Anyone Ever Put a Split Prism Focus Screen in an AF Nikon SLR?

[Steve M.]

I have my dream camera now, a Nikon N90s w/ a couple of Leica R lenses. Love everything about it except for the weight and size (no fix for that) and the focus screen. I really want a split prism screen for it, but refuse to pay $130 for a Katz Eye screen. I mean, the camera only ran me 40 bucks! I bought an inexpensive EM because I'd read on flickr that you could use it's screen, but after removing I see that I'd have to cut it down a little. Someone suggested on another forum that I just buy a Nikon w/ a split prism already in it, but I don't want that.

There's several fleabay sellers that sell affordable split prism screens for the DSLR crowd, but the one seller I talked to said their screens for the D40 wouldn't fit my film camera. Maybe that's because the D40 isn't full frame? I'm guessing that I'd need a screen made for a full frame DSLR?

So, and this is a long shot, has anyone put a split prism into their Nikon AF film camera? I'm pretty sure the F100, N90 and some other models all take the same screens. My camera has a VERY easy screen to replace. You just open the latch and remove it. I'm just not sure what to put in there. Worse comes to worse I'll cut the EM screen down, but would prefer one that's the right size to begin with. Thanks.

 

[angelodal]

I did this with my F4. Replaced the Type B F4 screen with a Type R screen from an F2. It was a lot of work, you'd have to shim the screen to get proper focus. This means putting a ground glass behind the shutter, carefully checking the focus with a loupe then adjusting the screen on the frame. Would have been less work getting a proper split focus screen for the F4 but I had F2 focusing screens lying around.

 

[sevo]

Crop frame DSLR screens are half the size of a SLR screen, so they are utterly useless for your purpose. The F90 has a replaceable screen, but as far as I can make out, Nikon only supplied a plain matte and a plain matte+grid screen for it.

F series cameras use complex framed screens - these are quite different and would have to be taken apart and re-ground for use on a consumer Nikon. But the screen shape and size on the consumer Nikons from FE on is usually the same - unframed, ground side downwards, with a register tab encoding the right position (and camera). The F90 screens look suspiciously like one of these. And FM/FE/FA type screens in the standard split/microprism collar version tend to be very affordable, so you might try one of these. The Nikons I have tried all had the same focal plane position, but I did not try on a F90, so you'd have to test (and perhaps shim) it before use...

You may have to grind off some of the register tab, to fit it into the frame. And it will be half a stop or two less bright, so you'd have to adjust the ISO setting accordingly. And fill flash will be correspondingly off - that is the main reason why Nikon supplied camera specific screens (and why few third party makers ever offered "superbright" screens for the lesser bodies). For fill flash you cannot compensate screen brightness on the ISO dial, as that would also affect the OTF flash meter sensitivity, and only the F4/F5 finders came with a separate screen compensation knob!