Let's talk Nikon F...

[Alan Edward Klein]

Hell Yes! That's credibility. I managed to avoid situation.

I bought a F2S in 1973 new. Body only was just shy of $600. The S prism has LEDs, these use up batteries and serve no other purpose unless you want the auto EE amazing thing.

I've got most versions of the F and the F2. F2 is hard to beat. The F with the non-meter prism is a spectacularly beautiful camera/sculpture. Also the F is good Leica training, that is for being able to find the shutter release.

I bought a Nikon F Photomic T with a 50mm F/1.4 lens and leather case for $149.00 in Japan when I was stationed there in 1965 in the USAF. My recollection is I bought it down in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. I think it was around $489 in America at the time. Then I lost it on a NYC subway a few years later. My heart hadn't been broken like that since I broke up with my girlfriend.

 

[JerseyDoug]

For indoors. Aperture wide open, slowest shutter speed I can reliably hand hold, get the subject into the best possible light, take the picture, do the best I can in the darkroom with the result.

 

[Cholentpot]

I agree, in the old days in time gone past I worked part time as a stringer for several local newspapers, in the 60s while in college, the staff photographers were WWII and Korea War vets who were trained by the Army or Navy to shoot without a meter. Indoors, outdoors, strange lighting. For indoors they used flash, flash bulbs and that new fangled electronic gizmo. I stared with a Spotmatic but upgraded to a Konica T, one of editors told me and the staff photographer that my negatives were frame to frame more contestant and easier to print. When I bought the Nikon F, used, it came with 3 finders, the plain, metered and waist level finder. I shot very little with anything but the metered finder. I still use sunny 16 when shooting my Argus C3, if a battery fails in Konica or Topcon auto 100, otherwise I use a meter.

I use the Argus C3 to threaten the lighting. If it doesn't comply I start bashing things.

For indoors. Aperture wide open, slowest shutter speed I can reliably hand hold, get the subject into the best possible light, take the picture, do the best I can in the darkroom with the result.

This is where digital scanning shines. I can rescue just about anything with my scanning rig.

 

[90s Photog]

I present every Nikon F series camera fielded by photojournalist throughout the film era...

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="" title="The Fs"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52232769585_af021aa43d_k.jpg" width="2048" height="1536" alt="The Fs"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Running a roll of Tri-X through the F2 now. I need to get a roll for the F.

 

[mshchem]

I bought a Nikon F Photomic T with a 50mm F/1.4 lens and leather case for $149.00 in Japan when I was stationed there in 1965 in the USAF. My recollection is I bought it down in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. I think it was around $489 in America at the time. Then I lost it on a NYC subway a few years later. My heart hadn't been broken like that since I broke up with my girlfriend.

OMG!! I don't think I would be able to get over leaving a Nikon behind. My wife knows her way around NYC she would beat me home.

 

[mgb74]

Don't get me wrong. I would love to have a Nikon F, preferably with standard prism but OK with Photomic. It would have pride of place with my Spotmatics. But really, in terms of shooting, what's the benefit over my Spotties or even my MX? Asking for a friend.

 

[GregY]

Don't get me wrong. I would love to have a Nikon F, preferably with standard prism but OK with Photomic. It would have pride of place with my Spotmatics. But really, in terms of shooting, what's the benefit over my Spotties or even my MX? Asking for a friend.

I'd say lens selection. 35mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4. 180 2.8mm. among many others. If you don't need the wide selection i can't think of benefits today, but if i was working as a photojournalist i'd take the Nikon F

 

[CMoore]

Hhhhmmmmm.......... i do not look AT my camera, i look through it.
All SLRs more or less look "The Same". So i have no cares that a non-meter body looks "better" than a metered body.
I have used both in the Nikon F2. I do not find that the meter adds noticeable weight or inconvenience.

I find it a bit "funny" that some think a metered prism is clunky and slow, but using a handheld meter instead is somehow less so.?

Regards an F2, you can buy a body with a non-functioning DP-1 WAY cheaper than with a DE-1.
You can save a lot of money and then still use Sunny-16 or a hand held if you like. You never have to worry about a battery either.
And you can just screw the lens on with no Min-Max Dance................i think.

 

[JerseyDoug]

Don't get me wrong. I would love to have a Nikon F, preferably with standard prism but OK with Photomic. It would have pride of place with my Spotmatics. But really, in terms of shooting, what's the benefit over my Spotties or even my MX? Asking for a friend.

I bulk load short, usually 12-exposure, rolls of film. The Nikon F cassette is a very nice way of doing that. I've been told that Pentax sold a bulk load cassette too but I've never seen one.

 

[JerseyDoug]

... I find it a bit "funny" that some think a metered prism is clunky and slow, but using a handheld meter instead is somehow less so.? ...

With a hand held meter I make one incident light reading to "calibrate" my estimation of the light and then rely on the Sunny 16 variations for the various lighting conditions, e.g., clear, clouds, open sky, shade, etc. Shooting can be even faster than with an auto exposure camera. I've been doing this for 55+ years with a very high success rate.

Two issues with a metered camera like the FT or FTN are that the equivalent of an incident reading is a PITA and even though I could do the same thing I do with my unmetered cameras the exposure indication in the viewfinder is always at least a little off and I feel compelled to fiddle with the controls. But that's just me.

 

[Paul Howell]

The benefit of shooting with a TTL meter, a pro level viewfinder with full read out, is not having to take your eye off the subject while shooting, important when shooting action with a motor drive. In today world not many film shooters are engaged with action. I see some images of folks who shoot motor sports, I do shoot sports and wildlife with 35mm. If it a bright day, no cloud cover even lighting not as much as an issue as changing light.