Nikon F2 tribute

I've owned and used all the F pro cameras except the F and F6. Of the F2, F3HP, F4s and F5 I've owned, this F2 fits my hands the best and is the most comfortable and natural to actually shoot with.
 
Huss said:
I just picked up an F6 w/ 60 Micro D 2.8 lens. I guess to book end Nikon's evolution of film SLRs.

I already know I much prefer my Fs and F2 cameras. Maybe the F6 will grow on me (hope so..) but at the moment it seems like a digital camera that happens to shoot film.

F2 rules!
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I only have 2 F2's and my F6 left from my Nikon film selection. Personal preferance aside the F6 is by far a more capable camera than any F or F2. Manual focus is improved if indeed you want to use it in manual. It's weather sealed, quieter, has less vibration therefore allowing slower hand held speeds to be used and the meter is nothing short of magical.
I like that it feels like a digital Nikon that shoots film because I can swap between Nikon Fx and the F6 without thinking about it.
I sold my F3 and F5 this week because the F6 is a better camera. I'll sell both the F2's when I get chance to do ad's.
 
nobbylon said:
I only have 2 F2's and my F6 left from my Nikon film selection. Personal preferance aside the F6 is by far a more capable camera than any F or F2. Manual focus is improved if indeed you want to use it in manual. It's weather sealed, quieter, has less vibration therefore allowing slower hand held speeds to be used and the meter is nothing short of magical.
I like that it feels like a digital Nikon that shoots film because I can swap between Nikon Fx and the F6 without thinking about it.
I sold my F3 and F5 this week because the F6 is a better camera. I'll sell both the F2's when I get chance to do ad's.
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I'm hoping to bond with the F6. The focus screen really is something and I added the optional split screen version, but it seems that that may not be needed. But, I was surprised as to how loud it is. For some reason I was expecting it to be whisper quiet.
The 60 2.8 D lens, on the other hand, may be great optically but tactically it is a plastic mess in feel. This one I may unload. I have a Zeiss makro planar coming..
One thing that bugs me is my cpu'd manual focus primes (like the Voigtlander 40 f2) do not let you use the aperture ring on the F6. It must be set to min aperture, and the aperture controlled via the camera.

I pretty much got the F6 for the 1/8000 shutter speed (so may not need to use ND filters) and the historic precedence. I feel, for me, the F and F2 series are far better emotional fit and nicer size. And I do not need to carry batteries.
 
The other fun thing about the F2 with the plain prism is that it's a great camera for learning exposure. That's a big part of why I'm using the above set up, with no hand held light meter, to try to learn to "read" light better and not rely on the camera to see the light for me.

Took a workshop with Chris Rainier years ago and I remember him telling us we should really practice "reading" light. He told a story of how he and a buddy drove cross country and they had a spot meter, and they played a game where the person with the spot meter would take a reading off of something they were driving past, and the other person would have to guess the reading of the light.
 
Timmyjoe said:
The other fun thing about the F2 with the plain prism is that it's a great camera for learning exposure. That's a big part of why I'm using the above set up, with no hand held light meter, to try to learn to "read" light better and not rely on the camera to see the light for me.

Took a workshop with Chris Rainier years ago and I remember him telling us we should really practice "reading" light. He told a story of how he and a buddy drove cross country and they had a spot meter, and they played a game where the person with the spot meter would take a reading off of something they were driving past, and the other person would have to guess the reading of the light.
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That's what I do with my M2 and M4.
The thing I noticed using F100, F5 and F6 is the consistancy in exposure.
Hold the neg sheet up and every single frame looks perfectly exposed. I feel no guilt relying on the meters :) and it certainly doesn't detract from my photographic enjoyment, quite the opposite in fact. I'm always pleased to see perfect neg's and concentrate more on content and composition rather than faffing with exposure.
With the Leica's I tend to take a reading with the sekonic, set the cameras up and then just adjust around that for changing conditions or light and shade. I often used to find myself chasing exposure with the M6's and other manual metered SLR's with LED's, not so much with bracket and needle. Just my opinions and methods and it get's me acceptable results with little fuss.
 
nobbylon said:
That's what I do with my M2 and M4.
The thing I noticed using F100, F5 and F6 is the consistancy in exposure.
Hold the neg sheet up and every single frame looks perfectly exposed. I feel no guilt relying on the meters :) and it certainly doesn't detract from my photographic enjoyment, quite the opposite in fact. I'm always pleased to see perfect neg's and concentrate more on content and composition rather than faffing with exposure.
With the Leica's I tend to take a reading with the sekonic, set the cameras up and then just adjust around that for changing conditions or light and shade. I often used to find myself chasing exposure with the M6's and other manual metered SLR's with LED's, not so much with bracket and needle. Just my opinions and methods and it get's me acceptable results with little fuss.
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I'm going to disagree with you after using my F6 for 3 weeks now. I was under the impression that the 3D colour matrix metering would somehow handle all sorts of tricky lighting conditions. But it does not. Even with D lenses (chipped so the camera is meant to read the focusing distance and thus know what the subject is, and therefore what supposedly is meant to be correctly exposed).
If I have a heavily back lit subject, with D lenses (or any others actually), the subject is underexposed . I get better results using center weighted and spot metering. I get better results using the heavy center weight metering on my F2AS, as I know what is being metered. instead of thinking the matrix knows and so I do not need to make any adjustments for scene brightness in the background.
I get better results with no meter in daylight with a heavily back-lit subject by estimating the results myself than using matrix!

Nobylon, I took a quick look at your flicker stream, and there are quite a few shots that have backlighting/sky in them where the subject matter, to my eye, is heavily underexposed. The man making soap bubbles being one of them img 391, also img 386 Did you use the F6 for these shots?

I am now disappointed with my F6. It has two things going for it - the dampened mirror which allows low handheld speeds, and the 1/8000 shutter speed as I can shoot wide open w/o an ND filter. But I am getting better exposures from my F2AS if I am shooting the F6 in 3D matrix. And if I am not, well, what was the point again? The F2 is much lighter. It is much much cheaper. And it lasts forever on a set of batteries as all it does is power the meter.
 
Huss said:
I'm going to disagree with you after using my F6 for 3 weeks now. I was under the impression that the 3D colour matrix metering would somehow handle all sorts of tricky lighting conditions. But it does not. Even with D lenses (chipped so the camera is meant to read the focusing distance and this know what the subject is, and therefore what supposedly is meant to be correctly exposed).
If I have a heavily back lit subject, with D lenses (or any others actually), the subject is underexposed . I get better results using center weighted and spot metering. I get better results using the heavy center weight metering on my F2AS, as I know what is being metered. instead of thinking the matrix knows and so I do not need to make any adjustments for scene brightness in the background.
I get better results with no meter in daylight with a heavily back-lit subject by estimating the results myself than using matrix!

Nobylon, I took a quick look at your flicker stream, and there are quite a few shots that have backlighting/sky in them where the subject matter, to my eye, is heavily underexposed. The man making soap bubbles being one of them img 391, also img 386 Did you use the F6 for these shots?

I am now disappointed with my F6. It has two things going for it - the dampened mirror which allows low handheld speeds, and the 1/8000 shutter speed as I can shoot wide open w/o an ND filter. But I am getting better exposures from my F2AS if I am shooting the F6 in 3D matrix. And if I am not, well, what was the point again? The F2 is much lighter. It is much much cheaper. And it lasts forever on a set of batteries as all it does is power the meter.
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Let's agree to disagree. You say the chap blowing bubbles is heavily under exposed yet I see the camera doing a great job balancing light. If you had exposed for the guy then you'd have blown the bubbles on the sky etc.
What is under exposed about the umbrella shot? It was overcast, dark and throwing it down! The F6 is not a magician but does have a magical meter and it's the best Nikon as far as I've had for point and shoot picture taking.
How exactly would you have exposed those 2 shots differently?
I'm sorry you don't like your F6 but as you get better results from the F2 you can sell it easily. I've got a couple of F2's to choose from if you want another ;)
 
nobbylon said:
Let's agree to disagree. You say the chap blowing bubbles is heavily under exposed yet I see the camera doing a great job balancing light. If you had exposed for the guy then you'd have blown the bubbles on the sky etc.
What is under exposed about the umbrella shot? It was overcast, dark and throwing it down! The F6 is not a magician but does have a magical meter and it's the best Nikon as far as I've had for point and shoot picture taking.
How exactly would you have exposed those 2 shots differently?
I'm sorry you don't like your F6 but as you get better results from the F2 you can sell it easily. I've got a couple of F2's to choose from if you want another ;)
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Agreed to disagree!

:)

I would have exposed more for the man making the bubbles, the sky is not the subject matter. In cases like this the dynamic range of the image as a whole is greater than what can be recorded. This is why the quality and postioning of light is important, and why it is called waiting for the light. I would have composed it so the sky was not a dominant factor in the image, so the man could be correctly exposed.

The piece of bright sky in the image in the rain is what is throwing off the exposure in the other image. This is exactly the problem I found with my F6. It should not have weighed so heavily on the exposure of the scene.

Thanks for the F2 offer! But I already have 2, as well as 2 Fs, an Fm2n etc etc. Actually I will be selling at least one of my F6 cameras in the upcoming days. I bought two of them thinking they will be used in heavy rotation for my work, but now do not think that will be the case.
At least I bought them used!
 
Just have to say ... the F2 is the one camera I come back to.

Loud maybe, and a bit heavy sometimes, but it is the only camera I really know delivers (unless I do something stupid) in wind, cold (-20 °C) and then some, with consistency.
 
Even my F2A would have trouble on photographing her. That was your great knowledge of the use of the lens and camera that pulled this wonderful shot off. Just great stuff Huss.
 
Yes it is a beauty. It followed me home after a trip to Tokyo last November. If I was sensible, I'd keep it in a safe but it is so nice to shoot with.
 
New F2A incoming:

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Few new F2AS shots:

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