Nikon F

F

Fraser

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After going through the olympus OM thread I started too feel sorry for the old Nikon F. I've now increased my Nikon F collection to five, you can never have too many Fs!
12fbpicNikonF1.jpg
 
I have one Nikon F body...picked it up last summer...don't see a need for a second one unless it's to mount this really nice black FTn Photomic Finder I bought a few months ago...hmmmm, maybe I do need anoth.....................
 
I'm sorry to be a wet blanket at the party, but I just don't see the great appeal of the F for use today. I have been an F3 user for over 25 years. I recently picked up a chrome F with plain prism and E (grid) screen. It is very nice and hefty to hold in the hand. It has the 100% finder which I'm used to. It also has all the historical significance of being the first widely successful system 35mm SLR.

But, using this unmetered camera is such a pain. I don't have the same frustration using my unmetered Leica, as it is so much lighter and smaller. Not only do I miss the meter, I miss the TTL flash control which makes macro photography so much easier. The mirror lock up that makes me waste a frame is also a problem. The big advantage of the SLR over others (TLR, RF) is in the macro and telephoto fields. These are the areas in which the plain prism F isn't as convenient.

So, if someone could provide reasons why I'd want to keep using the plain F instead of picking up my F3 preferentially, I'd love to know.
 
I have only one also but its a mint black with photomic prism. I just had the prism calibrated at Essex Camera and its spot on compared with my Luna Pro.
 
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I have a Nikon F with meterless prism (and an M3). They both are great and wonderful in their own way. Pete Smith, RIP, modified my F so I can shoot 2 different ways One way is that the shutter is a two step process. The first step is where the shutter accepts the exposure but does not slap the mirror, as quiet as quiet can be, then the second step slaps the mirror. This works great where no sound of the shutter is key. The second way to use the shutter is to just press a little harder and it does the whole mirror movement at once as any other SLR (including unmodified F's) would. Now I ask, would I ever ever let this jewel go?
 
Robert Lai said:
I'm sorry to be a wet blanket at the party, but I just don't see the great appeal of the F for use today. I have been an F3 user for over 25 years. I recently picked up a chrome F with plain prism and E (grid) screen. It is very nice and hefty to hold in the hand. It has the 100% finder which I'm used to. It also has all the historical significance of being the first widely successful system 35mm SLR.

But, using this unmetered camera is such a pain. I don't have the same frustration using my unmetered Leica, as it is so much lighter and smaller. Not only do I miss the meter, I miss the TTL flash control which makes macro photography so much easier. The mirror lock up that makes me waste a frame is also a problem. The big advantage of the SLR over others (TLR, RF) is in the macro and telephoto fields. These are the areas in which the plain prism F isn't as convenient.

So, if someone could provide reasons why I'd want to keep using the plain F instead of picking up my F3 preferentially, I'd love to know.
Click to expand...

Maybe because its so different from modern slrs. If I want to be practical I will use an F4 or a 1v.
 
$100 F

$100 F

Since I got my two original Fs in the early 70s I have always told myself "any F body ought to be worth $100".

I recently came by another in a cat-smelling junk shop in Waxahachie. Not really a $100 F since I got a 43~86 LNIB, nice bag, and some Minolta junk for $180.

Hardly any brass, none at strap lugs. I think it was made the last summer of F production. Some call it an Apollo but I can't find any NIKON INC reference to that name. Got the kit w/nice neveready case.



Not sure how to insert PIX. see $100 NIKON set in Flickr.

http://www.flicker.com/photos/44140434@N03/sets/72157629990667285/
 
I have a very early F with an FTN metered prism. It has been on assignment around the world according to its original owner who was a photojournalist decades ago. In its hard life it's been dented, scratched, brassed, chipped, etc. but still works fine to this day. I love it's solid steel feeling, it's the sturdiest camera I have ever held. The viewfinder is spectacular, and the shutter makes a wonderful muffled "clomp" sound.


I recently picked up a Nikon F3, and I love everything about it except for the meter display, which is far and away the worst design I have ever seen in my life. Also it has the loudest shutter of any camera I have ever seen, a deafening "ka-klack" sound which echoes around any room. But it operates exactly as I want it to and has a lovely aperture priority mode.


I haven't been able to put down my F since I got it. Time will tell which camera I favor, as I feel like it would be silly to have more than one F mount camera.
 
Balance & Perspective

Balance & Perspective

I've tried to maintain a certain amount of balance & perspective in all my camera ownership. It hasn't always been so easy what with so many interesting cameras that Nikon has produced, (not to mention those "other brands" that I own). The formula that I have employed to great success, more or less, has been not to own more camera bodies than there are types of film. This approach has worked in the past (at least in my mind it has) at justifying my camera ownership's bottom line from oversight by the eyes of the finance ministry. [We can never know when, suddenly, a different film will be required to "capture the moment" lest it get away from you while you fumble with a film change].
Now, ever since the digital revolution that took place in general photography and the devastation it caused within the film industrial complex, I have been forced to improvise (we yanks are great improvisers or so I remember reading we are, or did I just hear Jay Leno say we were? Hell, I can't remember! It's hard getting old, you know when all the old war wounds start coming back to haunt you. I remember back in 1968,...Tet offensive, a Tuesday...no, I think it was a Sunday afternoon, 1969... ahhh crap!, I can't remember,... you know it's hard getting old..you know when all the old war wounds start...) Oh yeah, cameras, ...cameras are really "cool stuff"...and you just can't get enough "cool stuff" in your life, it's the cool-stuff that makes putting up with all the "un-cool stuff" not feel so dang overwhelming...and dang-it, who wants to make their dang life more dang difficult than it already dang is? 😎

p.s. I just remembered what my current camera ownership policy is ever since the demise of film by the evil "0's" & "1's", it is not to own more cameras than the number of lens I currently own. It's the sort of inspirational type policy that encourages the systematic exploration of the entire focal length range of lens production through the ownership of a dedicated camera body for each particular focal length lens. My estimates are, that if just 5% of the photographic community were to employ this type of policy to govern their own camera ownership, that the combined effect that this would have on the world economic crisis would be to see it abate in say, 6 months, Tops! Why we could even see the end of this digital mania & the triumphant return of film, ...then maybe even the return of Elvis to the building..."thank u verimuch".
 
"...just wouldn't be prudent at this time." G.H.W.B.Sr.

"...just wouldn't be prudent at this time." G.H.W.B.Sr.

_DSC00310001.jpg


...just when is it ever? What we have here is a Black F "64" (in the middle) a Black "F" Photomic FTn (nearest), Satin Chrome "F" red dot "66" (top left) & Late Black "F" Photomic FTn with F2 features AKA: "the Apollo F" (top right)


Nikon-F0001.jpg


...another angle, same subject. This has been posted before on another thread.
 
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