As I recall, the first run of the Nikon F had the SP's silk cloth shutter. I think something like 200 cameras.
The Nikon SP is better built internally, and has a rock-solid shutter (basically the same shutter as the one in the Nikon F). A tank.
i bought an S2 three years ago and love it. Also have M4, 3 and 2 -- sickness! -- so I can speak to both.
..
In terms of usability, the Nikon RF cameras, especially the S3 and up, give the M3 a run for its money. Even the S2, with no parallax compensation or adjustable frame lines, is a really easy camera to use.
..
the SP has framelines for 28,35,50,85,105,135. The S3 only 35,50,105
As I recall, the first run of the Nikon F had the SP's silk cloth shutter. I think something like 200 cameras.
The first 12,000 or so Nikon SP's have cloth shutters. The later SP has Titanium Foil, like the Nikon F. You can replace the shutter curtains of the SP, S3, and S4 with curtains from a NIkon F. Both of my Nikon SP's are Titanium shutters.
(Warning, 50+ year old memory here.) As I recall Marty Forscher/Professional Camera Repair of New York City would make this modification to the Nikon F. Also as I recall Questar would sell these modified bodies to go with their telescopes.I've known that the first hundred or so Nikon F bodies had cloth shutters from working in a camera shop in the 1970s. I have not handles one in person.
There are some unusual variations of the Nikon F- I have 3 of them with Mirror-Up releases, meaning not having to waste a shot to raise the mirror. Celestron sold these to go with Telescopes, others also added this feature.
Thank you everyone for your posts. I am blown away by the support I received here. I bought a M6 TTL from eBay. More posts to follow requesting your critique.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Indeed. I bought Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 Color-Skopar along with this; only because it looked decent and reasonably priced. Once I have some idea about photographing on this camera then I may look for Summicron 50mm. Those lenses, by jove, are expensive!
Huss,
Please take a few dozens of hours to polish your photo history knowledge. All the ressources are out there and it’s a fun ride.
Basically, the Nikon F took the photo world by storm, selling in excess of 1 Million units while, during that same time, Leica sold only around 200K cameras. That makes it only 1/5th. And it all went downhill, extremely fast, deeper and deeper.
The niche rf world was in bad shape. What kept Leica alive were its diehard followers. Not the mainstream market.
Mainstream market was basically: amateurs, newspapers, olympics, sports, fashion, wide angle, telephoto... anything. Schools, moms and pops. SLRs. MILLIONS of SLRS. Probably 500 SLR cameras for every single rf sold.
Ask yourself the question, why did Canon exit the rf world? Did you forget about them? They used the LTM mount, as you alluded earlier. And you forgot about Olympus, Pentax, Minolta slrs?
Just a few years ago, before and during the M8 days, Leica was a hair away of bankruptcy, and that was following their M5 days, which followed the poor M4 days... B&H couldn’t unload the Leica lenses even with 25% rebates in the 2000’s. A summilux 50 was going for 2000$ and less, new. Almost nobody wanted to touch them except the diehards.
I for one, was willing to die with my Leicas and stop shooting the day they’d stop manufacturing. Folks like this are the ones who kept the boat. The 1%.
The camera that saved Leica was the M9, and the digital world/era. In the digital era, people started to expect SMALLER devices. Think iphone. And this is where Leica got their swag back by total and absolute luck, finally the M form got in tune with the digital times... fuji got on board.
Leica was on life support and somehow survived until the market changed in its favor. Not the other way around. They had extremely difficult years, decades.
And so on.
Leica started to breathe when Kauffman bought the ship from disaster. Before him, Lee the director was causing a lot of harm. Kauffman decided that, in its extreme Niche market, the only way to survive would be to go Luxury full speed. Luxury and legacy. Slowly, the HCB stories/hype started to follow. The Magnum “legend” got into people’s heads. Street photography got hyped again. Even Magnum got back its mojo, thanks to legendary obacure stories. Basically, the digital market was annew pradigm shift and the asian market was very thirsty for anything western.
In conclusion, Nikon, and Canon, did not see any future in the rf system, and there was NONE. Even today, the present and future is not in the RF but in the mirrorless system, and no rangefidners are not mirrorless. That’s where Canon and Nikon and Leica are headed: mirrorless.
The M film system is a sub-sub-sub-sub-niche for crazy people as myself and a few others. Leica does not survive on that, but it is our crowd that keeps it mythical. And Leica needs that Myth to stay alive.
Leica tried many times to get away from the M system as we know it. They didn’t succeed because of its core custimer base didn’t let them. This was a blessing but also a terrible curse. Look at the various M6 prototypes, the M5. The leica crowd didnmt want those, and they didn’t want the lesser SLR offerings. The Leicaflex was brilliant, but extremely expensive. Leica was really between a rock abd a hard place. They couldn’t break through. All they had was the M line, and that was a cursed position to be in.
Too much to write. Just look it up.
Excellent lens! Use that for a while and then see how you feel about getting other lenses.Indeed. I bought Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 Color-Skopar along with this; only because it looked decent and reasonably priced. Once I have some idea about photographing on this camera then I may look for Summicron 50mm. Those lenses, by jove, are expensive!
If you want a fast 50 I recommend the CV 50 1.5 v2 Vintage. Tiny and great optics. Really nice build quality. The only thing I don’t like about mine is the sharp edged focus ring and the goofy aperture ring tabs. I fixed the focus ring by attaching a Lenstab and I’ll just have to get over my precious self re. the aperture ring.I've had my eye on a Voigtlander 50mm F2 APO-Lanthar as a fast 50. I probably won't bother, though. A bit of sharpness in the corners isn't exactly vital for what I want fast lenses for. I should really be thinking about a good 90.
I have a vintage collapsible Summicron that's not bad at all, especially considering it is 70 years old. And my beater is a zeiss planar 50 that is also really nice and super sharp by between 2.8 and 4, but the newer Summicron M is just a ridiculously nice lens.
I'm using an M3, so different framelines, my 35mm has glasses, and all that. Others here will tell you what works best with the M6, which is such a nice camera! You'll get good use out of it, I'm certain.
If you want a fast 50 I recommend the CV 50 1.5 v2 Vintage. Tiny and great optics. Really nice build quality. The only thing I don’t like about mine is the sharp edged focus ring and the goofy aperture ring tabs. I fixed the focus ring by attaching a Lenstab and I’ll just have to get over my precious self re. the aperture ring.
Thread here:
Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Aspherical Review - Sony Forum - Photography - FM Forums
Join the Sony Forum photography discussion:www.fredmiranda.com
Any thoughts on the Zeiss RF equivalent?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?