Show me some meterless Nikon F Love

kivis · Apr 17, 2016

I bought my Nikon F in the 80's for $50 at a yard sale. It included the non-Ai Nikkor 50/1.4 lens. I have since Ai'ed the lens and recovered the F with Griptac. I stopped carrying a light meter years ago and now rely on Sunny 16 or a light meter app on my iPhone (myLightMeter Pro). I also have the mighty Nikkor 105/2.5 AiS Tele lens. All and all, I could not be happier. I have had many other cameras both film and digital but I always come back to the F.
What say you?

kivis · Apr 17, 2016

Oh yes, please recommend a wide angle lens for me as I have never really owned one. 24mm or 28mm?

Ap507b · Apr 17, 2016

Have an F with an eyelevel finder but only rarely use it. Prefer an F2. No plans to part with the F though. For a 28mm lens the Nikkor 28mm F2.8 AIS is worth looking at.

Alan Gales · Apr 17, 2016

Most medium format cameras don't have meters. Just carry an incident meter with you.

I'd get the 24mm. When I shot 35mm I had 25, 35, 50, 100 and 180 lenses. Most of the time I just carried the 25, 50 and 100 combination and was really happy with that. A 24, 50 and 105 would be the same.

Richard S. (rich815) · Apr 17, 2016

I got similar love and attitude for my F2. Got a used three-lens set of "F-lenses" for a song (28/2.8, 35/2, 50/1.4) and have added a 105/2.5, 50/2, 85/2, and 200/4. Later found an ugly but perfectly useable legendary 35/1.4. Love the whole set.

chip j · Apr 17, 2016

28mm 3.5 AI--easier to focus than AIS.

flash26c · Apr 17, 2016

Bought my first F in Japan in 1966 when on R&R. Stolen with three lens'. Second one, bought in 1972; added lots of lens', screens, and what I miss the most was a action finder. Stolen. Current F with lots of stuff as I suffer GAS in 2002. As you can see, I'm a fan - love the "snick" from the shutter; gives me confidence that the shot was made. Ron

ColColt · Apr 17, 2016

Sounds to me you need a body guard.

ColColt · Apr 17, 2016

I downloaded a light meter app for my LGV10 but deleted it as I found it underexposed about a full stop too many times. I hate carrying the Luna Pro SBC as it's pretty large for a pocket but accurate for those times that low light has fooled me.

Theo Sulphate · Apr 17, 2016

Nikon F with 85/1.8 pre-AI. I deliberately chose a plain-prism head for the clean looks and balance. I almost never use a meter, though I'm fond of collecting them.

darkosaric · Apr 17, 2016

I had nikon F with plain prism and sold it - biggest mistake in selling stuff so far. Now looking for a new one. I have nikon F with photomic prism, it is nice as well, but too bulky.

Ricardo Miranda · Apr 17, 2016

Lots of Nikkor Glass

So, don't have a 28mm already? And you bought your camera in the 80s?

kivis · Apr 17, 2016

Ok I lied. I had a 28/3.5 non Ai and a 24/2 Ai. Both were stolen in San Jose, CA airport in 1992. Really my fault as they were both in a pouch on a bench and I stupidly went to the restroom. They were gone when I returned.

kivis · Apr 17, 2016

Ricardo Miranda · Apr 17, 2016

Sorry for your loss.
The lenses you lost are very good.
I would go with the AIS version of the 28mm /2.8.
It fits all your Non-AI and AI bodies.

narsuitus · Apr 17, 2016

kivis said:
Oh yes, please recommend a wide angle lens for me as I have never really owned one. 24mm or 28mm?

I use the 24mm Nikon f/2 AIS and the 28mm Nikon f/2.8 AIS and recommend both.

Recently, I compared the 28mm Nikon (lens on left) to a 28mm f/2 Zeiss (second from right) and was surprised that at the same apertures, the performance of the Nikon was very close to the Zeiss.

Old vs. New by Narsuitus, on Flickr

Les Sarile · Apr 17, 2016

narsuitus said:
Recently, I compared the 28mm Nikon (lens on left) to a 28mm f/2 Zeiss (second from right) and was surprised that at the same apertures, the performance of the Nikon was very close to the Zeiss.

How did you conduct the comparison and do you have any results that you can share?

John_Nikon_F · Apr 17, 2016

Late model F with earlier model F-36 drive, mid-series Nikkor-S 50/1.4 with AI ring...

My current F with the eyelevel finder that it wore until recently. 105/4 Micro AIS mounted to it. My wide angle is on the F3P shown. A 24/2 AI. If you liked the 24/2 that you owned before, get another one.

-J

kivis · Apr 18, 2016

APUGuser19 said:
Nikon went out of business in 1977. They resurfaced as Nikon. After that, who cares? None of them were as handy as a Nikkormat anyway.

sorry sir, but I have no idea what you are talking about.

Xmas · Apr 18, 2016

ColColt said:
Sounds to me you need a body guard.

But he loses lenses as well?

Huss · Apr 18, 2016

APUGuser19 said:
Nikoormats now are such pieces of junk. I've got a dozen of them I have to get rid of. Every one of them ranges from less-than-perfect (1 or 2) to total junk (8-10). Not a one of them is really nice. But they all have a "fatal flaw". They work. Every one of them works just perfectly fine. I'd love to be shed of them and clear this junk out of here, so I can close out the sale of this house and not drag junk with me. How do you throw away something that obviously cannot be destroyed?

Put them all in a box and mail them to me.

Huss · Apr 18, 2016

My nephew with one of my Fs.

Steve Smith · Apr 18, 2016

I have two Fs, one black, one white. I have a black standard prisme and one each of black and chrome metered prisms.

The black body with the black non-metered prism is my favourite.

Steve.

blockend · Apr 18, 2016

The plain prism F has no competition for prettiest mechanical SLR. I sold my mint very early number chrome F for a song in the nineties, stupidest decision ever. I stay with Nikkormats and a mix of pre-AI, AI and AIS lenses these days. An FT with a scallop focus pre-AI chrome nose lens, is a thing of beauty. My preference is for 2.8 and 3.5 wide angles, as everything looks in focus like a rangefinder, and f8 at 1/250 is sharp at hyperfocal distance.

guangong · Apr 18, 2016

Nikon f with plain prizm snd pancake lens makes a wonderfully pocketable slr. However，photomic metered nikons are ugly and unwieldy. Why would snyone want to load up such a marvelous design with ungainly motors and other unnecessary stuff. Put an 85mm in the other pocket and you are set. If I want internal meter I use that other gorgeous slr，leicaflex sl or sl2. Of course suffering from my own GAS symptoms I have way too many nikon lenses but my excuse is my nikormats.

Show me some meterless Nikon F Love

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