Sold Better Than an FM! Beautiful Nikon FT3 w/ Nikkor 35 - 80mm Zoom

[jimgalli]

SOLD! THANKS ALL! Many consider the FT3 a stop gap while the Nikon FM was being prepared, but it has the beautiful substantial build quality of the F2 era cameras combined with AI lens capability. It can do everything the FM could do plus it has mirror lock up that the FM did not have. It also features the flip up button to move the AI tab out of the way allowing use of Non-AI Nikon F lenses all the way back to 1959. Production was relatively short and FT3's are scarce, especially as minty as this one. $105 + a bit of something for the post man.

 

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[mgb74]

You left out that the FT3 uses currently available batteries - unlike the earlier Nikkormats.

 

[jimgalli]

You left out that the FT3 uses currently available batteries - unlike the earlier Nikkormats.

Thanks for that helpful bit I'd forgotten!

 

[Trask]

I highly appreciate my FT-3 for all the reasons you mention. GLWS!

 

[BMbikerider]

You left out that the FT3 uses currently available batteries - unlike the earlier Nikkormats.

I have a Nikonmatt FT2 which is also an Ai camera and uses 2 x LR44 batteries the same as the FT3. I used to have one a good few years ago but sold it on. I have not seen another recently but I keep looking

 

[jimgalli]

I have a Nikonmatt FT2 which is also an Ai camera and uses 2 x LR44 batteries the same as the FT3. I used to have one a good few years ago but sold it on. I have not seen another recently but I keep looking

Please take pics of this camera and begin a separate discussion because those of us who have been around Nikon's for a lifetime have never seen such a thing. Perhaps an early replacement of an FT3 top piece with an available FT2 one? by a service center?? For whatever lost reason??? But the thousands and thousands of remaining FT2's (of which I own 2) do not have the AI capacity.

 

[logan2z]

I think these are really undervalued cameras. I have a black FT3 and it's built like a tank.

GLWS!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Deleted wrong thread.

 

[Moose22]

My FT3 has intermittent metering. Is that fixable?

Maybe a thing to ask in the regular forums, not in someone's classified.

 

[BMbikerider]

Please take pics of this camera and begin a separate discussion because those of us who have been around Nikon's for a lifetime have never seen such a thing. Perhaps an early replacement of an FT3 top piece with an available FT2 one? by a service center?? For whatever lost reason??? But the thousands and thousands of remaining FT2's (of which I own 2) do not have the AI capacity.

Oh dear. you have opened a can of worms. I have re-examined mine and where the serial number is on the top plate, the white paint on mine has partially been worn away and the model designation actually looks like the letter FT2. The figure in the 'FT3' designation part of the serial number that is partially removed is only readable in oblique lighting.

This makes it more of a bargain for me because FT3's attract a higher price than FT2 models. In UK expect to pay around the £170-£190 mark for a good FT3 in chrome. My FT3 is very definitely in black, virtually unmarked and I only paid £79 for it. It was clearly advertised on the dealers website as a FT2 and that is what it said in the receipt.

You have made my day!

That explained, it has got me thinking. I about my D90. I bought this on a whim for a very reasonable sum. It has very little obvious signs of use but it has obviously been seriously modified. The screen which is not interchangeable (normally) but it is a screen that I would expect to find in a manual film camera with a split image rangefinder and etched grid lines. The AF works normally and corresponds accurately with the split image rangefinder.

 

[BMbikerider]

Since the last post, I have re-whitened the missing part of the figure 3 and now it is what it says it is. I used non yellowing, white radiator paint and it is a perfect match for the original applied by Nikon

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Maybe a thing to ask in the regular forums, not in someone's classified.

Oops. Sorry, didn't realize that.

 

[Gaston 012]

pm sent