Nikkormat praise thread

George Mann · Sep 23, 2020

The faithful companion the continues to soldier on regardless of needing an overhaul, yep that's my Nikkormat.

I have been using this FT2 + 50mm F2 H.C. Auto since about the end of '75, having shot mostly Kodachrome and Pan-X in it.

I averaged between 85 to 90% of dead-on exposures shooting K64, and close to 100% with Pan-X.

I often wonder what the percentage would be with the current Ektachrome E100?

This was my second SLR, and the first that I had purchased new.

Anyone else like to chime in about theirs?

Cholentpot · Sep 23, 2020

I got mine second hand beat up and then set on a shelf for 20 years. I changed the lightseals but gave up on trying to get the thing to meter proper. The lens is a 50 1.4 but it has a major dented front ring. The nut over the winder lever used to pop off randomly and it was missing the rubber eyecup and rewind button. However it was my first SLR. The bottom plate was loose and I bodged together some screws and shims to make it fit, stuffed some toothpicks in the bottom to engage the rewind lever.

Years later I got a dead Nikkormat and took pieces off of it to spruce up the first one. New rewind button, rubber eyecup and bottom plate. Still won't meter and after years of using other cameras and lenses I've come to the conclusion that the bang that damaged the front ring put the lens out of wack. Now I use a Micro Nikkor 55 with it and make a point to take it out for a roll or two once a year.

Sure, the mirror flaps like a MAGA flag, and the shutter speeds are suspect but it's my first real SLR and it'll work as a bludgeon if I get into trouble.

here's a photo of it I took a while back.

AnselMortensen · Sep 23, 2020

My Nikkormat FT-3 was my second real camera...
I traded a crashed but running 1965 VW Beetle for it.
It came with a 50mm f 1.4 and a case.
It got me through my community college photo courses...then I "upgraded" to a brand new FE-2.
Traded the Nikkormat for a Calumet CC-400 with a 135mm Raptar.
The Nikkormat served me well....so did the Calumet.

mshchem · Sep 23, 2020

Well made camera. I used F2 bodies. If you wanted shutter speed in a convenient place Nikkormat was the way to go. I always wanted a Nikkormat EL, never happened.

blockend · Sep 24, 2020

The Toyota pickup of the camera world. An FT sits next to me on the desk. From a time when consumer cameras were meant to last as long as you needed them to.

Dan Fromm · Sep 24, 2020

People who haven't used a Nik'mat don't appreciate how much faster working cameras with the shutter speed control concentric with the lens are than cameras with the shutter speed control in the usual place on top of the body.

davela · Sep 24, 2020

When I was 17 I had my first good paying job and I bought a Yashica M42 based SLR - an economy model - forget which one, but it was a decent camera. The Yashica was far better than anything else I had ever used - it worked pretty well for years and it was a great experience. What I wanted though was a Nikkormat. The Holy Grail 35mm camera then was the Nikon F, but it was unimaginably expensive, at least to a 17 y/o, but the Nikkormat had recently come out and it was almost in range economically to the little people. The Nikkormat allowed the use of Nikon lenses, which had a sterling reputation then as now, so it was greatly sought after. However, it was also too expensive for me!

Recently I found an old FT3 on eBay for $10 plus shipping! It's a cosmetic beater, but it works well, still looks pretty good, and takes fabulous pictures. It's been a long wait, but I love it (I'm retirement age now).

BradS · Sep 24, 2020

Yup. They’re pretty good.

RLangham · Sep 24, 2020

I got an FTn for 10+10 USD on Ebay a couple years back. I've used it pretty much exclusively with a six-blade 1960 Auto Nikkor-S 5cm/f2 that came with my Nikkorex F. It's a beater... it won't go into Bulb mode and the frame counter is stuck, plus it has an ugly dent on the prism housing... but it's a great shooting camera. Eventually I will have problems with the ring resistor, since it's already a bit nonlinear at wide apertures (not as much as I thought at first, but undeniably there), but until then it's one of my favorites.

I just learned I can use these big M bulbs (Sylvania Press 25) at ANY shutter speed on this camera, so I'm about to learn daylight flash fill!

I must say that while I wish it had a split image prism instead of micro prisms (a flaw many of the best SLR's suffered from) I can't think of any other cons to the model aside from weight.

RLangham · Sep 24, 2020

Dan Fromm said:
People who haven't used a Nik'mat don't appreciate how much faster working cameras with the shutter speed control concentric with the lens are than cameras with the shutter speed control in the usual place on top of the body.

Yeah to some extent but only being able to move the ring with that little lever is not to me as good as the way it is on the Olympus SLR's for instance. It's a weird setup and it demands two hands when for instance the Minoltas can be wielded in action with one hand if necessary.

guangong · Sep 24, 2020

My EL is solidly built, dependable, and with enough mass to serve as a mace for self defense.

George Mann · Sep 24, 2020

guangong said:
My EL is solidly built, dependable, and with enough mass to serve as a mace for self defense.

The EL series appeals to me even more since I am primarily a slide film shooter, but my F90x fills that roll admirably!

E. von Hoegh · Sep 24, 2020

BradS said:
Yup. They’re pretty good.

View attachment 255664

Uh-huh.
One of the finest cameras ever.
Heavy? Yes. Also very easy to hold steady.
Ring resistor troubles? Not so much. Non linearity will be aging photocells, Mr. Langham. Dead or erratic meter can be the resistor, but is very often the meter switch itself. This lives under the advance lever & takes maybe 20 seconds to clean.
Google the service manual.
The 'mat scored over the F with a proper mirror lockup, integral meter, more convenient stopdown preview; the shutter speed setting is a matter of taste & familiarity.
One of the finest slrs ever.

AgX · Sep 25, 2020

blockend said:
The Toyota pickup of the camera world. An FT sits next to me on the desk. From a time when consumer cameras were meant to last as long as you needed them to.

The Toyota pick-up is rare here, the Nikkormat even more. I cannot even remember when having come one across.

Huss · Sep 25, 2020

I guess they called it Nikkormat because Nikkorflex was taken.

I really like the meter readout on the top panel. Never use it though...

chris77 · Sep 25, 2020

Against the pentax spotmatic the nikkormat feels like a prehistoric tool.

RLangham · Sep 25, 2020

chris77 said:
Against the pentax spotmatic the nikkormat feels like a prehistoric tool.

Hahahha the same Spotmatic that can only meter stopped down? The one that can only sync flash at 1/60 and bulbs at 1/30 or 1/15? The one that doesn't have mirror lockup, an external metering readout, or shutter speed display in the viewfinder?

Like I've messed with one but the Nikkormat isn't even comparable to the Spotmatic.

chris77 · Sep 25, 2020

Spotmatic F meters open aperture. Flash? Who uses that? Mirror lockup on a 35mm camera is something i have never ever missed, and honestly, shooting black and white i only need a meter to get me in the ballpark...
The pentax is a beauty, the early ones are even more elegant, relatively silent and smooth.
The nikkormat is a brick.
But i still use one sometimes. I like the nikkormat, but will never love it like the spotmatic..

George Mann · Sep 25, 2020

AgX said:
The Toyota pick-up is rare here, the Nikkormat even more. I cannot even remember when having come one across.

The W108 Mercedes 4.5 will do.

BradS · Sep 25, 2020

RLangham said:
Hahahha the same Spotmatic that can only meter stopped down? The one that can only sync flash at 1/60 and bulbs at 1/30 or 1/15? The one that doesn't have mirror lockup, an external metering readout, or shutter speed display in the viewfinder?

Like I've messed with one but the Nikkormat isn't even comparable to the Spotmatic.

The Nikkormats certainly have more features and are, in my opinion, more robust but the Spotmatics do feel ever so nice in hand.
I own several of each...I like 'em all.

RLangham · Sep 25, 2020

BradS said:
The Nikkormats certainly have more features and are, in my opinion, more robust but the Spotmatics do feel ever so nice in hand.
I own several of each...I like 'em all.

I have bought K1000's to sell, and I guess I agree? I don't know, the one that feels best in my hands is the Pentax MG (or Super ME or whatever else.) Early Prakticas had too sharp an edge to them (I owned two) late Prakticas are just too bulky... to me the absolute best ergonomics on an SLR is still probably the early Zorki-derived Zenits (1 and S).

However, neither Nikkormats nor Minolta srT's bother my hands in the slightest

BradS · Sep 25, 2020

I remember the first time I held a Nikon F2 - I was 50 years old and had wanted one for a long time...anyway, when I finally bought one and it arrived in the mail and I opened the box and held it in my hands...all I could think is why did I waste all those years with all those other camera? Now, I wish I had just bought a new Nikon F2 in about 1977 or so (and been disciplined enough to not but all this other stuff). Although, I suppose that if I had not bought into the Nikon system (brand new FM3A in 2003) I would never have eventually happened upon the Nikon F2. I'd probably still be using the old Pentax and...bah!

RLangham · Sep 25, 2020

BradS said:
I remember the first time I held a Nikon F2 - I was 50 years old and had wanted one for a long time...anyway, when I finally bought one and it arrived in the mail and I opened the box and held it in my hands...all I could think is why did I waste all those years with all those other camera? Now, I wish I had just bought a new Nikon F2 in about 1977 or so (and been disciplined enough to not but all this other stuff). Although, I suppose that if I had not bought into the Nikon system (brand new FM3A in 2003) I would never have eventually happened upon the Nikon F2. I'd probably still be using the old Pentax and...bah!

1977 was the time to buy it... probably would have gotten an SB like mine. Quicker meter response, the best in-finder display of the four, and it takes the good old lenses. Mine is a 77 black body with the DP-3 so there's every possibility that the two were first sold together at the dealer.

At any rate the ergonomics of the F2 are surprisingly good considering what a huge beast it is with a metering finder mounted... I can't imagine what it would have been like to lug it around with a motor drive or that big shutter-speed priority thing that goes on the front.

Dan Fromm · Sep 25, 2020

Huss said:
I guess they called it Nikkormat because Nikkorflex was taken.

I really like the meter readout on the top panel. Never use it though...

No, the camera was originally named Nikomat. Zeiss threatened suit because the name was too close to Ikon. Name change, Nikkormat.

Dan Fromm · Sep 25, 2020

BradS said:
The Nikkormats certainly have more features and are, in my opinion, more robust but the Spotmatics do feel ever so nice in hand.
I own several of each...I like 'em all.

I spent 1970 in Germany protecting y'all from the Red Army. Our PXs sold a variety of 35mm SLRs including Spotmatics, not including Nikkormats. The Spottie was the low-ranking enlisted swine's -- I was one -- 35 mm SLR of choice. Low price ... I went on a religious retreat to Rome -- don't ask -- with around a dozen other low ranking enlisted swine. Half of them had Spotties. Three of the Spotties jammed on that excursion. I was acquainted with other jammed Spotties. In my vicarious experience, a somewhat fragile camera. Not as fragile as Mirandas, but I'm glad I didn't get a Spottie.

Nikkormat praise thread

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