Nikon FM vs Nikkormat FT3. Opinions?

Dwig said:
F2 shutters are stepless above the 1/80th X-sync setting. Nikkormat shutters (all) are stepless above 1/125th.
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The Nikkormat FTN manual says so, and it uses a mechanical Copal Square S shutter, whose speed governor below 1/125 has a stepless slope, so it could be made to work. But my Copal service manual advises against that - Nikon may have operated outside official recommendations there, or they had a special version made. By the way, the FM used the same shutter - if you manage to position the knob accordingly, it should (unofficially) also permit intermediate values in the same range.


The EL had a Copal Square ES electronic shutter. Which has no internal timer and hence can be stepless throughout the range, if driven that way. But going by the EL2 service manual, that only happens in automatic mode - the shutter speed knob selects its speeds from a resistor network (just like the FE), which has no intermediate settings.
 
Given the vagarities of metering, I don't see any benefit of intermediate shutter speeds. If one is OCD enough to care, one can get intermediate exposure settings using the aperture scale.

With negative film, one is better off overexposing that 1/2 or 1/3 intermediate stop anyway. Heck, you've probably metered incorrectly anyway by including too much sky, so overexpose from the meter setting by a full stop. You're better off with 3 stops of overexposure than 1 stop under.

Anyway, IMO, intermediate settings are for obsessive compulsives in real lfe everyday photo situations.

IF one is shooting slide film in a controlled setting with studio lighting then maybe. But who does that anymore, and if you were, what are you doing shooting 35mm?
 
FrankS said:
Given the vagarities of metering, I don't see any benefit of intermediate shutter speeds. If one is OCD enough to care, one can get intermediate exposure settings using the aperture scale.

With negative film, one is better off overexposing that 1/2 or 1/3 intermediate stop anyway. Heck, you've probably metered incorrectly anyway by including too much sky, so overexpose from the meter setting by a full stop. You're better off with 3 stops of overexposure than 1 stop under.

Anyway, IMO, intermediate settings are for obsessive compulsives in real lfe everyday photo situations.

IF one is shooting slide film in a controlled setting with studio lighting then maybe. But who does that anymore, and if you were, what are you doing shooting 35mm?
Click to expand...

I guess you are right.

as a side note, Why is the 125th in red on the shuuter speed ring on the FM? all the other speeds are white.
 
68degrees said:
and the meter will respond to intermediate speeds?
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It even seems to do so on the FM2n, where it is unknown whether its (less well documented) shutter itself can be set to intermediates. That makes it very likely that they used a potentiometer rather than a stepped resistor network on the preceding cameras (whether FM or FTN/FT3) as well.

But that said, I'd agree with Frank that intermediate settings are pretty much pointless given the vagaries of TTL metering average subjects - no matter what film you use, either a 1/2 stop under- or over-exposure is perfectly acceptable or even desirable. Now that film is not used any more for micrography or process photography (with high contrast film and grey card readings), 1/3 stop accurate exposure is something of a useless feature from the past...
 
68degrees said:
I guess you are right.

as a side note, Why is the 125th in red on the shuuter speed ring on the FM? all the other speeds are white.
Click to expand...

1/125 is the flash synch speed. With an electronic flash, that is the highest speed you can use while having the full frame illuminated. If you use a higher speed the shutter will cut off a part of the image because of the synchronized timing to trip the flash and also because speeds above 1/125 (on that camera are a slit traveling across the film plane, not the whole film plane exposed at once.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
1/125 is the flash synch speed. With an electronic flash, that is the highest speed you can use while having the full frame illuminated. If you use a higher speed the shutter will cut off a part of the image because of the synchronized timing to trip the flash and also because speeds above 1/125 (on that camera are a slit traveling across the film plane, not the whole film plane exposed at once.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

how wide is that slit?
 
68degrees said:
ok so the shutter speed dial controls the slit width not the speed of the slit going by right?
Click to expand...

Sort of. On early focal plane shutters (pre WWII) it sometimes did directly control the slit width, at least for times equal or shorter than its run-off/sync time - these cameras usually are characterized by having separate knobs for short and long (i.e. longer than sync) times or one knob for slit width and another for curtain speed adjustment.

On most more recent shutters (including the ones used on the Nikkormat) it controls the delay between releasing the first and second curtain (or leaf set, in the case of the Copal Square) - with the same result, but one single mechanism.
 
ok thanks everyone.

Im curious what does the FT stand for in FT3?

On the Nikon F what does the F stand for? I know FM means manual and FE means electronic, but what does the F stand for? and the T?
 
mthomas said:
A very important distinction that was implied but not explicitly stated is that the Nikkormat FT2 will meter with BOTH Pre-Ai and AI/S lenses. As long as a lens is fitted with "bunny ears," the FT2 will meter with it at full aperture, whether the lens is AI-compliant or not.

On the other hand, the FT3 will NOT meter with Pre-AI lenses except in stop-down mode.

To my mind, therefore, the FT2 is the more versatile of the two cameras.

FWIW ...

Marc
Click to expand...

Well -- on the other hand, the FT2 won't meter at all with AI lenses that do not have the coupling prong (Series E and AF lenses being the obvious examples). The FT3 allows use of all F mount lenses (pre-AI on a stopped-down basis).
 
I personally like the FM or FM2
Better size, less brick feeling, higher chance of working meters, and IIRC, a less shaky shutter
 
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