Nikon F Photomic TN has arrived. Need some advice.

So my plans to teach myself to shoot completely manual this year have begun with the arrival of my new to me Nikon F Photomic TN. As I stated in an earlier post it supposedly has an inoperative meter, but while cleaning her up I noticed that it has 2 completely different batteries in the TN head and as I have read you must use a converter from the old mercury batteries to modern batteries. There is no converter. Hmm! Anyways, it is a near mint specimen and everything but the Photomic head seem to work correctly. I worked the shutter at all speeds and they seem ballpark. The mirror foam looks great. The shutter curtains look completely wear free. Very happy so far. My only complaint is that while looking through the viewfinder I see quite a bit of debris. I know this is fairly common and many would say to just live with it. Don't know if I can live with this degree of debris though.
So my dilemma is......... do I just slap on a lens , load some tri-x and go, or send it in to the local shop for a CLA? What would you, the experienced members of this fine forum do?

Remove the prism, CAREFULLY.
You can then use a blower to blow clean the top of the screen and the bottom of the prism.
If the shutter and all the foam are good, go for it. But if you want to be safe, get a CLA, and you should be good for another 10 years.

For the Photomic Tn meter, you might insert with right physical size button cells to simply check basic operation. If the meter seems to work, then consider getting Wein cells of appropriate size, to provide the needed 1.35V that mercurcy oxide used to provide for accurate meter operation. Then send the batteries with a note to the repair shop to calibrate the meter "with the enclosed air cells, which mimic mercury oxide voltage".

A CLA would otherwise be beneficial:

• to ensure that your shutter speeds ARE accurate (better assessment than your 'it seems to be about right')
• to renew lubricants that probably gotten gummy with age
• to have shop replace foam seals if necessary to restore light tightness of the film chamber

Foam and lubricants both deteriorate with age, and that camera is about 50 years old!

I would run a roll through it, confirm that you like using it and then spring for the CLA if you enjoy the experience.

A camera's CLA may not include the separate metering head but you can have the meter
serviced separately.

WILL WORK FOR FILM said:

What would you...do?

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Personally, I would have both the camera body and metered prism CLA'd. That way you know everything is working properly and you'll be good-to-go for quite awhile.

Most of the dirt you see is on the focusing screen. If it's on the prism itself generally you don't see as it's out of focus. For dirt on the focusing screen remove the focusing screen to clean it. If that doesn't work get another screen.

Chan Tran said:

For dirt on the focusing screen remove the focusing screen to clean it. If that doesn't work get another screen.

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I strongly urge that you NOT rub any surface of a focusing screen, as either you can get lint on the textured surface or you can actually damage the surface with visible marks! At MOST, immerse a focusing screen in dish washing detergent water, then rinse thoroughly under the tap, then a final rinse in DISTILLED water to get rid of dissolved mineral in the tap water. The DO NOT rub with a cloth to dry...set it on edge upright and let it air dry

I think I will first remove the focusing screen and give it a soapy bath as recommended and let dry without wiping. Then I will try to blow out the body with canned air. if that doesn't work I will send it in. This F has had very little use. There is almost no wear inside and out. But, that does not ensure that the internal lubrication is adequate. Either way it would probably be smart to send it in for a CLA at some point.

WILL WORK FOR FILM said:

But, that does not ensure that the internal lubrication is adequate. Either way it would probably be smart to send it in for a CLA at some point.

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I suggest that you mount a lens on the camera and take a meter reading of a uniformly illuminated, uniformly colored wall, then use all the possible combinations of shutter speed+ aperture and then process the film and look for consistency of density from shot to shot...any variations from shot to shot either indicate shutter speed issues or aperture blades working slowly due to oil, and you will know you have a valid need of CLA. Since a reflected light reading from any colored wall should result in a mid-tome result (since the meter interprets any target as 'this is midtone target' you should end up with a consistent midtone density negative for every frame!

Years ago I used some Wein cells for a camera requiring mercury batteries. They only worked for a short time as they died quickly. They start to go as soon as you open the sealed package. If you installed a fresh pair in that meter prism and sent it to a repair shop the batteries would need changing by the time it got to the repair shop.
Google search for mercury battery replacement https://www.google.com/search?q=mercury+battery+replacement&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_px625.htm , #4 in the search results, gives the best overall solution options for replacement.

I am not particularly concerned with the meter as I intend to use this camera completely manual. more concerned with the functionality of everything else. I have been successful at removing the majority of the debris with canned air. Am planning to get a good ol Nikkor-s 50mm f1.4 soon but want to run a roll of film through it. The only non AF primes that I have are the Nikkor ai 200mm F4 and 100mm Series E f2.8. Was wondering if I could just slap that Series E on and use it fully manual. What I mean is, since the series E doesn't have the rabbit ears and won't couple with the meter anyways, does it matter in regards to how the aperature is used in manual mode?

If you are unable to clean the focusing screen, there are lots available on eBay and other sites. The insides and out should be easy to clean with a blower bulb and brush. Just like the focusing screen, be careful with the mirror, if there is any debris that won't come off with the brush. If you can't clean it up to your liking, then by all means send it in for a CLA. Many repair shops will work on these cameras as they are relatively robust and have no electronic components to diagnose, other than the meter heads. If you don't have a local repair shop, I can recommend Stephen Gandy in L.A. at https://www.cameraquest.com/repairs.htm or Doug at Camera Clinic in Washington state: https://www.yelp.com/biz/camera-clinic-shoreline . There are tons of other good shops out there, and I'm sure APUG folks can recommend others.

Just as previous posters have mentioned, try sacrificing a roll of film to test the shutter at different speeds and apertures. If your exposures look consistent, then your shutter is probably fine for now. F (and F2) bodies are among the toughest SLR's ever made and will take a surprising amount of use and abuse before failing. The only F body I've had that needed servicing was exhibiting erratic shutter speeds at 1/15 and below, and that was a 1961 body that had seen heavy use.

F/F2 metering head electronics tend to deteriorate from age more than the bodies, due to corrosion and wear. Working replacements are plentiful, but there are also a lot for sale with non-working meters. If yours is very clean and it's worth it to you, you may want to invest in having it overhauled and/or voltage converted to accept modern 1.5v silver-oxide batteries. Doug at Camera Clinic recently did this for me on a pristine black FTN meter head that had essentially been in storage since it was purchased in 1972. The body was mint inside and out, shutter was perfect, but the meter was about 4 stops off and erratic. Now it's like a brand-new camera. If you don't want to go that route and the meter seems to work OK, you can use the Wein air-zinc cells or CRIS MR9 adapters with 386 silver-oxide batteries.

WILL WORK FOR FILM said:

I am not particularly concerned with the meter as I intend to use this camera completely manual. more concerned with the functionality of everything else. I have been successful at removing the majority of the debris with canned air. Am planning to get a good ol Nikkor-s 50mm f1.4 soon but want to run a roll of film through it. The only non AF primes that I have are the Nikkor ai 200mm F4 and 100mm Series E f2.8. Was wondering if I could just slap that Series E on and use it fully manual. What I mean is, since the series E doesn't have the rabbit ears and won't couple with the meter anyways, does it matter in regards to how the aperature is used in manual mode?

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Yep - the Series E will work fine, and even any modern AF lens as long as it has an aperture ring.

WILL WORK FOR FILM said:

I am not particularly concerned with the meter as I intend to use this camera completely manual.

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Manual exposure means YOU set the exposure, auto exposure means the camera makes the exposure settings.
Some form of metering is suggested for manual exposure be it uncalibrated eye, educated guess, experience, hand held or integrated in the camera light meter.

I bought a Nikon F Photomic T when I was stationed in Japan in 1965. I paid $149.00 for it when the dollar was worth a lot more. Anyway, I lost it on a NYC subway a few years later when I returned to my home in NY. I wonder if you have my camera?

No soapy bath though, it's a two piece screen.

John Koehrer said:

No soapy bath though, it's a two piece screen.

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Important advice.

WILL WORK FOR FILM said:

So my plans to teach myself to shoot completely manual this year have begun with the arrival of my new to me Nikon F Photomic TN. As I stated in an earlier post it supposedly has an inoperative meter, (...)
So my dilemma is......... do I just slap on a lens , load some tri-x and go, or send it in to the local shop for a CLA? What would you, the experienced members of this fine forum do?

Click to expand...

I had exactly the same model as yours.

I dissasembled the Photomic (the meter), cleaned the resistor ring and gave a little love to the meter, but even using the coveted mercury cells, the metering was not linear. That is, if you calibrate it for low light, it woudn't be precise on strong/day light, and viceversa. This is because, in my case, the CdS had been damaged by high humidity (my city is very humid) and thus linearless was lost.

Repairing this would require changing the CdS cells, there are some technicians on the web that know how to do this repair, but don't suppose all camera techs can do it.

Here a repairman, Sover Wong (no experience with him) explains the replacement:
http://soverf2repair.webs.com/Cds.htm

So, bottom line, a CLA will get your viewfinder very clean but perhaps won't correct the meter problem.
My advice would be... either get a specialized technician (to repair the meter) or use a handheld meter, which is always more versatile.

And to be honest, the meter on the Photomic TN is a bit cumbersome to use -- you need to adjust the ASA dial with every lens you mount, in order to compensate for the maximum aperture of the lens. The next Photomic model, the FTN, does this automatically, but it is UGLIER and does not show the aperture of the lens when looking at the camera from behind, which I liked a lot from the Photomic TN.

Enjoy the Nikon F, truly a wonderful battle tank of machine.

Shoot half a doz rolls and see if its working right. if it is don't mess with it.Get a plain finder for it and held held meter.