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Camera for Vacation - Nikonos


Get the Nikonos V and have the best version available to you. My Nikonos II needed a shutter repair, the parts are not available and the shop told me to go to eBay and get the Nikonos V body and use the lens that I had.
 
srtviper15 said:
These pictures are fantastic! Thanks for sharing
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Thanks. Many of those pictures were taken with a U/W strobe that brings out the colors underwater even during the day and of course, is necessary for my night shots.
 
Last time I went to Tahiti, I took only one camera with me since it was a family holiday. That camera was a Nikonos III with 35/2.5 lens. I used it above water, in the water, and under water for casual shots. And the photos turned out nicely even if I have to guess distance and exposure.

I used to have Nikonos V, but eventually decided I like the Calypso-styled III more. I don't do deep dive stuff.
 
It's a little off topic because this is the 35mm forum but I have a number of Minolta Weathermatic A cameras with all of the accessories. They are nice to use. The only drawback is that they take 110 film.
 

Awesome! Really looking forward to using it!
 
dynachrome said:
It's a little off topic because this is the 35mm forum but I have a number of Minolta Weathermatic A cameras with all of the accessories. They are nice to use. The only drawback is that they take 110 film.
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Nice! Are you planning on selling any? I’m probably interested. I shoot 110 also
 
Not analog, but Canon made a nice Lucite(?) case for the PowerShot G10, ( I don't know if other "G" models will work) and a used PowerShot and this case might be an affordable temporary fill-in for the V analog, for wet conditions and allows the flash to used effectively.

I have one I keep overlooking when out for short road trips and there are good reviews for its build quality.
 
Sirius Glass said:
Get the Nikonos V and have the best version available to you. My Nikonos II needed a shutter repair, the parts are not available and the shop told me to go to eBay and get the Nikonos V body and use the lens that I had.
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I got a V. Now I just need to fine the correct grease and o rings
 
srtviper15 said:
I got a V. Now I just need to fine the correct grease and o rings
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I found the bags of o-rings on the internet. I look for the Nikonos grease made by Nikon.
 
I used to have a couple of Nikonos V, an orange one and an olive one. I wonder why they don't make the same in digital. Sure they have some P&S but they are P&S and can't do very deep. Serious underwater photos are done with enclosures.
 
Many cameras can handle a single splash with a wave and keep on ticking as if nothing happened. My Olympus Pen D with UV filter did... I also went out in the rain a few times with my old Kiev-4 and nothing but a cloth rag to cover it and occasionally wipe it down, both working perfectly.

I think cameras designed to be submerged are usually overkill for mildly wet conditions. If you want to take underwater shots, disregard what I said.
 
I learned the art of using a camera at the age of six with my Dad's Nikonos I. Because of that I learned very early on how to expose, how to use a light meter, what depth of field was, how to leverage the hyperfocal distance, and to an extent how to gauge the distance to a subject. Of course, being six, it really helped that the Nikonos was fairly bomb-proof…
 

I found the Nikonos V lens has a very nice distance scale. While I can estimate distance quite well the distance marking on most lenses are very difficult to set accurately.
 
Chan Tran said:
I used to have a couple of Nikonos V, an orange one and an olive one. I wonder why they don't make the same in digital. Sure they have some P&S but they are P&S and can't do very deep. Serious underwater photos are done with enclosures.
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They did make an underwater digital interchangeable-lens camera that was submersible to 49 ft. It was part of their ill-fated first mirrorless camera system, the "1 series", and it didn't make any kind of a splash (sorry) in the market. Not sure why. It was a pretty cool camera, and had the no-housing-required underwater digital game pretty much to itself. There just didn't seem to be a lot of buyers.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-1-aw1
 
Some folks have mentioned a few underwater-capable point-and-shoots, so just for others who might read this thread in the future: Nikon made a very good one in the 1980s called the L35AF (Action Touch in the US). I knew a lot of people who owned them in the 80s and 90s, and they were very well-liked (and sold pretty well for the category, so probably a lot of them still kicking around).

https://casualphotophile.com/2019/07/10/nikon-l35aw-action-touch-review/
 
Chan Tran said:
I used to have a couple of Nikonos V, an orange one and an olive one. I wonder why they don't make the same in digital. Sure they have some P&S but they are P&S and can't do very deep. Serious underwater photos are done with enclosures.
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I don't know what you consider deep. Obviously full enclosures are still made when real depth is needed (https://www.ikelite.com/), but Nikon did make the AW1, an interchangeable lens camera good down to 15 meters. It got a bad rep, probably because people were too cavalier and were careful to ensure the seals/o-rings were well maintained. I have two--not for SCUBA diving but being fully submersible I knew I could trust them in the rain and if I dropped one, it would likely survive better than other cameras, and if I threw one in the tail bag of a off road motorcycle they wouldn't mind the abuse.
 
I had a Nikonos V that I took on an offroad motorcycle trip and it failed due to parts made of plastic. The rewind tooth broke off in the middle of the trip - had to wait until it was dark to unload the camera inside my sleeping bag. Upon return I got it fixed and sold it right away. Didn’t much like the camera because of its reliance on electronics and a few other things such as the viewfinder susceptible to a lot of flare etc.

Eventually got a Nikonos III that I like much better. Almost all metal, fully mechanical without batteries, and a really great viewfinder that’s about as clear and bright as my Leicas with frame lines for both the 35 and 80mm lenses - the two lenses that I find most useful on this camera. With the 80 I use a shoe mounted rangefinder. The camera also doesn’t attract as much attention as the V because it looks much more like a normal camera. And after getting used to the way the shutter release and wind crank works I much prefer it to the two separate controls.

I don’t use it underwater because the gaskets are very old, but do use it when I need something that’s rugged and weatherproof.
 
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It sounds like the camera you sold was already in need of repair, Nikonos are tough, in my experience and a broken gear, already cracked but in one piece might have been easily overlooked when you got it.

Imo, the III is a good camera, but I would give the V a second chance, if I were to buy one.
 

Think I’ll stick with the III. A better camera for me.
 

That will be my use too. A year and a half ago I took a Leica M2 to Papua New Guinea. I got some great images (in fact I printed some today), but was limited by the very wet and humid weather.
 
Take a Leica Barnack and read up on how photographers used them on beach landings and cleaned moisture, blood and sand out of them in buckets of sea water.
 
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