Nikon F --- All it's cracked up to be?

ray*j*gun said:
dasuess, I am referring to the foam in the Finder Prism... are we on the same page here?
Click to expand...


My F has a plain prism - the only foam I see is a small strip where the eyepiece fits onto the body. That strip, as well as the strip that the mirror hits when the shutter is fired, were replaced with the kit I purchased from Jon.

If you have an Ftn finder, it's probably different. Check with Jon. If you have an Ftn meter that needs to be serviced, that's another matter.

Good luck !!!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
dasuess said:
My F has a plain prism - the only foam I see is a small strip where the eyepiece fits onto the body. That strip, as well as the strip that the mirror hits when the shutter is fired, were replaced with the kit I purchased from Jon.

If you have an Ftn finder, it's probably different. Check with Jon. If you have an Ftn meter that needs to be serviced, that's another matter.

Good luck !!!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Hi,

There is internal foam bedding around the prism that degrades. You can not see that foam with the prism in tact. Its that internal foam that can/will eventually destroy the silvering on the prism. I know I saw some pics of how that looks when its all gummy but for the life of me I can not find them.

Thanks for your help!

Ray
 
It was one tough cookie. We (not me) used them as the camera of the U. S. Army. One report during the VN war was that an Army photographer had to sneak one passed somebody in a bucket of water. After a day in a dehumidifier it worked fine.

It was maybe a little big for combat photography, but you know photographers they will do anything to use the best. Leica was not official but there were also many left from the pre-F days. I remember a IIIf with lenses were still being used in a Milgroup facility in Nicaragua in 1971.
 
dee said:
It is probably the best Pro camera of it's age , but i love my Minolta SR1v !
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Agreed.

The only thing that really gave the F any competition in the real pro marked was the Topcon RE and its decendents. It came out 4 years after the F and while it had an in-body TTL meter it was crippled by its lens mount "borrowed" from the Exakta. The mount was small, limiting the design of fast lenses, and the mount and its latch suffered from wear far more than Nikon's F mount.

Nikon learned from their RF line and borrowed from the Leica M mount. The clear throat diameter of the F mount equaled the diagonal of the image, it used a "dead bold" pin latch like the Leica M mount, and used very wear resistant metals.
 
dasuess said:
You should save yourself some dollars and do it yourself. Contact Jon Goodman for a kit (JGood21967@aol.com). I did it a year or so ago and the kit was about $8, maybe $10. Jon dropped the kit in the mail even before he received my payment. The process is pretty easy - you just need to make sure you remove all the previous foam/goo before installing the new seals. Jon provides very good instructions.
Click to expand...

Been talking with Jon for the last few days now; actually, he doesn't have the foam for the Nikon F plain prism. He's got the foam for the rest of the camera, just nothing for the plain prism. Bummer.
 
Famous New York City repair/customiser master, Marty Forestner, called the F a hockey puck camera.

I never found a F that was worth beans, rough rewind etc. I stumbled on a nice F2 and a Nikormat . Both were excellent and smooth as a Leica that was just cleaned.

Remember Fred Maroon? He is famous. He took a dozen F`s and six Leicas to a model shoot in Mongolia. He went long way around, NYC to Moscow to trans Siberian RR to Mongolia. Upon arrival, None of the Nikons worked and all the Leicas did.
Heard it from his own lips at a seminar. I think he ordered more air freight, but not sure.

Undoubtedly the best SLR early 1960s
 
The question here is about the Nikon F and not others or newer cameras. I still have a Nikon F that I bought in 1967 and it still works just fine. Maybe slow shutter speeds are a bit slow but it's never had a CLA or any work done on it and it's had a lot of use over the years. Build is rock solid. - jim
 
Ronald M said:
Famous New York City repair/customiser master, Marty Forestner, called the F a hockey puck camera.

I never found a F that was worth beans, rough rewind etc.
Click to expand...

Nah, I love 'em!

Sisters.jpg


Best,
-Tim
 
When I worked at Altmans in Chicago in the early 70's Nikon F (and later the F2's) were in heavy demand but the most popular SLR, the one we sold the most of was the Minolta SRT-101. But all I had was a Miranda D with a 50 f1.9 Soligor. It had interchangeable screens and finders though and was fine for a hobby photographer like me. I also had Olympus Pen F and when the OM system came out I saved my nickles for a used one, I always liked lighter weight cameras. The Nikon F was impressive though, very tough and reliable. You hardly ever saw them come in for repair.
 
Ronald M said:
Remember Fred Maroon? He is famous. He took a dozen F`s and six Leicas to a model shoot in Mongolia. He went long way around, NYC to Moscow to trans Siberian RR to Mongolia. Upon arrival, None of the Nikons worked and all the Leicas did.
Heard it from his own lips at a seminar. I think he ordered more air freight, but not sure.

Undoubtedly the best SLR early 1960s
Click to expand...

Interesting. I took my F to Walter's Camera Repair in LA. They have been in business since 1953. I asked him to CLA my F, he looked at it and said 'Why? They never break".
 
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