😀
Cal
It is hard to judge height on some of the sellers pictures.
F3P's came standard with a back that has a tongue that stops the film leader from winding back into the cassette when electrically rewinding the film using a MD-4 motor-drive. This tongue provides electrical contacts that stops the rewind by opening a circuit and is nothing more than a switch.
I have the data back alternative for the F4, the manual is the only camera manual I have to refer back to each time I use it
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Let me see if I can link some of the pictures I am looking at.
http://www.ffordes.com/product/14032017322231
Clearly a P but a threaded release and a plain back.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281284148407?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Has rubber cover and tongue extends.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exc-Nikon...212719?pt=UK_Film_Cameras&hash=item35d44efbaf
Has threaded release and non extended tongue.
Chris,
I think your eye for detail has stumbled into something. My F3P was a real press camera that was once owned by the newspaper "Newsday" and actually participated in covering "Operation Desert Storm," the first Gulf War.
My camera resembles your second link. If you take a very close look there is another layer stacked a bove the film advance and the shutter release is extra high when compared to the other two cameras. It is clear to see that the camera that has a rubber boot has an obviously much taller shutter releas than the other two. You will also notice that there is this T-style button by the red dot in that overhead shot. This is the shutter lock in the locked position.
I see that the top plates show the letter "P" as a pre-fix on the serial number, so I do not doublt that they are F3P's, and I also see the absence of the double exposure levers, and the round window for the frame counter, but realize that initially the F3P was exclusively only offered to and was only available to the press who had credentials, and only later was the F3P available to the general public. My only explaination is that the F3P's that lack the extra tall shutter of my camera were consumer versions that were later offered to the general public. Anyways, I might be wrong, but I cant explain the differences otherwise.
For me the real F3P are the ones that feature the taller shutter release with the T-style shutter lock.
BTW the stripped down features (no double exposure, and especially the lack of a safety lock on the back door release) will spoil you. I particularly find annoying the extra step required when loading or unloading film that I have to perform an extra step by having to release the safety lock to open the back door on a standard F3.
Cal
