Old Nikon SLRs consistently overexposing, but only in strong light?

F4U · Wednesday at 4:37 PM

Old shutters slow down on the speeds above 1/60. By the time you get to 1000, oftentimes it's actually 1/480 at best. That's 1 stop's worth right there. Add on top the loss of linearity of some meter cells, it all adds up quick.

F4U · Wednesday at 4:38 PM

Chan Tran said:
This is what I found also. Besides from the F3 which had a bad amplifier chip that needed to be replaced my 2 FM and FM2n of different age read the same as the F5 and the same as the much newer digital Df and D850. Only selenium and Cds cells have the aging problem.

Any of them can get an aging problem.

albireo · Wednesday at 4:44 PM

koraks said:
Okay, I misunderstood/misinterpreted your original question; my bad.
Can you confirm that the metering starts to get weird consistently beyond a certain EV level, regardless of what kind of lighting setup you're aiming the camera at (provided it's bright enough ofcourse)?

Hmm I haven't done such a high resolution type of data collection to be honest Will try if I have some time tomorrow.

koraks · Wednesday at 4:59 PM

Well, try out a few EV's that are sufficiently spaced from each other so you get an impression of whether the deviation is constant, linear or erratic. Then take it from there.

Chan Tran · Wednesday at 6:01 PM

albireo said:
Hmm I haven't done such a high resolution type of data collection to be honest Will try if I have some time tomorrow.

Well Nikon service manual calls for testing at EV9 and EV15 so check that. I would try to light a surface of same color (something neutral is better) and try to light it as evenly as possible (you have a spot meter so you can check and see if the surface is lit evenly. Then set the camera at infinity but put the camera close enough to the surface so that the surface would fill the frame entirely (don't worry about being out of focus). Doing this to elilmiate the difference in center weighted patern of 60/40 for the older camera and the 75/25 for the N90.

Melvin J Bramley · Wednesday at 6:39 PM

Years ago I nearly gave up photography when my Nikon F2s and Nikon FE were both underexposing.
Turned out both cameras had shutter issues that were rectified by a good CLA.
Before condemning the cameras I suggest using an external meter and trying again!

Pieter12 · Wednesday at 7:58 PM

Could it possibly be a sticky diaphragm not stopping down all the way?

Paul Howell · Wednesday at 10:26 PM

The FG uses a silicon blue for meter cell, my older built in CDs meters are fading or are gone, but my bodies with silicon meters seem to hold up. Still odd that 2 bodies have the same issue, same lens but no issue with 3rd body same lens.

vsyrek1945 · Wednesday at 11:13 PM

Don't know for sure if this has any bearing, but the Nikon FE and FG use the historic 60/40 weighting, while the F90X/N90s were set up with 80/20 bias.

albireo · Thursday at 3:02 AM

vsyrek1945 said:
Don't know for sure if this has any bearing, but the Nikon FE and FG use the historic 60/40 weighting, while the F90X/N90s were set up with 80/20 bias.

Hi, thanks -

I really don't think it would make a difference with the front-lit, uniform scenes I measured (green hedges throughout the frame, blue featureless sky, brick wall, all filling the frame, all uniformly sun-lit from behind).

Also, a second control (a Canon Eos 3 with its own 'flavour' of centre weighted metering) agrees with the F90X and with my Sunny 16 estimates.

I really think my FE and FG are faulty - 3 pages in, and I'm not convinced the 2 stops errors I'm seeing have much to do with subtle centre-weighted pattern weighting differences, or with user error, or with measured 'difficult' light tricking the meters.

I'm more and more suspecting that one should exercise caution when on the market for one of these old cameras. Test the meter if you're planning on relying on it.

I haven't seen any clear proof in support of or against meter cell aging issues in cameras of this vintage.

koraks · Thursday at 3:07 AM

Just do the testing to establish whether the deviation is constant, erratic, linear etc before drawing this conclusion.
Cameras like yours use silicon photodiodes. These generally do not deteriorate.

Old Nikon SLRs consistently overexposing, but only in strong light?

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Old Nikon SLRs consistently overexposing, but only in strong light?

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