleased with how well the camera performed in so many different situations and have recommended it to multiple people looking for an inexpensive film camera. I got mine from KEH.com in excellent condition for around $60, and the lens came on a different body I bought previously. It can be had currently for around $50 and works with any manual focus Nikon body going back to the original F from 1959 and I still use it with my newest Digital D500. If you need a lens and I still have this one, I’d be happy to rehome it. These late 80’s to early 90’s autofocus film cameras are a steal of a deal for anyone that wants to learn to take a nice photo.