Nikkormat FT sync the lens/meter

[Vintage35]

I've found a few vague descriptions of how to mount/sync a lens on the FT but I'm not sure I fully understand. There is no manual for the FT at the Butkus site. Can someone either give a link to a manual or good tutorial or describe the procedure for me?

I have the FTn and am familiar with it but the FT is different

 

[George Bonanno]

I had an FT in Cambodia, then it was stolen by a ladyboy. Anyway, from what I remember you set the lens maximum aperture opposite to the film speed on the camera. Then move the mounting pin ring all the way to the right. Then set the lens to f5.6 and mount it on the camera. I think that’s all there was to it. Then center the meter needle for proper exposure and take pictures. Something like that.

 

[Dwig]

I had an FT in Cambodia, then it was stolen by a ladyboy. Anyway, from what I remember you set the lens maximum aperture opposite to the film speed on the camera. Then move the mounting pin ring all the way to the right. Then set the lens to f5.6 and mount it on the camera. I think that’s all there was to it. Then center the meter needle for proper exposure and take pictures. Something like that.

+1, this is the correct method.

 

[Greyscale]

I have always set the lens to 5.6, mounted on the camera, and then rotated the aperture to minimum and then maximum aperture, as outlined in the FTN manual.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/nikon_pdf/nikkormat_ftn.pdf

 

[George Bonanno]

The FTn is not the same camera as the FT in question.

 

[Dwig]

The FTn is not the same camera as the FT in question.

quite correct, and this issue of mounting the lens and coupling it correctly to the meter is the major difference between the FT and the FTn.

With the original Nikon TTL meters (Nikkormat FT, Nikon F Photomic T, and Nikon F Photomic TN) you had to manually index the lens' maximum aperture against the film speed setting. When shooting with an uncoupled lens (e.g. bellows, ...) you use the red f/5.6 mark as the index. While slow, it was generally considered a better approach than that of the bulk of the competitors where you were forced to stop the lens down to shooting aperture to take a meter reading.

Nikon improved the system by introducing the "semi automatic indexing" method sometimes referred to as the "Nikon shuffle". After mounting the lens you simply turned the f/stop ring to minimum, to maximum, and back again to let the body "feel" the maximum f/stop and set itself accordingly.

 

[Greyscale]

I guess that since the meter is dead on my FT, incorrectly syncing the meter doesn't matter so much. And bad on me for assuming that it was the same as on my FTN.