Good morning, John;

Quiet may not be bad. We have survived another Thanksgiving, although the guest of honor did not.

Another Tamron Adaptall-2 for Nikon is coming, but I do not yet know the exact variant. Yes, I can use the 300 mm f 2.8 lens on the Nikons also.

Still more to be done with The 1960's Nikon Project. Still watching for a BC-7. I do think about a 24 mm or perhaps even a 20 mm lens, but my personal memories of that time period did not include the dream of a 20 mm or one of the 21 mm lenses. 28 mm was about as wide as I thought was reasonable (or was it affordable?) to go back then.

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

Good early morning, Ralph,

Quite true.

Anyway, if you want the Amphoto Nikon F/Nikkormat Handbook of Photography, I have a copy. I don't really need it, since the Braczko Complete Nikon System book is comprehensive enough, Nikon-wise. Will probably be at Doug's place tom'w morning. If not, I will definitely be at Kenmore. Can bring the book with me. Pacific Rim wants $40 for one in the same condition as mine, but I don't really want any cash for it.

-J

Good morning, John;

Doug has been closed since last Thursday; a casualty of the snows. He will re-open after New Year's Day. I may put a sign on the door for him.

I have been to Kenmore Camera. They are holding some things for me until I can get to the bank on Monday. Yes, my post-Christmas shopping spree exceeded what I was carrying with me. They even have some things in stock that I never got around to examining, when I noticed that I had topped the volume of funding I was carrying.

There have been several times when I have thought that a telephone call to you would really help our co-ordination efforts.

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

Ralph,

Sent you a PM... I called Doug this afternoon, when I was @ Kenmore. Looks like he opens up on Friday, like you mentioned.

-J

Hi guys, joining if you don't mind
I own a very faithful F2 equiped with a fantastic Nikkor H.C Auto 50mm f/2, never let me down a single time.

Regards to all


André

Howdy folks,

Just joined. I own, and treasure, a Nikon F2 and have a fair assortment of lenses. About half of them are Pre-AI, only one of which hasn't been AI'd. Doesn't really matter, though, because my F2 has the meterless DE-1 eye-level prism finder, and I prefer it that way. Got a Gossen Luna Pro and a trusty old Pentax Spotmeter V to handle the metering chores.

My wife bought me a DSLR for Christmas -- an EOS Rebel XS (we also own a 35mm Elan IIe that mostly she uses) -- and that camera's a hoot, but, quite curiously, it's had the opposite effect on me. Prior to owning the XS, most of the picture taking I've been doing -- I hate to say -- has been with a P&S digicam. Mostly for webshots and such. But just the process of using an SLR again, has reawakened the urge in me to dust off the old F2 and shoot film. There's a lot to be said, methinks, for taking things a bit slower and subscribing to delayed gratification.

My current lens selection is not spectacular, but not bad, either. I have a 24/2.8, 28/2.8, 35/2.0, 50/1.4, 55/3.5 M, 100/2.5 and an 80-200 f/4.5 zoom. I also have a couple of T-mount Century Precision Optics long teles: a 500/5.6 and a 650/6.8. They're old, preset lenses, but they take very nice sharp, contrasty photos. I accumulated a few different focusing screens along the way, and aso have the DW-6 finder and a speedfinder for an F, but it works just fine on the F2. For flash work, I have a Metz 60 CT-1 and a couple of Braun F-900s. All of them giant potato masher units with guide numbers up around 200.

Anyway, good to be here.

Just want to say hi to cooltouch and Andre, our latest members of our little group.

Hey Unca Bill! I was checking out your nice B&W images, and a question just occured to me. Probably oughta ask it over in one of the forums, but hey, I'll throw it out here too. I have about 20 rolls of Plus X Pan in my freezer that I've had for twenty years or so. For one reason or another, I've just never shot with them. Got rid of my darkroom stuff several years ago, so now I don't even have a way to process the film, although I 'spect I can find a place around here that will -- no doubt for a princely sum. Anyway, I'm figuring because it's B&W and all, it's probably still good. What do you think?

One way to find out for sure, I guess, would be to just go shoot a roll, eh?

Best,

Michael

As long as it's been frozen there should be no problem. Like you said just try it. I'm new to this group. I like anything Nikon. I joined the AI/AIS group first.

Good morning, Michael;

I agree with Ken. Pull out a roll, let it sit for a few hours to come back up to temperature, and then open it and put it into a Nikon. See what you get.

Regarding the processing of Black and White film, it is not expensive or difficult to get the film developing stuff and chemicals. One shot stuff is really convenient for an occasional user. Then you can also use one of the mail-in places. You can still use all of that PX. Have fun with it.

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

Well, my Nikomat FTn just went tits up. I actually caused its demise... Dropped it onto a concrete driveway inside its neveready case with an 85f1.8 mounted. The 85f1.8 survived just fine. The front standard on the FTn broke in half, leaving the shutter speed ring on the body, but taking the ring resistor and lens mount off. Its vital organs will live on in other Nikkormats. Luckily, I have another identical FTn coming sometime this week from eBait. $43.85, including the $15 shipping...

-J

Good morning, John;

Wow, and all this time I thought that those cases would protect our cameras.

The Tamron 06B SP 350 mm f 5.6 Mirror Lens came today. Yes, there is an Adaptall-2 Nikon mount to go on the back of it.

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

Ralph,

Part of the issue is that it dropped from 4', then rolled, hitting the right front tire of the car I was driving (same car that I was changing the tire on when you called in December). I suspect that if it had been a more gentle drop, it would've been ok.

Oh, btw, did you call me a couple days ago? Was driving @ the time, if you did, and didn't recognize the phone number.

-J

Good morning, John;

Well, I think I did try to call you. I do know that I have thought of calling several times, and there probably was an acting out on one of those thoughts. Again, it was to ask about the book. I will check with Doug again.

The tech at Doug's just about has the EOS-20D open. They will try to replace the bent and the missing pins first. The next step if required will be to ask Canon for a new part. I am still not sure how I managed to damage the pins just putting the CF card into the slot. Life with a camera that just uses film is so much simpler. Those digital things are special purpose devices as far as I am concerned.

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

Ralph,

Doug might've sold it. He did say that he was going to offer it up for sale to the general public for $29.00, even though I told him that you had first right of refusal.

With respect to the F4 that I had you check out, Kenmore just got another one in yesterday. It's an F4s, for $149.50. Marked as fair, condition-wise. Might be worth grabbing, if the LCD's are in good shape, and it's properly functioning.

Also, Doug did not throw out all three BC-7 flash units. Found the last one I gave him. Not at his shop, but on eBait, through Glazer's. If you want it, I paid $8.72 for it, through them.

-J

Won a Nikon DL-1 photomic illuminator for $7.35 today... Should be a nice addition to the F FTn. Now, just need an F-36 for it...

-J

Good morning, John;

The BC-7 is still doing nicely. Thank you. And the loose leaf binder and contents are interesting. There is some stuff in there that I had not encountered before. It is nice to have more information on the earlier Nikons. Again, thank you.

I am off to Oregon again. There is more training this weekend, and perhaps more work on radios and antennas. The last one I did down there turned out OK. The guy said that he was able to talk with the Communications Center on that antenna using just his handheld portable radio at one Watt output. He is very happy.

Enjoy; Ralph Javins

Ralph, good deal. I'll be in Oregon myself, next weekend.

-J

Hi Guys and Ladies, proud owner and user of 1971 F2 with DP1, Nikkormat FTn, and a black EL. These and my FM2n are my primary shooters. I also have a FM, a FE, A F3HP, a F3 non HP, a black FG, and my latest find a F60 ( eyesights starting to get a little dim}

Check with your optometrist to find out what the diopter of your eyesight is. Once you find that out, locate the various diopters for your MF Nikon bodies. The F2, FTn, EL, and regular F3 all use the same diopters, and can also use the ones for the FM/FE series. The F3HP has its own diopters, but can also use the ones for the F-801, F90, and F100 bodies. Both the FG and the F60 most likely use the same diopters, namely the rectangular type introduced with the Nikon EM.

Eventually, you might want to pick up an F4, since it's the only AF body that comes preconfigured to accept non-AI Nikkors (with limitations - certain serial # 35f1.4's don't work, 55f1.2's that weren't factory AI won't work, nor do the non-AI 28f3.5's, as won't the early ultrawides and fisheye lenses that require the mirror to be locked up). It makes a nice Pro-level FE2 with built-in MD-12, when combined with MF Nikkors.

-J

I wear eyeglasses that havent been a problem, but recently my prescription is changing after being the same for over 10 yrs and the F60 has a built in diopter adjustment that keeps me shooting in between eyeglass upgrades. Tried the F4, found the AF to be so slow that it was useless, about the same as my N2020 that I gave my grandson to play with.

Hmmm, interesting. Didn't notice the AF to be slow. Wasn't as quick as my F5's were, but, felt as snappy as a N90. Granted, I did use lithium batteries in my F4's. And, with an AF-S lens mounted, it was as quick as pretty much any other body with an AF-S lens mounted.

YMMV, I guess.

I was using a "D" lens. That could have been the problem. I'v never tried one of the "S"s

John, another question, silver oxide batteries are getting harder to find locally, some of my cameras list alkalines as an alternate but with reduced svc life. Some advise against them due to erratic voltage. The lithium batteries seem to match the voltage drop of the silver ones. No camera actually advises against lithium except for Mamya. Can I use lithium in my F2?

Good morning, Nikon Collector;

(Actually, just about every head popped up at that opening greeting. It is not really that specfic, and it could very well apply to each one of us.)

There should not be any problem with using the Lithium batteries in your F2. The Lithium battery discharge curve is almost as good as the Silver-Oxide battery discharge characteristic. John might correct me here, but I think that the F2 metering circuits were designed to use the later Silver-Oxide and similar 1.5 VDC batteries instead of the earlier mercury 1.35 VDC batteries, so there should be no problem with any adjustment or recalibration of the metering circuit to give you proper exposure indications. The one real advantage in using the Lithium batteries is their low temperture discharge characteristics. This is the battery that you want to have with you when you are taking photographs in Antarctica. Yes, they really are affected by reduced capacity at low tempertures also, but they will keep working down to a lower point than just about any other battery chemistry we can easily buy.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington