Looking for more info on Nikon RF

[Jan Van Laethem]

I have almost finished reading Rob Rotoloni's excellent book "The Complete Nikon Rangefinder System".

I am now looking for a different kind of info. Is there any literature available from the period when Nikon RF was available new? I'm thinking of a compendium of advertising, sales brochures, articles in photography magazines etc that stem from the period between 1948 to 1960. I have always found the advertising from the '50s and '60s quite fascinating and it would be great to have access to those in some form or other.

Thanks

Jan

 

[JonR]

Jan!

The only things I have found when searching the Internet has been:
1) Pdf-versions of the manuals for S, S2 & SP
2) Pdf-vesrion of the manual for the RF Flash
3) onepager on lenses
4) onepager pricelist

If you find other stuff I am sure other are interested also.
Anyone wanting any of the pdf-versions above just send me an email!

Jon

 

[NIKON KIU]

I can suggest a couple of books:

The Nikon manual by George Wright:

Some of the advertising of the period is reprinted in this book, Nikon a celebration by Brian Long ;

Also you can check out this NHS link:
http://www.nikonhs.org/publications.html


Unfortunetly, the brochures and magazine articles from that period is real hard to find.

Kiu

 

[xayraa33]

there was some Nikon ads in american photo magazines from about 1955 to 1960 for Nikon RF cameras and lenses.
after 1960 the Nikon F SLR and its lenses was the main product in these Nikon ads and the SLR was
heavily promoted.

 

[xayraa33]

more Nikon RF magazine ads:
an early one for the S2 and a late one for the SP , S3 and the famous Nikkor lenses that " ferret out every detail". 🙂

 

[snegron]

I can suggest a couple of books:

The Nikon manual by George Wright:

Some of the advertising of the period is reprinted in this book, Nikon a celebration by Brian Long ;

Also you can check out this NHS link:
http://www.nikonhs.org/publications.html


Unfortunetly, the brochures and magazine articles from that period is real hard to find.

Kiu

I'll second Brian Long's book as well. It has many images of ads both in English and Japanese. I found the book very interesting and informative as well.

 

[jonmanjiro]

We'd still be missing the S4, S3 2000 and SP 2005 manuals.

I'd be interested in copies of the S3 2000 and SP 2005 manuals in English too. Anybody out there willing to make a pdf version of them?

 

[Stefcuoz]

Jan... you can find a good copy of S4 Manual and interesting other ones on:
www.pacificrimcamera.com of my friend Mike Otto.
You have to follow the photographica pages, go to nikon, and than go to...
Nikon rangefinder brochures and instruction manuals.
I hope my explanation has been clear.
Steve.

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

Thank you Steve. Very clear explanation, I found it right away. Alas, one of the links seems to be broken, I managed to download all the pages except nº 19 (which would be page 18 of the brochure, as it start with the front cover). :bang: Anyone has that particular page downloaded?

I also downloaded from the same website the Nikon S sales brochure A-254 and the Early Nikon S36 Motor Drive Instruction Book.

Jan

 

[Joerg]

Hi,

The Nikon manual by Wright is available on Amazon as well as Abebooks for roughly $40.

Ciao

Joerg

 

[arturo]

I'd be interested in copies of the S3 2000 and SP 2005 manuals in English too. Anybody out there willing to make a pdf version of them?

I could find the English manual of the S3 2000, but not in the next days as I'll be on trip. The English manual of the SP 2005 is more problematic, I've only seen them in Japanese. Were they ever printed in English?

Arturo

 

[NIKON KIU]

I'd be interested in copies of the S3 2000 and SP 2005 manuals in English too. Anybody out there willing to make a pdf version of them?

I am willing if I could figure-out the time/how to use the scanner...

Anyone wants to assist? I have both manuals.

Kiu

 

[NIKON KIU]

Kiu, that book by George Wright was for sale on ebay, closed yesterday somewhat below 80 British Pounds, that would be about 115 dollars. I bid up to 40 GBP but didn't go through till the end. I'll see if I can find another copy somewhere else. The book by Brian Long looks very interesting, I think I will order a copy.


Jan

Amazon UK has a special on Brian Long's Book, I think.

Great decision to use patience and not bid on the George Wright book, I had two at one time and sold the extra copy on ebay for less than $30!!
I think if you keep looking you should be able to find one for under $50--> around 30 British Sterling pounds!

Ebay example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Nikon-Manua...684889QQptZCameraQ5fFiltersQQsalenotsupported

Kiu

 

[BillBingham2]

Kiu,

If you can get me the images I can put them together into a single PDF for each. Another option is scanning is too much of a pain is to shot digital images of them and send me the jpgs. Scans would come out best.

B2 (;->

 

[NIKON KIU]

Some of us just want to read the old book Fred!
I ended up with two because I bought a camera set that came with it.

But obviously, the last edition, signed by the author with a good dust jacket and the extra inserts, could do well over $100

Kiu

 

[NIKON KIU]

Kiu,

If you can get me the images I can put them together into a single PDF for each. Another option is scanning is too much of a pain is to shot digital images of them and send me the jpgs. Scans would come out best.

B2 (;->

OK Bill,
It'll be "yours and mines" project. I bought a cheap HP Copier/scanner/printer because the kids broke my HP Photo printer.... I'll look into scanning those pages and emailing them to you.

Kiu

 

[BillBingham2]

Kiu,

Sounds like a plan.

Everyone,

Anything else you can think of we should add (like some of the ads or anything) please let us know. You can send it along to bingham.b at comcast.net. I have a lot of space I can take what ever good stuff you can send.

Thanks all.

B2 (;->

 

[NIKON KIU]

Says on the first page, IT'S NOT THE SAME!!!

Kiu

 

[M. Valdemar]

What you really want to do is look in the old JAPANESE magazines:





Astonishing! They were apparently even able to predict what the average RFF forum user would look like in 2008.....60 years into the future !!

 

[M. Valdemar]