Fat Nikon's from the '70s and 80's

RattyMouse · Jul 28, 2013

While out looking at cameras in the camera mall today, I see many Nikon SLR's that have HUGE tops on them. I guess you'd call them mirror boxes maybe or pentaprisms? Not really sure. But compared to a Nikon FM2, the bulge on top is just enormous. Plus, some seem to have controls on them. One had an ISO dial on it and some other dial connected near the bottom. I know some Nikon's had a higher viewfinder for ease of viewing, but I dont think these cameras are those. Can anyone fill me in on these cameras? They sure are ugly looking. I love the clean look of the FM2.

AgX · Jul 28, 2013

The mirror box is the central section of a SLR. It houses the swinging mirror. At its front is the lens coupling, at its back (where appropriate) the shutter.

There also was a an accessory to some finder cameras that also is called mirror box. It houses a swinging mirror, has got a groundglass and eyepiece on its top and is inserted between a specially short-built lens and the finder camera body.

To my knowledge the part you refer to has got no special designation. Typically it is called finder, added by the very type.

BMbikerider · Jul 28, 2013

These pentaprisms had all the electronics that were needed at the time for the metering, plus the battery compartment. Consequently they were by necessity bigger than usual. If Nikon made them now I am quite certain they would have shrunk. Just look at the computers that were operating then. My desk top has more operating power than the works computer of 1980 which occupied a large air conditioned room.

Whatever you may think of them many will still be working when today's electronic marvels(?) will have been recycled twice

lxdude · Jul 28, 2013

The F and F2 cameras had optional pentaprism heads called Photomic finders, which contained all the metering apparatus, except the F2 had the compartment for the meter battery in the camera body. They coupled with the lens aperture ring and the shutter dial. The plain pentaprism for each camera is much smaller.

http://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f2/

RattyMouse · Jul 28, 2013

lxdude said:
The F and F2 cameras had optional pentaprism heads called Photomic finders, which contained all the metering apparatus, except the F2 had the compartment for the meter battery in the camera body. They coupled with the lens aperture ring and the shutter dial. The plain pentaprism for each camera is much smaller.

http://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f2/

Yes, the pictures in this link with the Photmic Finders are what I am talking about. Huge tops to these cameras. So these are early examples of meters? After this Nikon was able to make them smaller so that they looked more streamlined? Such strange looking cameras. I dont think Canon had such top heavy cameras although I could be wrong.

clayne · Jul 28, 2013

Canon didn't show up with metered bodies until the mid 60s with the the FX (not TTL) and Pelix (TTL). People weren't shooting Canons in Vietnam - they were using Nikon Fs. Photomic finder showed up in '62, the F2 had much slimmer metered finders, and by F3 time, it was the same as everyone else.

It should be noted that people are still shooting F and F2 bodies to this day - 54 years later since the first F. This is how cameras are supposed to be built.

RattyMouse · Jul 28, 2013

clayne said:
Canon didn't show up with metered bodies until the mid 60s with the the FX (not TTL) and Pelix (TTL). People weren't shooting Canons in Vietnam - they were using Nikon Fs. Photomic finder showed up in '62, the F2 had much slimmer metered finders, and by F3 time, it was the same as everyone else.

It should be noted that people are still shooting F and F2 bodies to this day - 54 years later since the first F. This is how cameras are supposed to be built.

I had NO idea the cameras I was looking at were so old. They looked quite new!

clayne · Jul 28, 2013

They really do kick ass.

Gim · Jul 28, 2013

I'm still using my F Photomic Tn from the 60's. Got it new and yesterday it still worked great. The metered finder quit a long time ago but the body is a pleasure to use.

Jim

Les Sarile · Jul 28, 2013

Your have to understand, that TTL (through the lens) metering was not developed until the Pentax Spotmatic in 1960 and a few more years later before production models started hitting the market. Before then, everyone was adding some form of ungainly looking meter.

Vilk · Jul 28, 2013

amazing how easy it was to convince 6,894,731,884 people that "clean" and "streamlined" plastic junk is good for them?

welcome to the matrix, ratty. you've got the red pill in your hand--now swallow it!

MattKing · Jul 28, 2013

When you think of the look and size of the 1965 era Nikon F, you need to realize as well, in 1965 the attached was considered a "compact" car.

semi-ambivalent · Jul 28, 2013

clayne said:
Canon didn't show up with metered bodies until the mid 60s with the the FX (not TTL) and Pelix (TTL). People weren't shooting Canons in Vietnam - they were using Nikon Fs. Photomic finder showed up in '62, the F2 had much slimmer metered finders, and by F3 time, it was the same as everyone else.

It should be noted that people are still shooting F and F2 bodies to this day - 54 years later since the first F. This is how cameras are supposed to be built.

They used a lot of Nikons in Vietnam because Nikon was practically giving them away to journalists to "get the word out" on their SLR. Savvy marketing, the same way they recognized the sea change from rangefinders to the SLR. Nikon was an optical company first that got in to making cameras, just like Leica did. I think the F was an amalgamation of the best ideas from a lot of already existing designs from other manufacturers, but I'm amazed how they got so much right on their first try. Their F2 would be perfect...

It's also telling that, just like fifty years later, the Nikon F's mechanics are as sweet as ever while its electronics are anachronistic throw-aways. A lesson there, perhaps.

s-a

Jeff Kubach · Jul 28, 2013

MattKing said:
When you think of the look and size of the 1965 era Nikon F, you need to realize as well, in 1965 the attached was considered a "compact" car.

Cool looking car!

Jeff

Mackinaw · Jul 28, 2013

clayne said:
Canon didn't show up with metered bodies until the mid 60s with the the FX (not TTL) and Pelix (TTL). People weren't shooting Canons in Vietnam - they were using Nikon Fs.......

Some Vietnam War photographers did use Canons. Several years back, I saw a picture of a Vietnam War photographer with a few, what appeared to be, Canon FPs' hanging from his neck. I remember being very surprised that he was using Canons, being that most war photographers of this era used Nikon Fs' or Leica Ms.' I've never seen the picture again so have no idea who the photographer was or any background info on the picture itself. Definitely caught my eye though.

Jim B.

Gim · Jul 28, 2013

I believe it was David Douglas Duncan who popularized Nikon lenses during the Korean War. By the time of later wars the F and it's lenses were well known for quality and durability. Duncan was honored by Nikon years later for his help in making Nikon popular.

Jim

Aja B · Jul 28, 2013

RattyMouse said:
...I see many Nikon SLR's that have HUGE tops on them...Can anyone fill me in on these cameras?

Not sure by what you mean, 'fill you in'. Volumes have been written about these cameras. Do you have specific questions?

gleaf · Jul 28, 2013

Had a F with TM metering finder. Guilty of the asa/iso ring as it set the finder electronics for metering. Also had the pin and arm to interface with the lenses coupling fork for metering. Big, clunky, traveled around the world for 25 years never nissing a shot.

agnosticnikon · Jul 28, 2013

I really love the old Nikon F. My first Nikon was a F with the Ft finder, and indeed it was huge. But most cameras were bigger then. Newer cameras soon were made smaller like the FM. I still have a few F's with different finders on them, including the old Ft I started with 40 years ago. In fact just a couple of years ago, I got that exact camera tattooed on my inner forearm. (using the name agnosticnikon instead of Nikon on the finder) Sometimes getting old is real pain, other times it's a blast!

KennyMark · Jul 28, 2013

How many of us have a serigraph or poster by Anne Laddon called "Sure Shot"? Ironic that Canon later sold a point-and-shoot named the SureShot.

Someonenameddavid · Jul 29, 2013

canon finder

There is this:http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/canonf1/html/eeservo/

Which give auto exposure on the F1. Most of the pro cameras used CdS sensors until SPDs came in about 76. They required heavy duty resistance rings (the thing that breaks on F2 photomics) and analog moving needle voltmeters which take up space. Part of the genius behind the OM 1 was to put the meter mechanicals above the top plate in what just looked like the asa dial. The manufacturers of the golden age of the mechanical SLR were fortunate to have a relatively slow product cycle since the technology was slowly maturing... witness the decade life of the F/F2/F3.

David

lxdude · Jul 29, 2013

Someonenameddavid said:
Most of the pro cameras used CdS sensors until SPDs came in about 76.

David

The first camera with SPD's (AKA silicon blue cells) was the Fujica ST701, '70 or '71. Then the ST801, '72 or '73. Those little Fujicas were innovative, the ST801 being the first with LED's. My 801 is still dead-on accurate. The ST901 was the first auto with digital readout.
It's true, though, that the silicon cells and gallium cells started coming in big in the mid 70's, along with LED's.

wiltw · Jul 29, 2013

Les Sarile said:
Your have to understand, that TTL (through the lens) metering was not developed until the Pentax Spotmatic in 1960 and a few more years later before production models started hitting the market. Before then, everyone was adding some form of ungainly looking meter.

Pentax was the first manufacturer to show a prototype behind-the-lens metering SLR camera, which was named the Pentax Spotmatic. The camera was shown at the 1960 Photokina show. However, the Topcon RE Super was the first SLR commercially offered with TTL metering, first offered in 1963, and the camera was quite compact. This is a photo of a Beseler marketed version of the RE Super, offered in the USA as the Beseler Topcon Super D.

The Pentax Spotmatic, even more compact and lighter than the RE Super, was first offered in 1964.

The Nikon F body was first launched in 1959, and was about the same size as the Topcon RE Super body, but while the RE Super had all of its metering designed into the body, the Nikon F needed to use a supplementary finder to add metering to a totally mechanical camera body, with all of the electronics and battery and mechanical linkage to the lens diaphram control ring, hence the bulk of the Photomic finder. The first Photomic was launched in 1962 and offered a meter that was not TTL, but then the Photomic T was launched in 1965 to offer TTL metering.

clayne · Jul 29, 2013

Interesting. Didn't know the 1st photomic wasn't TTL, but then again my F is plain prism and the other one a T-type I believe.

lxdude · Jul 29, 2013

Non TTL Photomic

www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/nikon/ph.htm

Fat Nikon's from the '70s and 80's

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Fat Nikon's from the '70s and 80's

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