A Frustration With My Nikkormat

[George Mann]

What do you mean be “dud”? If you mean wrong exposure, very, very few. Otherwise, a dud depends upon intent and standards. Low standards, few duds, high standards, many duds. G.B. Shaw described the ratio of successes to failures to the number of salmon who make it upstream to spawn.

We are talking about the number of perfectly exposed images.

When I shot Kodachrome with my Nikkormat, I had averaged a success rate of 85%. No amount of exposure tricks could improve upon it.

Shooting E6 with stepless electronic shutters (as well as the use of a spot meter when needed), my average success rate is as high as 97%.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Easy solution. Do not shoot Kodachrome and your percentage will improve.

 

[George Mann]

Easy solution. Do not shoot Kodachrome and your percentage will improve.

A regular comedian!

 

[BrianShaw]

Shooting E6 with stepless electronic shutters (as well as the use of a spot meter when needed), my average success rate is as high as 97%.

Well that’s a real testament to the value and accuracy of auto-exposure mode! My experience with Nikon A-modes tends to validate.

But I’ve also done quite good with E6 using flashbulbs and guide numbers.

 

[Cholentpot]

Some of these threads feel like I'm in the shvitz with two kranks going at it for the ten thousandth time.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Some of these threads feel like I'm in the shvitz with two kranks going at it for the ten thousandth time.

You are correct. It is about someone complaining about a nonexistent problem because he is too lazy to RTFM.

 

[Cholentpot]

You are correct. It is about someone complaining about a nonexistent problem because he is too lazy to RTFM.

Look Howie, just past the pistachios. I'm not taking a side. Have Jerry throw some more water on the rocks and grab Frankie a spare towel.

 

[Loren Sattler]

Try a Nikon F2. Shutter speed choice is infinite. You can set the dial on detents or anywhere between.

 

[George Mann]

You are correct. It is about someone complaining about a nonexistent problem because he is too lazy to RTFM.

Here we go again!

 

[George Mann]

Try a Nikon F2. Shutter speed choice is infinite. You can set the dial on detents or anywhere between.

At this point, it would be time and cost prohibitive for me to pursue, let alone having to deal weight of such a beast.

Besides, my F90x runs circles around it in just about every conceivable way, and only cost me $35 US.

 

[RLangham]

Jesus Christ. Like normally when I see forum drama it's hard to take a side.

There are intermediate speeds above X on the Nikkormat. I don't know why this makes you fly off the handle but there are. In fact I guessed this by feel shortly before reading the manual, as there do seem to be very weak but present click-stops for them--more like an absence of pull towards the next main speed. In fact the click-stop for one of the main speeds is worn out on mine so it tends to end up either 1/2 below or 1/2 above that speed.

The same goes, I think, for a vast number of focal plane shutters. When you are adjusting slit width only it's very easy to make the mechanism continuous through that range. I would say that it would even be continuous by default on most fixed-dial shutters (though obviously not on rotating dials), since there ought to be a cam on the control shaft that is ground continuously, not in steps.

 

[Chan Tran]

I still don't know how to get intermittent speeds with the nikkormat. Set the shutter between marks?

I don't have a Nikkormat but with the F2 you set it between marks and of course it's tough to tell which speed you actually set it at.

 

[Chan Tran]

At this point, it would be time and cost prohibitive for me to pursue, let alone having to deal weight of such a beast.

Besides, my F90x runs circles around it in just about every conceivable way, and only cost me $35 US.

But your F90x doesn't have stepless shutter speed unless you shoot in auto.

 

[RLangham]

I don't have a Nikkormat but with the F2 you set it between marks and of course it's tough to tell which speed you actually set it at.

And I find it very frustrating that on the F2 the X speed isn't specifically marked as the speed it is, (1/90, right?) either in the viewfinder or on the dial or on the finder's cover that fits over the dial.

 

[Chan Tran]

If someone has a modern Canon DSLR can verify this that even in auto the shutter speed isn't stepless. Which I think is a good thing.

 

[RLangham]

If someone has a modern Canon DSLR can verify this that even in auto the shutter speed isn't stepless. Which I think is a good thing.

Why?

 

[baachitraka]

...and there is nothing like a perfect exposure

 

[George Mann]

But your F90x doesn't have stepless shutter speed unless you shoot in auto.

It never leaves aperture priority.

 

[Cholentpot]

I don't have a Nikkormat but with the F2 you set it between marks and of course it's tough to tell which speed you actually set it at.

Tried it, can't tell. My life hasn't changed.

 

[Chan Tran]

Why?

I like the camera to shoot at shutter speed that it's telling me it does. I don't want it to display 1/125 and actually shoot at 1/110.

 

[Chan Tran]

And I find it very frustrating that on the F2 the X speed isn't specifically marked as the speed it is, (1/90, right?) either in the viewfinder or on the dial or on the finder's cover that fits over the dial.

My F2 was stolen many years ago but I think the X sync speed is 1/80.

 

[RLangham]

I like the camera to shoot at shutter speed that it's telling me it does. I don't want it to display 1/125 and actually shoot at 1/110.

Even slide film won't tell you difference between those two speeds though!

 

[Chan Tran]

Even slide film won't tell you difference between those two speeds though!

Not only that but the difference is considered within specs. However, I do not like the camera using a shutter speed different than the one in the display.

 

[RLangham]

Not only that but the difference is considered within specs. However, I do not like the camera using a shutter speed different than the one in the display.

What I guess I'm saying I don't see why the difference is meaningful. Unless you're actually testing the shutter with a precision instrument you'd never know. I have never tested any of my shutters with anything more precise than my ear and with one exception in a LF camera where the shutter is manually tensioned, I have never had a shutter cause exposure problems when I set it according to a meter. Interestingly I have had lens transmission cause me to underexpose.

So, and I don't mean this as a criticism, why does the exact shutter speed matter when it's within every conceivable tolerance?

 

[George Mann]

Well, with my Nikkormat failling to lock its film speed selector, and with an increasingly jumpy and unreliable meter, I have decided that it is time to retire it.

I thought about having it repaired, but as I rarely shoot negative film, what would I use it for?

I have long wondered what I could replace it with, but don't really feel the need to do so.