Did anyone notice the Black S3....

I's a bit "well used" isn't it

Which is not bad, (the well used bit), but "mintish" S3s sell for about that price or less

What is so special about "Olympic"
 
I did not want to mention the Italy thing, so not to offend our esteemed italian RFF members.. but I must admit it crossed my mind.
the seniority in membership for the seller is also one of those unspoken concerns.
since most members here are users, more than collectors, I think that one can get a new in the box black S3 for about one G note more to the selling price ,with the stellar , much lauded Millenium 50mm f1.4 Nikkor lens
has something to do with it.
If the S3 2000 never existed, a user that wanted a black S3( & it had to be an original black) to run film through it, did not have a choice but to buy a camera like that S3 from Italy.
 
What Stephen doesn't say in his article that all the "Olympic" cameras were sold for Japan's market hence all are in meters instead of feet and unlike what Fred said,there are cloth S3s in black, but in much less quantity than the "Olympic" model, according to the NHS Chairman in NHS 90 Journal, it is estimated at 325!

Kiu
 
f2eyelevel said:
I don't know where you *all* live, but chances are, that when Michelangelo was painting the Sixtinian Chapel roof, Leonardo da Vinci inventing the camera, Galileo Galilei discovering that the Earth wasn't the center of the Universe, and anonymous still gifted architects covering all the extraordinary monuments of Florence with white marble, and so on, your own country was still covered with deep forests where primitive tribes were hunting wild animals and fighting with other tribes as for their current livings.
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Hey, less of the dark forests and primitive trides - Certainly not true for Yorkshire, home of cricket and all other civilised activities
- apart from the "fighting other tribes" - the red rose lot
 
I don't know where you *all* live, but chances are, that when Michelangelo was painting the Sixtinian Chapel roof, Leonardo da Vinci inventing the camera, Galileo Galilei discovering that the Earth wasn't the center of the Universe, and anonymous still gifted architects covering all the extraordinary monuments of Florence with white marble, and so on, your own country was still covered with deep forests where primitive tribes were hunting wild animals and fighting with other tribes as for their current livings.
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Are you trying to say it's okay to buy a Japanese camera from someone who ... isn't American?! Good heavens!
 
f2eyelevel said:
~2000 black Nikon S3 Olympic were made according to Robert Rotoloni.
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That was according to the 1983 book,today it's 2600!
Kiu
PS: I love Italy!
 
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f2eyelevel said:
Gina Lollobrigida actually. Not Dee Dee Bridgewater related.

Could be pretty endless, uh ? Seems that we're quite far away from the black Italian Nikon S3 now.
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LOL .. yes yes that is how you spell her surname.
I am just jaded by having watched too many
Flintstones episodes.:)
 
Fred,
This is a global site,there are many members from Asia and Europe,what literture you are refering to must be EPOI!!
I had a chance of buying this one from NHS member Peter W. Of UK...interestingly this one was marked T on the rewind!!
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Kiu
 

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I have a Japanese language Nikon rangefinder book that goes to great lengths to call these cameras "additional production S3s" rather than "Olympic S3s" because their sale had nothing to do with the Olympics. The Tokyo Olympics were held in Showa 39 (1964), whereas these cameras went on sale in the fall of Showa 40 (1965). The book goes on to say that some Olympic S3 bodies were sold with 3.5cm f1.8 or 5cm f2 lens instead of the Olympic Nikkor-S 50/1.4, and some were even sold with no lens at all.
 
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NIKON KIU said:
...Olympic in the classifieds?
An Olympic model without the lens for $1950!!

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost-classifieds/showproduct.php?product=5262&cat=3

Who needs to evilbay?

Kiu
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Hi everybody (from a parisian member)

Why do you think it's an Olympic? The ad don't say that.
Are all the black S3 Olympic?
My old black S3 no 6312906 is an Olympic one and he didn't know that?
Anyway , is curtain is definitivly not titanium.

I send two mails asking details about this S3, because the seller has no feedback, but the strange and evasive answers
made me feel anxious ,and let it down.
The seller told me is going to put the ad on ebay and "it will take one minute to sell it"
 
Can't imagine many journalists in 1964 wanting to buy/borrow an S3, when they could get a motorized F
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I imagine there were some people -- not many, but some -- who just didn't like the size and weight of the Nikon F, especially motorized. Many journalists kept using the SPs and S3s through the 1970s, despite the availability of SLRs. Also, the size of SLR lenses may have been a factor. A Nikon S3/SP is a classic small carry-anywhere camera. I imagine the young news photographers -- like you -- were all jostling to get their motorized, metered, telephoto Fs. Meanwhile, some of the older and more experienced photographers, who grew up with small cameras and available light, were quietly lamenting the loss of a way of shooting.

For the most part, news people shooting Fs were switching over from big old Speed Graphics and Rollies with bowl flashes. The RF cameras had been a niche in the 1950s, not part of the mainstream.
 
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VinceC said:
I image there were some people -- not many, but some -- who just didn't like the size and weight of the Nikon F, especially motorized.
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Very true. For decades I never liked the size of the whole Nikon F series bodies, since I always prefered the Pentax SLR. There aren't many who like both... the Nikon S2 was my first Nikon ever, and I couldn't believe this small camera was a NIKON..!

regards, Frank
 
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