I just completed the "opening ceremony" of a SP-2005

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Vickko

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I just completed the "opening ceremony" of a SP-2005

If you have never done it, I cannot describe the feelings and emotions around opening each of the nested boxes and packaging that this camera and case come in.

It is pure joy, and then to finally see and hold the beautiful black camera that is inside - wow!

To Jon, thank you very very much for allowing me this pleasure.

regards
Vick
 
Congrats, Vick! That is a pleasure with a treasure. I had a similar experience a couple weeks ago with an S3-2000 complete kit from RFF members abenner and X-Ray. I'll wish both of us a lot of fun with our respective new Nikon models!
 
Hey, Vick!!

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!!!

Now, you know how I felt when I opened mine from (whoelse?) Jonmanjiro! It was just like I had been teleported back to 1958 and I felt so lucky to experience that same feeling you now describe!

Ahhh...what a great entree into a new world of photography...enjoy...
 
Kiev 4am has plenty of tradition going back to the 1930s Contax.

I've had an SP-2005 from Jonmanjiro for a couple of months now, and it's my main traveling camera now during business trips. A real joy to use.
 
The camera is beautiful as an object, but I still wish Nikon would have focused the resources they spent catering to their rangefinder legacy on creating something new. Whoever wants to use an SP could still buy a used SP, but this way a couple million dollars were lost.

Philip
 
>>still wish Nikon would have focused the resources they spent catering to their rangefinder legacy on creating something new.<<

It's difficult to say how you could improve on the SP design. I suppose larger magnification on the secondary finder for wide-angles, with built-in capacity for 25/21mm focal lengths. Metering would be useful for some. But then, instead of duplicating a proven design, you have to rework it to ensure stability, etc.

Of course, the best innovation would be a digital SP.
 
VinceC said:
It's difficult to say how you could improve on the SP design.
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You can improve on any camera. No matter how good a camera is, saying that a camera is beyond improvement per se is a close-minded Leica way of thinking. I don't think you think that way.

Creating a 100% replica of something, including recreating the tooling and processes required to build it, may not be less work than creating something slightly different that is better in some respects. Authenticity means a lot of added effort. Then again I'm not a Nikon collector and I'm also not a Nikon decision-maker. They probably know better what's good for their users and their company.

VinceC said:
Of course, the best innovation would be a digital SP.
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Or any Nikon digital rangefinder for that matter.

Philipp
 
Digital would be better? No, not for me.

At the end of the day, my DSLR's are left alone and I pick up the F3/T or the S3 2000 and never think of the digital plastic wonders until I am back at the office.

I have no emotional attachement to the plastic disposables (@ $5K each), but, somehow, those metal ones....they get my attention and I use them for ME, not work.

I do not miss Photoshop/File transfers/battery chargers/compact flashes/etc.

But I do love the anticipation of getting my Tri-X back later in the day...

No, digital SP? Not for me.
 
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Perhaps one way Nikon could improve the SP would be to stretch it slightly and add a mirror box and removable finder. But if I suggest that I might risk being banned from the forum.
On a more sensible note, my early titanium curtained SP is still my favorite user of my 200 rangefinders, and the price I paid for it with a brilliant 2/50 black Nikkor would make strong men weep.
 
Charles Woodhouse said:
Perhaps one way Nikon could improve the SP would be to stretch it slightly and add a mirror box and removable finder. But if I suggest that I might risk being banned from the forum.
On a more sensible note, my early titanium curtained SP is still my favorite user of my 200 rangefinders, and the price I paid for it with a brilliant 2/50 black Nikkor would make strong men weep.
Click to expand...

Nikon already made one of those. It's called an FM3a.

/T
 
Tuolumne said:
Nikon already made one of those. It's called an FM3a.

/T
Click to expand...

I think Charles was attempting to inject a little humour with his comment. Maybe he should have added a smiley 🙂 The Nikon F SLR is the camera he's referring to. The F was based on the SP, and the two cameras share a lot of the same DNA.
 
Yep, those smiley thingies work pretty well...

A little humor is always welcome.

Hmmm...improving on the SP....hmmm....then, I guess it wouldn't be an SP would it? The wonderful thing about Jon introducing me to the S3 2000 is the fact that I, and a few others, have been able to experience the use of such a fine precision instrument as if we were really using an original S3 in 1958!

Opening the boxes, seeing and feeling the tissue fold back whilst uncovering...gasp...the body, it is beautiful!...and the lens...oh, peering into the lens leaves me feeling lost as in the depths of the eyes of a sensuous woman...and that sparkling viewfinder is gorgeous...quick!...fold back the tissue so we can see a little more! Oh, my...should I touch it? Dare I? Oh, yes! What a wonderful feeling to hold and...


Wait a minute...this reminds me of my honeymoon....

For me, I am very thankful that Nikon chose to re-issue it's RF cameras or I would never have had the opportunity to share in the opening ceremony or the subsequent honeymoon that is still on-going!
 
rxmd said:
The camera is beautiful as an object, but I still wish Nikon would have focused the resources they spent catering to their rangefinder legacy on creating something new.
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At last concretising the SP-X prototype (which was aimed at being the best rangefinder camera, ever) and producing them at about 20,000 items to "celebrate" the end of the Nikon film cameras production may have been nicer than a re-issue from Nikon.

The SP-X blueprints might be lost, though, and the production of these cameras would have costed way more (as for R&D) than the SP re-issue.

Plus, the SP is a myth already ; on the contrary, few people are aware of the SP-X features, and as per raw marketing rules, it might have been too high a failure risk. We'll never know.
 
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