Nikkormat ELW Question

[dynachrome]

I just took delivery of my first Nikkormat ELW. It needs seals and mirror foam and is reading high but is in decent condition. My question is about the film transport system. Have the gears been strengthened compared to the regular Nikkormat EL because of the available winder?

 

[Nitroplait]

That winder was slower than winding by hand, so I don’t think it was necessary.

 

[madNbad]

The Nikkormat EL was introduced in 1972 and was the first of the series to offer an electronic shutter but was not designed to handle either a motor drive or a power winder. The Canon AE-1 offered the combination of electronic shutter and could take a power winder was rapidly overtaking the Nikkormat market. The second version of the electronic shutter Nikkormats was the EL-W introduced in 1977. A redesigned Nikkormat EL which the user could mount a power winder. It was the last of the Nikkormats, the Nikon EL-2 that introduced a strengthened transport to handle the additional stresses of the power winder.

 

[__Brian]

I used my ELw With the AW-1 for years, never had a problem. Liked the combination as it worked with pre-Ai lenses. The motor gave out, the camera works fine- after all these years.

The ELw uses CDS cells, the EL2 used SPD. The Elw was available in Black finish only.

The AW-1 was single-shot, no documented continuous mode. There was an undocumented continuous mode.

 

[gone]

All the Nikkormats are over built, you could hammer nails w/ them, the EL included. I know of no one that used a motor drive on one, but trust me, they're great, well built cameras. My EL would go "ping" when the shutter fired, none of the other models did that, probably something to do w/ the AE linkage. Wonderful camera, mine made perfect exposures. The shutters are indestructible, never saw one that didn't operate correctly.

 

[dynachrome]

I hope my repairman can adjust the meter and clean it up. When the mirror foam goes, small pieces of it can attach themselves to the focusing screen. I have a number of regular ELs. The EL is a pleasant camera to use. My only complaint is that I can't lock the meter reading. For this reason, I sometimes use the camera off of the A setting. Of the models before the EL, the only Nikkormat I don't have yet is the FS.

 

[quine666]

FYI you can lock the meter reading by pushing the self timer lever towards the lens mount. Like on the Nikon FE, the needle won't stop moving, but it will remember the shutter speed.

 

[__Brian]

Nikon was very proud of the electronics that went into the Meter Lock electronics. They had a patent on it, that other companies had to work around.

 

[Nitroplait]

I hope my repairman can adjust the meter and clean it up. When the mirror foam goes, small pieces of it can attach themselves to the focusing screen. I have a number of regular ELs. The EL is a pleasant camera to use. My only complaint is that I can't lock the meter reading. For this reason, I sometimes use the camera off of the A setting. Of the models before the EL, the only Nikkormat I don't have yet is the FS.

Make sure to find a repair person with experience with the EL/ELW. They were made before the flexible PCBs were commonly used, and it is a wire mess under the hood - not for the faint at heart.
The FE is much cleaner although old flexbords can have their own issues.
Re: Meter lock. As other have stated; the meter lock is present, but wasn't intuitively implemented until the FE2. I assume there must have been a technical reason why Nikon couldn't lock the needle moment simultaneously with useage of the meter lock on EL/ELW/EL2 and the FE.

 

[John Koehrer]

does the exposure seem right in the pic with the white curtain? ~1/25 @ f8 ISO 100?

 

[dynachrome]

Now that I think of it, there is another camera with an exposure lock but where the needle moves anyway. It's the Canon EF. The silver button on the top plate will lock the reading but the needle still moves.