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

John E Earley said:
I nearly purchased a Miranda back in the mid 60's, but for this brave new world I chose a Nikon instead, my first of many.
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Interesting John - same story for me. In 1968 I was debating Miranda or Nikon and a good friend said "buy what you really want otherwise you'll never be happy" great advice and I bought my first F - still have it and I also still follow this advice. Have 3 more F's and 3 F's🙄
 
I had a couple of F's and although nice to use I felt that the F2 was more user friendly. The F3 even better and probably stronger and even more robust!
The Leicaflex SL is THE SLR equivalent of an M2 and is actually nicer to use than the F.
I think the F gets a lot of attention due to war torn hero stories and most would probably prefer the later cameras in use.
 
Well, I'm a war torn USMC non-hero and we were issued F's (which I love to this day) but the better field camera was the Nikkormat which had less chance of getting jammed up with dirt. As soon as we could we got Nikkormats in place of the F's. Seldom used the meter (f11 and be there lol).

I still favor Nikkormats which are basically free these days I have 4 including the Nam unit. But the black F is like a mistress to me and love her anyway.
 
ray*j*gun said:
Well, I'm a war torn USMC non-hero and we were issued F's (which I love to this day) but the better field camera was the Nikkormat which had less chance of getting jammed up with dirt. As soon as we could we got Nikkormats in place of the F's. Seldom used the meter (f11 and be there lol).

I still favor Nikkormats which are basically free these days I have 4 including the Nam unit. But the black F is like a mistress to me and love her anyway.
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Raymond,
Interesting info. I guess sometimes less is more! I always felt the viewfinder on Nikkormats a bit dim but the F5 spoilt me for all other NIkon finders,
Regards j
 
Paulbe said:
goodtimes--wow! Very nice! Quite a spread you have there.
Thanks for sharing...
Paul
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Sunday evening after sorting them out I discovered 3 more early Nikon Kogaku Fs hidden in a closet !
I just counted how many I had accumulated in a spread of about 8 years: 22 🙂
They are all in good shape and fully operational except one showing the mirror constantly up issue (a broken return spring) that I got to fix.
In the top picture the 3rd from bottom right is an <EP> Nikon.
 
Great advice indeed. I'd used my father's Brownie initially, but wanted something of my own (and that was more reliable). Hence, the F which had a storied past from my readings in Life Magazine. My F was my first camera that I'd saved for with over a year of paper route money, and I carried it around on my many treks on the Trombly bus from the suburbs into Boston exploring the city. I still have 8x10 prints from way back then (gosh, over 40 years ago) and I'm amazed at the sharpness and clarity of those shots. Since those halcyon days, have added another F with F36, two F2s with MD-2, F3 with MD-4, FA with MD-15, and EM with winder all which get used...along with the D100 and D300. Each camera I can recall experiences and shots I made with them, so they are like avatars of the past, very similar to the experiences of other posters here. And only two repairs on this anecdotal collection - shutter on the second F (stuck at lower shutter speeds) and manual advance on one of the F2s. Not bad for '69 and '77 vintage mechanical devices, respectively.
Shac said:
Interesting John - same story for me. In 1968 I was debating Miranda or Nikon and a good friend said "buy what you really want otherwise you'll never be happy" great advice and I bought my first F - still have it and I also still follow this advice. Have 3 more F's and 3 F's🙄
Click to expand...
 
I have to respectfully disagree with those who find the Nikon F too sharp edged and the shutter button to be in the "wrong" place. I find it very comfortable in my hand, and happen to like the shutter button location better than that on the F2 I used to own.

NikonF.jpg


Best,
-Tim
 
Good cameras, but never much a fan of the Nikon F and F2 offerings. I've owned a couple over the years, and uniformly found them unergonomic, and loud (at lest the F2). I much preferred the Leicaflex SL to either. The shutter dampening on the Leicaflex is something special. I think part of it too is that I have big hands.
 
I have two plain prism Fs and four F2s, two with MD2, two without. The F2s are easier to hold and use - rounded corners, shutter button at the front of the camera, and opening back vs. one you take off. That said, there's something special about an unadorned F. BTW, I wouldn't want the motor for the F - it's tough to hold and has, according to a friend that has one, a tendency to fire the whole roll of film when you want just one shot. Wonderful cameras and the pre-AIs lenses are cheap.
 
Well, since someone dug this thread up, I'll have to add that I finally got an F plain prism. Will pair it up with the S2 (when that one finally arrives).

PF
 
presspass said:
... BTW, I wouldn't want the motor for the F - it's tough to hold and has, according to a friend that has one, a tendency to fire the whole roll of film when you want just one shot. ...
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I agree that the later "Professional Battery Pack" didn't have very good handling due largely to its thing vertical grip.

The transport issue you friend notes is due to poor tuning of the motor and body set (or failure to properly tune the pair). With the F, and the SP, the motor needs to be adjusted to properly mate with a particular body. The motors are not interchangeable between bodies. Also when a motor/body combo has seen extensive use or the body's shutter/transport has been serviced for any reason, they motor will need to be readjusted to work reliably with that body. When properly adjusted, they body and motor are quite reliable.
 
The F - at the beginning of the seventies in the lat century my first love and third eye.
All those terrible photographs from Vietnam, mostly shot with the F or Nikkormats, I had to support THIS brand - Nikon - and got the F. Only the body because money was tight for me at those times (22 years) and after two months the cheap f2/50mm Nikkor H was added. This cam inspired me, punished me and delivered pics without any effort. I don't know why…..

My first pic and I was sold into "street" or people photography:

locked away by deandare06, auf Flickr

a bit later I got a 28mm f2.8 and this became my standard length for most portraits, a friend made a leather pouch for easy swapping the lenses:

My F & me by deandare06, auf Flickr

After 4 years I switched my hobby into windsurfing (around 1974) and the F had been sold which I regretted later after more than 35 years.

No camera later transferred this magic to me, no Leica, no Hassy, Ricoh or D300…..

Sleepy Hollow - the headless rider is fishing in Amsterdam by deandare06, auf Flickr

Four years ago I couldn't resist and got the 'Black Beauty' unfortunately with the f1.4 instead of the f2 Nikkor, but that's life….. ;-)

Old Love by deandare06, auf Flickr
 
i'm just waiting for some chinese manufacturer to make replacement prisms for the eye-level finder. THEN the nikon f will be a viable option.
 
aizan said:
i'm just waiting for some chinese manufacturer to make replacement prisms for the eye-level finder. THEN the nikon f will be a viable option.
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Any non-working FTN finder could serve as a donor for any DE-1. Resilvering is a bit too complicated, I guess.

I've no idea whether the prisms inside the F2 finders are the same as the F ones.
 
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