First photos with a Nikon F2

W

wlewisiii

Guest
I picked up my first Nikon ever over the holidays and took it out for the first times over the weekend. I knew the DP1 wasn't working but I had a good Gossen Luna Pro, right?

Then the Luna Pro high/low range switch jammed. Ok, well, I've got some Tri-X, some diafine & a 50/1.4 lens, I should be able to easily get at least scannable negs with that, right?

Well, I dunked and scanned a bit from the weekend. Here's a couple of OK shots. It really is easy to screw things up when everything (EVERYTHING!!!!) is backwards from what you're used to! Oy!

I ordered a second DP1 from KEH today and dropped my Gossen off at the local repair shop... :bang: :bang: :bang: 😀

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There's a few more here http://picasaweb.google.com/wlewisiii/Winter1011# if you are so inclined.

It's a great camera & I can see the potential, but I really do need to get some practice with it. Much practice. Many motions that are second nature to me are just wrong to use here because I end up stopping down rather than opening up the two stops I thought I was and so on. I know I know - slow down look at what you're doing, etc. But it was new years eve and after a Guiness or two autopilot kicks in. Autopilot is good for walking home at bar time; not so good for new camera usage 😱

Little stuff. As with everything else, hopefully the next roll will be better 🙂

William
 
hans voralberg said:
I take it you were a Canon user then? With all the "backward" and stuff.
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Since 1983 at the PX in Illesheim, FRG, I've had a Canon SLR of some kind 😎 so, yeah, that's kinda why it's good to laugh at myself about it here. The Nikon really is great, but it also really is different.
 
I know you were just shooting a test roll, but thanks for the views of Madison, one of my favorite places to visit. Too bad there's no farmers' market on the steps of the Capitol this time of the year. Oh yeah, you've finally ended up with controls that turn the way they're supposed to!🙂
 
Thanks for the comments, all. I got out this morning intending on a bit more of that practice I spoke of 🙂 and did a few shots at some of my favorite places. Got a couple of good bits to come out of it:

First I gave my 28/3.5 Nikkor-H a tryout:

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And then back to the 50/1.4 at the burying ground:

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William
 
norgas_co said:
By selecting an F2 you have now rectified the 28yr "mistake" 🙂 IMHO

A fantastic slr, enjoy!
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haha, to me there is nothing like the clunk of F and F2 shutters. You know you've taken a picture and..... so does everyone else! One of my favorite Slr's since I saw one as a 12yr old in '76. The DP1's are repairable. Try Sover Wong in the UK. He serviced all 3 of my F2's and does fantastic work.
Have fun with it, j
 
Calzone said:
Nice tonality on your scans. What ISO are you shooting at with that Tri-X developed in diafine.

Cal
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The Tri-X at night is EI1600. The daytime shots are nearer to box - probably EI800, maybe EI640. One of the nicest things about Diafine is that you can use any EI you need at different times on the same roll so long as you're below the maximum for the film. And Tri-X still responds better than any other.

The second set of pictures with the 28 & the 50 were Plus-X (labled Arista Premium) and also dunked in Diafine. The EI would have been 100~200 since the light was good.

Norgas_co, I keep reading how the 28/3.5 is supposed to be a poor 28, lots of falloff, etc. and certainly there is truth to those reviews but for my uses it's a very fine lens. 3.5 is more than fast enough for what I'd actually shoot wide angle 🙂 And it was $27 BGN at KEH. 😛

My scanner is an Epson Perfection 3170 using the Epson software. It was recently gifted to me and I'm still learning how to use it best.

William
 
wlewisiii said:
Norgas_co, I keep reading how the 28/3.5 is supposed to be a poor 28, lots of falloff, etc. and certainly there is truth to those reviews but for my uses it's a very fine lens. 3.5 is more than fast enough for what I'd actually shoot wide angle 🙂 And it was $27 BGN at KEH. 😛

William
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I had previously considered that lens as well, though never proceeded to get one. The way an f/3.5 dims the finder is what stops me. But your photo results are making me reconsider, good stuff.
 
It isn't a lens for available darkness to be sure, but it's light & easy handling when outside. A bit dim on the screen but it it's brighter than my 80-200/4.5 😀 which is a great bit of glass for outside as well.

William
 
Thanks for your response.

Diafine with Tri-X has been difficult for me, you seem to have mastered it. I have found it to be magic with Fuji Arcos at night, and do very well with HP5, but with Tri-X I get inconsistent results. I need to try shooting at 800 and slower.

Cal
 
Don't forget that when you're looking at a thread or at my picassa web site, you're only going to be seeing the good ones. I had quite a few blown exposures on those two rolls since I couldn't meter that night. It may only look good in that respect.

I pretty much only shoot three films - Plus-X, Tri-X & Ektar 100 these days. Concentrating on and really learning a small number of films seems to help considerably as well.

Data sheets are really valuable to read as well. I make sure to have a current one for each of the films I use.

Hope these thoughts help.
 
I limited myself to Tri-X, TXP-320, HP5, and Fuji Arcos.

I kinda made a breakthrough over the weekend in Diafine. I shot a Rollei 3.5F with a light yellow filter under diffused/overcast conditions and nailed exposure on an entire roll of 220 shot over the course of a day. Base ISO was 1000 (recomended speed on the Diafine box) with a filter factor of +1 for 500 effective film speed.

In a second camera I attempted to adjust the contrast with just additional exposure, but all I got were thin negatives.

BTW Fuji Arcos is kinda like magic in Diafine, but I found it likes 100 ISO (not 200 or 160 recomended by others) and 4 1/2+4 1/2 (instead of 5+5). Perfect negatives that doesn't seem to have the contrast jumps of other films.

I loaded up on filters and will confirm my results using different cameras and across formats. It seems like shooting at the Diafine recomended speeds and boosting contrast with filters is the way to go.

Cal
 
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