Nikkormat FTn meter

wlewisiii

wlewisiii

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I got a battery adapter off of amazon and a batter and, once I got it in the right way, the meter functions. I adjusted the ISO and the reading was way off. After some puttering, with it and my hand held Sekonic L-208, the camera meter is a full two, possibly three, stops off. Is there any way to adjust the meter reading other than say, putting it on 800 or 1600 iso?

I can certainly just keep using the Sekonic anyway, it's just always nice to use the built in meter if it works.

Thanks!
 
It's off in which direction -- overexposure or underexposure? If the meter is overexposing, then it's less of a concern in my view (especially if it's black and white or even color negative film). I think it could handle even three stops over without trouble.

But I figure you know all that. I am sure there is a way to adjust the meter itself, but that's way over my head. If the meter on your FTn isn't doing the usual Nikkormat twitching, consider yourself very fortunate and just compensate in the film speed setting.
 
Is the meter jumpy? That is dirt/corrosion on the pickups. If the meter is under-reading by a couple of stops, consistently across the entire metering range: that is probably the CDS cells going. I used to use Computer Tape Drive cleaner on the pickups, it worked.
 
The jumpiness on one that I got cheap cleared up doing the "Shuffle" back and forth. Somebody on Reddit was all upset that I did that, claimed I was destroying the circuit. After doing this for 40 years, think I'm Okay with it. At least 15 Nikon Photomic heads and Nikkormats cleaned up with this simple procedure. Lesson learned- canceled Reddit account.
 
Well, just adjusting the aperture through normal usage will cause very slight wear - that’s just the consequence of a design using a ring resistor. Also, the Aperture Ring Twist Ritual when mounting lenses will cause slight wear. So a shuffling after cleaning adds negligible wear.

There’s this page:


where the chart at the bottom has a column, “durability of vari-resistor”. It purportedly indicates the EL series resistor was more durable. But I don’t know where they got their information.
 
The resistor in my EL2 went bad- had Nikon replace it. Same in an EM failed, I replaced it. The Nikkormats Ftn/FT2/FT3: I currently have 5 (or 6?), all working.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
The jumpiness on one that I got cheap cleared up doing the "Shuffle" back and forth. Somebody on Reddit was all upset that I did that, claimed I was destroying the circuit. After doing this for 40 years, think I'm Okay with it. At least 15 Nikon Photomic heads and Nikkormats cleaned up with this simple procedure. Lesson learned- canceled Reddit account.
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Dear Brian,

That's good information to know. I have a gorgeous black Nikkormat FTN that had a jumpy meter. I noticed after several lens changes and nothing else that it settled down. I'm glad I accidentally made it work!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂
 
Got the deoxit, did the work, it seems a lot better. Hopefully I can get out later or tomorrow and finish the roll of XP2 in it to test it.

Sorted the film in my fridge - bunch of Arista 100, 4 rolls of TriX, 1 roll of FP4, 3 rolls of Pan F and 2 rolls of Acros left. No chromagenic B&W 135 right now. Gonna have to invest in more if I keep using this Nikkormat and it's N90S younger brother 😉
 
So, yesterday, after the latest round of work I took it out with a roll of Ilford XP2 Super loaded to test it. Still needs a little more work but it’s getting there. I used my 50/1.4 & 105/2.5. I'll work on it some more this afternoon and when it's ready, I'll probably do a color test as I think I've got one roll of Ektar floating around here.

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