Now this was a fast Camera!

CropDusterMan · Apr 19, 2016

Many years ago, I had the fortune to use this camera to shoot downhill skiing during a World Cup Season, and it was an incredible piece of equipment...capable of 14 frames per second. Canon built them in 1984 and very few were made. For a sport like downhill skiing, it was the ultimate...you could shoot a gate, trap-focused with a 400mm 2.8 @2.8 and still, you'd only have maybe 2-3 frames that were tack sharp.

Here's a link that talks about it...obviously a very specialized piece of hardware.

http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/canonf1n/canonf1highspeed/index.htm

bdial · Apr 19, 2016

And no long roll back? I guess you got skilled at reloading it fast.
Impressive though.

CropDusterMan · Apr 19, 2016

You'd get 2 skiers runs per roll...maybe 3 if you were lucky. When the EOS 1N Rs came out,
(did 10 frames per second) it was a great camera, but nothing beat the F1.

trythis · Apr 20, 2016

bdial said:
And no long roll back? I guess you got skilled at reloading it fast.
Impressive though.

Thats why you have 2 and your assistant is swapping film while you shoot!

tokam · Apr 22, 2016

The assistant would also come in handy for lugging your multiple High Speed F1-N's up and down the skip slope. I have a 'bare' F1-N sans any type of winder / motor and
it is a solid and weighty device with longer lenses attached. That permanent motor and battery setup on the High Speed must at least double the weight. Then there are
lenses to consider...

Alan Gales · Apr 22, 2016

I remember when this came out. At the time all I could think about was how much all that film and developing would cost!

Paul Howell · Apr 22, 2016

When I was a working PJ I saw in action a couple of times, much faster then the high speed Nikon, (dim memory 7 FPS?) always wanted to shoot one, never had the chance. I think it took a 250 exposure back.

Sim2 · Apr 22, 2016

Wonderfully ott machines these.
I had the 'pleasure' of sitting next to a japanese photographer at a football (soccer) match who was using two of these cameras (one on the long lens and one one the short) and yes he did have an assistant reloading. He would hold one avove his head to be replaced by a fresh one, so thay had at least three of these on the go. I remember that he did explain that the japanese magazines would not use duplicate slides so he could supply two or three magazines with very similar images of the same incident and make more money than the guys with 'just' F1n's or F3's. Funilly they did not unbox the film till it was needed, by the end of the match we were surrounded by an explosion of green fuji boxes!
I think the cordy thing top right of the picture enabled the battery pack to be seperated from the drive unit and popped in a bag or coat - very useful for keeping it warm on the slopes.
I think I remember right but not sure but I thought it had a facility to limit the number of frames that could be shot on one burst, could be wrong though.
Never got to use on in anger but did play with one in the office - comparing the 14fps to the 5.5fps of the F1n was amazing and suprisingly not that unwieldy.

Diapositivo · Apr 22, 2016

Paul Howell said:
When I was a working PJ I saw in action a couple of times, much faster then the high speed Nikon, (dim memory 7 FPS?) always wanted to shoot one, never had the chance. I think it took a 250 exposure back.

If I remember well the Nikon F3 only had the detachable motor drive, which arrived to 5 frames per second or so.

Minolta had an XM with a fixed motor drive, the XM Motor.

Canon could reach 10 fps and more because it had a fixed semitransparent mirror, called by Canon a "pellicle" mirror, like the one of the Canon Pellix. They later realized a similar camera, with fixed mirror and fixed motor drive, in the EOS line of cameras.

Paul Howell · Apr 22, 2016

The F2, F3 has high speed versions, faster than I recalled, it was 10 FPS, still the Canon beat it.
From Camera Quest:

Nikon F2 High Speed 10 FPS

Introduced at the 1978 Photokina, the F2 High Speed was the last Nikon High Speed for almost twenty years, until the F3 High Speed of 1996. Accordingly, it was much sought after by both users and collectors. Start with a F2 Titanium body, install a pellicle mirror, modify a MD-2 motor by adding an extra MB-1 battery pack.

F2 High Speed features include:

Speeds up to 10 frames per second possible -- exposing a 36 roll in 3.6 seconds !!
Multi-coated Fixed Pellicle mirror with 65% transmission. This means 65% of the light goes through the mirror to the film plane, while 35% of the light is reflected upward to the finder for focusing and viewing.
The F2 High Speed is based on a F2 Titanium body, with a Titanium top, bottom and back covers painted with black epoxy paint
Though sold only with a prism finder, any F2 finder is usable on the F2 High Speed. Photomics need exposure compensation for the 35% of the light going upward to the finder.
The F2 High Speed has no automatic diaphragm operation. In other words, exposures are always at shooting aperture. This is necessary to allow the fastest operating speeds, since the lens diaphragm would not work at 10 fps.
Depth of Field preview works in the OPPOSITE direction. Pushing it inward OPENS up the lens for brighter viewing and focusing! The DOF preview button, which of course is really the BVF (Bright Viewing and Focusing) preview button on the F2 High speed, is about twice the size of a standard F2 DOF preview to allow more convenient use.
No mirror lock up -- it's not needed with a fixed pellicle mirror !
No self timer or extended slow speeds.
MD-100 motor is exclusive to the F2 High Speed. It's similar to the MD-2, with an extra set of batteries attached. With fully recharged Nicad batteries, it offers 5 continuous speeds from 10 fps to 3 fps. AA batteries will give slightly reduced speeds.
The MD-100 was sold with a special MH-100 quick charger, a charger with four Nicad battery charging capability for 70-80% charges in approximately 3 hrs on 100-240V 50/60 Hz AC. Of course, the MD-100 can also be used with the standard charger, and AA battery inserts. Motorized rewind takes approximately 7 seconds, manual rewind optional.
The MD-100 motors and F2 High Speed bodies are matched. Serial #'s of the body and MD-100 are painted inside the back door
The two modified MB-1 battery packs are permanently mounted on the MD-100 motor, providing 30 volts.
The MD-100 accepts all Nikon remote triggering and timing devices compatible with standard MD-2/3/11/12 motor drives.
The battery pack still has the MD-2 style S (Single), C (Continuous), and L (Lock) settings.

There are two models of F2 High Speed: The Model I F2 High Speed has T&B setting on the shutter dial, a fixed Type B focusing screen, and the serial number in one line on the top plate. Starting serial # is 7850001. The Model II like this one has no T & B setting on the shutter dial, an interchangeable focusing screen, and has two lines of engraving for the top plate

ANY SLR pellicle mirror requires extra care. It is especially susceptible to dust and scratches. If it needs cleaning, do yourself a BIG favor, take it to a repairman. With the mirror in the image path, the lens resolution is also slightly reduced, though many users have reported no noticeable difference.

Note the motor strap lugs on the MD-100, which the MD-2 does not have. The MD-100 has black painted Titanium covers like the High Speed, and is noticeably larger and heavier than the MD-2. To the far right are the matched body and motor numbers painted inside the back door.

With fully charged Nicad batteries, the MD-100 can be used as follows:

Setting H M3 M2 M1 L
Shutter Speed 1/250-1/1000 1/125-1/1000 1/60-1/1000 1/60-1/1000 1/30-1/1000
Aprox FPS 10 7.5 6 3.5 3

The motor speeds indicate the lowest shutter speeds usable in green. Note the extra large and convenient former DOF preview, now the BVF (Bright Viewing and Focusing) preview button on the F2 High Speed.

The MD-100 can be detached, turning the High Speed into a lightweight manual advance camera. Likewise, the F2 High Speed can use any of the Photomic Metering heads, and will also mount other F2 motors. Shown is a F2AS High Speed MD-2 combination. Too bad the F4 and F5 don't have removable motors.

Could a talented repair technician make an inexpensive High Speed by modifying a standard F2 by adding a Pellicle mirror, and modifying a MD-2 motor by adding an extra set of batteries ?? Probably.

Today Nikon F2 High Speeds are a real rarity, a prize to any Nikon collection.

Sim2 · Apr 22, 2016

The Nikon F3 had a special edition of around 500 units for the Nagano Olympics, F3hs, with a fixed motor that did more than the standard 6fps, not certain how many more though :-/.
The Canon EOS RT was the 'little' version with the pellicle, similar in size to a T90, at around 6fps. Quite nice little camera.

EdSawyer · Apr 22, 2016

I shot skiing professionally on the World Cup circuit for a while in the 90s. Generally no one blew through a whole roll of film on 2 skiers. Everything would be out of focus on most of the shots. The way to shoot it was pre-focus on a gate you wanted, and shoot one shot as the skier was in the perfect position. It didn't matter how fast the motor drive was, the speed and angle ensured only one shot would be ideal focus anyway. this is all 300-400mm f/2.8 stuff, shot mostly head-on to the skier coming downhill. getting the shutter release timing and focus correct (and the metering of course) was where the skill was needed.

John_Nikon_F · Apr 23, 2016

Sim2 said:
The Nikon F3 had a special edition of around 500 units for the Nagano Olympics, F3hs, with a fixed motor that did more than the standard 6fps, not certain how many more though :-/.
The Canon EOS RT was the 'little' version with the pellicle, similar in size to a T90, at around 6fps. Quite nice little camera.

The F3H does 13 fps. MD-4H motor is removable, so it becomes a quiet F3P body. Manual diaphragm, so no meter coupling, but it still has a light meter inside with the capability of doing aperture priority automatic, just like a normal F3 body.

Prior to the F2 High Speed, there were two F High Speed variants. Modified F-36 motor drives with cordless battery pack grips permanently attached (used a corded pack, though). First version was 7 fps and had a normal mirror that was to be locked up for high speed photography. Second version was 9 fps and used a pellicle mirror, like the later versions and the Canon F-1 high speed body.

With respect to modifying regular F2 bodies and MD-2 motor drives, the person to ask would be Sover Wong.

-J

CropDusterMan · Apr 23, 2016

Diapositivo said:
Canon could reach 10 fps and more because it had a fixed semitransparent mirror, called by Canon a "pellicle" mirror, like the one of the Canon Pellix. They later realized a similar camera, with fixed mirror and fixed motor drive, in the EOS line of cameras.

That was the EOS 1N Rs. It couldn't follow focus AF at 10fps though...you used trap-zone focus in MF. You lost
2/3 of a stop with the pellicle mirror...the Rs was unbelievably expensive in its time...yet nowadays they
sell for $200+ on ebay.

CropDusterMan · Apr 23, 2016

EdSawyer said:
The way to shoot it was pre-focus on a gate you wanted, and shoot one shot as the skier was in the perfect position.

Shooting one frame per gate per skier=low percentage.

mehguy · Apr 23, 2016

This camera looks quite amazing. At 14 FPS, that is on par with the Nikon D5! A roll of 36 exp with only last 3 seconds!

CropDusterMan · Apr 23, 2016

What's crazy with the D5 is there's no pellicle mirror.

Lamar · Apr 23, 2016

The F3H on the Nikon website. Check out the video toward the end. It shows the film advancing at 13fps with the back off.
http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/recollections/r25_e/index.ham

markbarendt · Apr 23, 2016

26 Frames per second http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Consumer/Products/Super8/Super8-camera/default.htm

CropDusterMan · Apr 23, 2016

The Hulcher was up to 30+fps if I'm not mistaken...and I used their strip camera for horse racing.

Sports Illustrated had one they used for Barry Bonds home run record.

The strip camera was very cool...it took nikon lenses and had timing chains that ran through the top of the
frame and you matched the roll speed to the action as the horses ran through the frame...one or two test runs and you were ready...as the action approached, you turned on the camera...we used long rolls...

markbarendt · Apr 23, 2016

http://hollywoodcamera.com/portfolio/arricam-lite/

Recording format 35 mm Film
Lens mount 54 mm PL
Contacts for LDS lenses yes
Forward run 1-48 fps
Reverse run 1-32 fps
Sound level below 24 db(A)
Temperature range -10°C to +40°C (14°F to 104°F)
Mirror reflex shutter 180° to 0° electronically adjustable
Nominal power input 24 V DC to 32 V DC
Weight body with finder 5.25 kg/11.56 lbs

CropDusterMan · Apr 23, 2016

Ok fellas, I see we are out-doing each other with fps here...

How about this?...

Standard M134D
7.62mm NATO and fires at a fixed rate of 3,000 shots per minute.

LOL

markbarendt · Apr 24, 2016

Giggle

mehguy · Apr 24, 2016

How exactly would you focus this camera if you're bursting through 14FPS without auto focus?

EdSawyer · Apr 25, 2016

You might think so but if your timing and focus was right (that's where the talent comes into play) it was more like 90-100% in-focus, correctly framed shots. Spray and pray was not the way to go, that was the sign of amateurs.

CropDusterMan said:
Shooting one frame per gate per skier=low percentage.

Now this was a fast Camera!

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