Who shoots everyday with a Nikon F?

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
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I bought my F used in 1974 with 50/1.4 lens. Had it CLA'd and reskinned (Black Griptec) about 10 years ago. Looking good. Thinking of doing a one camera, one lens project for about a month shooting TriX. Anybody else out there with an F that doesn't just sit on the shelf?:)
 
I've got a F, it sits on the floor of my closet, not the shelf
I don't use it exclusively but I accept the challenge for the next 2-3 rolls
 
I used to love shooting with my F until I got an F2 this past summer. Now the F sits in a box in my closet.

Jim B.
 
I have had film in my F (Photomic FN) almost continuously since I got it last October. Out of all of the SLRs that I have this camera is the easiest to focus and metering is as reliable and consistent as my newer cameras. I plan to take it with me on an upcoming trip to Portugal and Finland.
 
Not every day, too much competition on the shelf, they have to take turns, but was in use last week:

32195091022_602d93e360_z.jpg


Loaded with ORWO N74 in a Nikon cassette to boot.
An early example 6417279 with a none AI 35mm f2.
 
I've had my motorized black beater F with the meter less prism for about 15 years, and it is my "reach" camera (paired with my Nikkor 180 2.8) when I schlepp my rangefinder kit.
Clunky, and a pain in the ass to load and unload, but, one of my favorite bodies, and some of my best stuff was and continues to be taken with this kit.
I didn't post a picture of it because it looks pretty much like every other brassy black f with motor and meter less prism that has been posted here.
 
Got my first F with FTN head in 1969 - been using it ever since. Have several more F's so I can have them loaded with different films. While I have other cameras I love, I would never give up my F's.
 
Also I hade a shutter release mod none on my F so it shoot in 2 stage or 1. Here is the story:
A Rangefinered F? My friend, Pete Smith,RIP, turned my shutter button into a two step process. First step takes the shot, then the second punch on the shutter button slaps the mirror. This allows me to, 1. Make my shot almost totally silent and 2. there is virtually no vibration, allowing me to shot at 1/15 or even 1/8 of a second without shake. After that I just press the shutter button again to allow me to advance the shot. Voila it really works very nicely. Of course I can always just shot the old fashion way by pressing the shutter button a little harder for the full deal. Cool?
 
In college in the early 1980's I used my Nikon FTn daily. Alas it was later stolen.
A few years ago I finally replaced it but chose an F2 as it uses an available battery.

At Pentax Forums we have a member who says he owns 13 Nikon F cameras.

Chris
 
I have 4 or 5 Fs and think they are great they all get used not everyday, but I must say since getting a couple of plain prism F2s if I had too choose I would go F2, they just feel a lot more solid and more modern. I would never get rid of any of my Fs though!
 
Fraser said:
I have 4 or 5 Fs and think they are great they all get used not everyday, but I must say since getting a couple of plain prism F2s if I had too choose I would go F2, they just feel a lot more solid and more modern. I would never get rid of any of my Fs though!
Click to expand...

5 sounds like the ideal number of Fs.

Used to have that many but I thinned it down to 3. I shoot my plain finder chrome F and a black KE-48C regularly. The third one is a shelf queen, got this scratch free black F 64xxxxx with plain prism on RFF classifieds many years ago and it was too pretty to use, and the shutter timing is probably very much off anyway.

Always intrigued by the F2. The only thing keeping me away from it is that it doesn't work with the original Nikon film canisters which I share with my F and S2.
 
kshapero said:
Also I hade a shutter release mod none on my F so it shoot in 2 stage or 1. Here is the story:
A Rangefinered F? My friend, Pete Smith,RIP, turned my shutter button into a two step process. First step takes the shot, then the second punch on the shutter button slaps the mirror. This allows me to, 1. Make my shot almost totally silent and 2. there is virtually no vibration, allowing me to shot at 1/15 or even 1/8 of a second without shake. After that I just press the shutter button again to allow me to advance the shot. Voila it really works very nicely. Of course I can always just shot the old fashion way by pressing the shutter button a little harder for the full deal. Cool?
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like the solution to a non-existent problem.
Robert
 
I have one, it's loaded and ready to go...I just gotta get it out more...
It sits on a desk...there's no more room on the shelf...

27008606486_1bea1c2cbc_c.jpg
 
kshapero said:
Also I hade a shutter release mod none on my F so it shoot in 2 stage or 1. Here is the story:
A Rangefinered F? My friend, Pete Smith,RIP, turned my shutter button into a two step process. First step takes the shot, then the second punch on the shutter button slaps the mirror. This allows me to, 1. Make my shot almost totally silent and 2. there is virtually no vibration, allowing me to shot at 1/15 or even 1/8 of a second without shake. After that I just press the shutter button again to allow me to advance the shot. Voila it really works very nicely. Of course I can always just shot the old fashion way by pressing the shutter button a little harder for the full deal. Cool?
Click to expand...

You've mentioned this before once or twice as I recall. Perhaps I'm being unusually dense but, apart from quietness, I can't see the benefit. Pre-firing a mirror can in some situations help sharpness by minimising vibration. But if the mirror still lifts immediately before the shutter opens, how can keeping it raised afterwards, make any difference whatsoever to sharpness? It can't. The exposure has already happened. Anything that occurs, for any reason, after the second curtain has capped the exposure will have zero effect on image quality. What am I missing here? :)
Cheers
Brett
 
I've got an F that does the mirror lift separate from the shutter release. Drove me nuts. But it's also the black body that someone cludged a chrome F36 and a chrome FTN finder to. Problem is, it won't fully open the aperture, so I mounted all my non working F stuff to it (dead black FTN finder, 2.8/135 that had sand inside it along with not achieving Infinity focus), and replaced the chrome F36 with a black standard back. Looks nice, but I'll never put any film through it.

I've got a chrome F, and a black FTN, but with an S2, a couple of F2S's, and an F3 around (not to mention almost every version of the Nikkormat), they all have to take their turn in the rotation. But I like shooting the F the best.

PF
 
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