Nikon F3-P
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Meh, how many times has your regular f3 failed because of weather? The only significant advantage is the hot shoe on the finder.
According to MIR, the F3P differs from the standard F3HP only in the following respects:
1. Textured titanium-finish pentaprism viewfinder for increased sturdiness.
2. A new finder DE-5 with an ISO-type accessory shoe with flash and ready light contacts located on the top of the pentaprism viewfinder.
3. Focusing Screen Type B (matte screen) as a standard accessory,
4. New Camera Back MF-6B as standard equipment for auto rewinding stop in conjunction with Motor Drive MD-4.
5. New mechanical shutter release lock. (Just push in and set the lock release lever at the red mark to release the lock control.)
6. Round film counter read-out window.
7. Film counter numerals in white.
8. ASA/ISO film speed setting dial window cover.
9. Higher height of shutter speed dial and shutter release button.
The MIR page is here:
http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/variations/f3p/index.htm
- Leigh
1. Textured titanium-finish pentaprism viewfinder for increased sturdiness.
2. A new finder DE-5 with an ISO-type accessory shoe with flash and ready light contacts located on the top of the pentaprism viewfinder.
3. Focusing Screen Type B (matte screen) as a standard accessory,
4. New Camera Back MF-6B as standard equipment for auto rewinding stop in conjunction with Motor Drive MD-4.
5. New mechanical shutter release lock. (Just push in and set the lock release lever at the red mark to release the lock control.)
6. Round film counter read-out window.
7. Film counter numerals in white.
8. ASA/ISO film speed setting dial window cover.
9. Higher height of shutter speed dial and shutter release button.
The MIR page is here:
http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/variations/f3p/index.htm
- Leigh
Well, that is kind of what i am wondering.
Is/Has there been any "real" tests/data that show the F3-P is a better sealed camera.?
I can see losing the 2x exposure feature...who cares.?
The hot-shoe on top does not need an adapter....but the top and middle of the camera was "never" the best place for flash anyway.
My understanding was the 3-P was only sold in Japan.?
Was it really marketed as Better Camera and a Press Camera at the time.?
Seems like Nikon should have sold them in Europe/USA if that were the case.?
Thanks
I had to have one, kept it about a year. One of the brilliant ideas is you didn't have to advance the film counter to zero for the light meter to work. Mine was so pretty I never used it. I am a bigger fan of a F2A. I rarely shoot 35mm now,except for Fujichrome slides.
Short answer it has a standard hotshoe, no ttl flash nonsense on the rewind crank. Just common sense camera. A clean standard F3 is a better bargain.
Mike
Short answer it has a standard hotshoe, no ttl flash nonsense on the rewind crank. Just common sense camera. A clean standard F3 is a better bargain.
Mike
I think that Nikon sold these to anyone that wanted one in the Japanese market. They didn't all come with B screens and leader out back. The legend is that the Japanese press demanded a camera with these specs. I think Nikon was just filling a niche market. I think there must have been some go to overseas markets through gray market dealers or through official channels. There are a lot of really pristine examples out there, I'm sure like forbidden fruit a lot of Japanese fellows put one away because of the mystique.
Damn nice looking camera.
Mike
Damn nice looking camera.
Mike
I thought about buying one, and ended up with a pristine F3T "champagne" finish. I think that one is better looking. It is a great camera.
Kent in SD
Kent in SD
Back in the 1980s I was repairing Nikons for a large and active press corps.
The F3 was current production then, and very popular.
I never heard of the F3P until this thread, so apparently very few were used here.
- Leigh
The F3 was current production then, and very popular.
I never heard of the F3P until this thread, so apparently very few were used here.
- Leigh
Isn't there some issue with a rubber seal around the shutter release on those F3P's? I seem to recall a thread about that from a few years ago. Non-P F3's don't have that.
I have and love F3/T's -- titanium top, bottom, and on the (HP) prism.
I have and love F3/T's -- titanium top, bottom, and on the (HP) prism.
I would like an F3T but not an F3P. I don't care for the hot shoe because the F3 hot shoe on the rewind crank works well for me. I have TTL flashes for it.
When I was working PJ I traded my F2 for a 3P, had to order, took several months for it to arrive. Never owned a standard F3 so don't know how they compare, I liked mine, having the built in hot shoe was useful. Being weather sealed was helpful, as my lens were not weather sealed lens still had to be careful in the rain. Most of the folks I worked with kept their F2s and Fs. I almost bought a Pentax LX, but worldwide Nikon support and not needing to buy a new set of lens made the difference. Overall I was happy with it, would still be using it but after I left the wires I still did some freelancing, right after 911 I was coming back to Phoenix from LA, was not allowed to bring on camera bag as carry on, guess was missing when I got to Phoenix. My 4X5 and MF gear made it, Southwest never found the Nikon bag.
The F3T also has a titanium back (or did when it left the factory).
You can identify it by looking at the box top holder on the back.
The area within that frame is unfinished (silverish) on the titanium back.
On the regular back that area is black like the rest of the back.
- Leigh
I dont think it has a shutter release timer, film door lock lever, eye piece block out shutter or cable release in the shutter button.
I guess if you really need a prism mounted hot shoe and none of these things at all it would make sense.
I guess if you really need a prism mounted hot shoe and none of these things at all it would make sense.
Yes, that's the way mine is. Very stylish in effect.
Just saw a photo of the F3P - it does have a different style of release which at least one person on APUG had problems with and couldn't get it replaced easily.
I like the F3 Limited. Which is a combination of all the best bits of the F3/F3T/F3p
Ok let me tell you my story; I got mine in 1992 or 1993 from a working press photographer who had a friend and fellow news shooter in Japan and he was issued 2 F-3P bodies as per allotment from Nikon to the news agency he worked for. Mine is from the first batch of 5000 and at the time we were told only 5000 were made and they were issued to Japan accredited news shooters only. So at the time it was a quite unusual camera; mine was the only one I saw in real life for many years (most of my area's other news shooters switched to Canon in the mid 1990's or used the F4s). I used mine daily for news assignments running thousands of rolls thru the body and then used it for another career as a documentary style wedding photographer putting a few more thousand rolls thru it. My same friend heard from Japan that as the sales of F3's dropped due to AF popularity Nikon dedicated an amount of regular production of the excess F3 parts to F3P and many more batches were made and eventually were released as the F3 Limited; so the total of 5000 cameras does not hold true. I have the Nikon parts and repair list for F3P and F3T and have combed thru them and essentially the F3T is internally sealed the same minus the external operational changes that have been noted. So if you need the improved weather resistance but still need things like self-timer and threaded cable release (both of which I found I would need now and then) then consider the F3T. I still have and regularly shoot mine; it was sent to NPS in 99 or 2000 for its first CLA and it came back with the sprockets slightly off making for annoyance in cutting negs; I sent it back a year or two later with complaints and it returned in perfect condition and has not needed any work since. Mine has tremendous wear on it; the F3P used brass top covers with the mentioned titanium prism cap and the finish has a very lovely patina and brassing showing thru which I enjoy since I put every single bit of wear on it. I did have the body drop off my 300/2.8 and slam into concrete which put a nice crease into the prism cap but the prism itself survived and I was able to finish my assignment so I can attest to the validity of that improvement. I just sent the prism to NPS for repair (the ADR window prisms busted as well) and I asked for the old prism cap to be returned for nostalgia sake but my NPS guy said they couldn't do that for the reason of possible use in forgery. I kept the front name plate and glued it to my enlarger for fun. Definitely one of my very favorite cameras for all these reasons and because I've made lots of wonderful images over the years with it; I look for them now and then and when I see one with lots of wear I wonder how many rolls it has thru it.
Fun read RidingWaves and nice insider info! Thank you.
Yes the addendum to the parts manual for the T and P describes the procedure and the material for the extra weatherproofing; its basically silicone brushed on in key areas and over wiring ends. I personally feel that its the very best of the F3's but they are all very very durable. In addition to the P body I also shot with a very early F3 (13xxxx body so really early) that I knew that I was the 4th press photographer owner. It was really beaten up and I beat on it hard as well, it took a hit and I had NPS replace the FRE on the left side and while they did that with a full CLA (why not the paper paid for camera maintenance so fix everything) and they replaced the worn right cover where the serial number is, so the body went from very early 13xxx to extremely late 19xxx. The moral of that story is that you really can't tell what age and how much use a camera has had from the serial number. All of the previous owners were staff daily news photographers putting hundreds of rolls of film a month so who knows how many rolls that body has on it. I still have and regularly put rolls thru it as well to keep it moving. All my F3's were used with the MD-4 that I used with the Ni-Cads MN-2 which nicely boosted the frame rate and the P body for some reason was the fastest no matter which MD-4 I used. A trick I used to do was to take the Ni-Cads right off the charger before a game and swap out the 'hot' ones after a few rolls. The MN-2's are rated at 16.8 volts which is much more than what straight AA's batteries would put out (12v) so that made the motors fly. It was secret photojournalist knowledge that the Nikon motor speeds were governed by voltage and there was actually a booster pack that you could add on to the MD-12's of the FM/FE series that would boost the frame rate to a more sports shooter useful 5 frames per second (vs 3.5). This pack was not sold to the general public but was advertised to news shooters in the back of the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) magazine. I never had one nor saw one but for fun I used to add on an additional 4 AA battery pack for some mirror up high speed shooting of sports. This fun trick also worked with the F4s. I assume no responsibility for shutter blades crashing if you try this! Thanks for listening!
The speed of ALL DC motors is controlled by the applied voltage.
That's how railroad engines operate efficiently from a crawl to high speed.
- Leigh
Great Point! I think not many people would think to add on additional battery packs to boost the frame rate which is what I did; my F3P keeping on topic would get to about 7fps with a 'hot' MN-2 and I got an F4s up around 10 FPS with mirror up.
If you want something rare, the F3H is the one to go for. 13 fps.
Yes, I own a P. I've owned quite a few P bodies. My current body is being worked on as I type this. Meter coupling ring is being unstuck and it's getting an overhaul at the same time. The weather sealing is cool, as is the hot shoe, even though I don't shoot flash with film. Typically, I use the accessory shoe on the prism for a bubble level when I'm using a tripod. Rest of the time, a BS-1 shoe cover is present, as it is on my Nikkormat bodies (both of which are FT2 models). I also typically just use it as an F3 Limited body, so no motor drive, no MF-6 (or MF-6B) back. With a 50/2 or a 50/1.8, it makes a fairly compact hiking camera. Not as small as an FM2 or an FE2, but somewhat more durable. Same weight as a Nikkormat FT2 body. B screen was swapped out for a P screen, so I have the diagonal split-image, just like what my F and F2 bodies have.
The T backs are also available in black. The black F3/T bodies come with those. Only real way to tell if a back is titanium or not, is that the titanium back will actually be heavier than the regular F3/F3HP/F3 Limited back.
I usually run the Energizer lithium batteries in my motor drives. Not as fast as a NiCd setup, but faster than alkaline. Also a lot lighter. Actually makes an F2AS with MD-2/MB-1 drive combo easy to deal with when hanging from the neck. Does tend to make a MD-11 or MD-12 run somewhat hot, though. MD-4, not so much, same with the F-36 and the F2 MD-1/2/3 drives. IIRC, the kit sold for the MD-11/12 motor drives was a repackaged MN-2 battery pack. Uses the MH-2 charger. A former Seattle Times photog had a few of them when I bought a parts FE2 off of him at Kenmore Camera back in '08.
Yes, I own a P. I've owned quite a few P bodies. My current body is being worked on as I type this. Meter coupling ring is being unstuck and it's getting an overhaul at the same time. The weather sealing is cool, as is the hot shoe, even though I don't shoot flash with film. Typically, I use the accessory shoe on the prism for a bubble level when I'm using a tripod. Rest of the time, a BS-1 shoe cover is present, as it is on my Nikkormat bodies (both of which are FT2 models). I also typically just use it as an F3 Limited body, so no motor drive, no MF-6 (or MF-6B) back. With a 50/2 or a 50/1.8, it makes a fairly compact hiking camera. Not as small as an FM2 or an FE2, but somewhat more durable. Same weight as a Nikkormat FT2 body. B screen was swapped out for a P screen, so I have the diagonal split-image, just like what my F and F2 bodies have.
The T backs are also available in black. The black F3/T bodies come with those. Only real way to tell if a back is titanium or not, is that the titanium back will actually be heavier than the regular F3/F3HP/F3 Limited back.
I usually run the Energizer lithium batteries in my motor drives. Not as fast as a NiCd setup, but faster than alkaline. Also a lot lighter. Actually makes an F2AS with MD-2/MB-1 drive combo easy to deal with when hanging from the neck. Does tend to make a MD-11 or MD-12 run somewhat hot, though. MD-4, not so much, same with the F-36 and the F2 MD-1/2/3 drives. IIRC, the kit sold for the MD-11/12 motor drives was a repackaged MN-2 battery pack. Uses the MH-2 charger. A former Seattle Times photog had a few of them when I bought a parts FE2 off of him at Kenmore Camera back in '08.
Those MD were a beast of a piece of equipment.
I realize i am looking back from the comfort of the future, but still.....what a Hulking Monster the F3 was in that scenario.
If you Had To Choose between the F2 of your choice and the F3........?
I realize i am looking back from the comfort of the future, but still.....what a Hulking Monster the F3 was in that scenario.
If you Had To Choose between the F2 of your choice and the F3........?
I'd probably choose my F2AS. Partly because the meter readout is a little more informative, and partly because I have too much into it, cash-wise. Had it worked on by Sover Wong, which wasn't cheap. But, worth it.
The F3P, back when it did have a MD-4 attached:
And, my F2AS:
-J
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