The Great Nikon N75 vs N80 Shootout!

ic-racer · Mar 18, 2023

If one puts some aluminum tape on the cassette in the approximate location of the sensor pins, it will easily receive marks from the exact location of the sensor pins in one's camera. Then it is a simple task of covering the appropriate marks with tape to adjust the DX setting. Extra points for using tape printed with the ISO.
This also works on cassettes that are already DX coded to easily change the DX code.

Hassasin · Mar 18, 2023

I'm no 75/80 anything, but don't they still make DX stickers for the cartridges? They used to be available and I suppose one could print it easily today, if nothing by DX will do.

ic-racer · Mar 18, 2023

Hassasin said:
I'm no 75/80 anything, but don't they still make DX stickers for the cartridges? They used to be available and I suppose one could print it easily today, if nothing by DX will do.

What is your favorite Nikon?

Hassasin · Mar 18, 2023

ic-racer said:
What is your favorite Nikon?

My Nikons are just the Nikkormat/FTn/F/F2/FM2/FE2 and am not going into it any deeper, as I am loaded with Canon F1/Minolta/Leica SL2 & R.

Of my Nikons I would probably take the FM2/FE2 out before any other. F2 is a fine camera, but somewhat a disappointed against the F1. Even F has a different enough feel making it at least as good in my hands as F2, maybe its sharper edges do it for me, I don't know.

Sirius Glass · Mar 18, 2023

ic-racer said:
If one puts some aluminum tape on the cassette in the approximate location of the sensor pins, it will easily receive marks from the exact location of the sensor pins in one's camera. Then it is a simple task of covering the appropriate marks with tape to adjust the DX setting. Extra points for using tape printed with the ISO.
This also works on cassettes that are already DX coded to easily change the DX code.

View attachment 332967

That is a lot of work for a work around.

Steven Lee · Mar 18, 2023

My impression is that these cameras came from the era of Nikon rapidly losing their shit and market share. This long article captures my recollection of those times pretty well. I was a kid in the 90s and we couldn't afford any of these cameras, but the general sentiment among my photography teenager/college friends was that Canon was King and Nikon was something old people still used. When EOS 1v came out it felt like the ultimate camera directly from God, something that could never be eclipsed (and in many ways that's where the state of art is still today). I guess most of us are overly influenced by our formative years, and for that reason I never looked at anything Nikon made (post F3) seriously.

ic-racer · Mar 18, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
That is a lot of work for a work around.

Cutting two pieces of tape??? It is quicker than loading the cartridge with film

ic-racer · Mar 18, 2023

Steven Lee said:
My impression is that these cameras came from the era of Nikon rapidly losing their shit and market share. This long article captures my recollection of those times pretty well. I was a kid in the 90s and we couldn't afford any of these cameras, but the general sentiment among my photography teenager/college friends was that Canon was King and Nikon was something old people still used. When EOS 1v came out it felt like the ultimate camera directly from God, something that could never be eclipsed (and in many ways that's where the state of art is still today). I guess most of us are overly influenced by our formative years, and for that reason I never looked at anything Nikon made (post F3) seriously.

My impression is that these were last 35mm cameras designed around the time of Nikons peak of film camera development, then, when market for film cameras fall apart they just quit all of them and got out of 35mm film all together and did not look back.

F100 - 1999 to 2009
F80 - 2000 to 2009
N55 - 2001 to 2009
N75 - 2003 to 2009
F6 - 2004 to 2018

Sirius Glass · Mar 18, 2023

ic-racer said:
If one puts some aluminum tape on the cassette in the approximate location of the sensor pins, it will easily receive marks from the exact location of the sensor pins in one's camera. Then it is a simple task of covering the appropriate marks with tape to adjust the DX setting. Extra points for using tape printed with the ISO.
This also works on cassettes that are already DX coded to easily change the DX code.

View attachment 332967

Sirius Glass said:
That is a lot of work for a work around.

ic-racer said:
Cutting two pieces of tape??? It is quicker than loading the cartridge with film

Starting with running around to find and buy aluminum tape ... there is an option for adjusting each exposure on the N75.

Steven Lee · Mar 18, 2023

@ic-racer hey I'm not arguing, just going down the memory lane out loud That's the sentiment we had at the time, I have no idea what the actual unit sales of Nikon vs Canon gear were at the time.

ic-racer · Mar 18, 2023

Steven Lee said:
@ic-racer hey I'm not arguing, just going down the memory lane out loud That's the sentiment we had at the time, I have no idea what the actual unit sales of Nikon vs Canon gear were at the time.

No, I appreciate your comments!! I recall in graduate school my good friend and I were the Non-Nikon guys. He had just bought a brand-new Canon NEW F1 and I had a Rollei SL2000F. That NEW F1 was really nice! He let me hold it the day he got it. I was so impressed! Never even considered Nikon for myself until 30 years later.

ic-racer · Mar 18, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Starting with running around to find and buy aluminum tape ... there is an option for adjusting each exposure on the N75.

Yes great point! EI 400 is obtained easily on a non-DX cassette with the exposure comp at (-2),

The main reason I got into making the DX cartridges was to experiment with MANUAL mode, because, it turns out the exp. comp does not carry over when in MANUAL .

Here is the tape, BTW, in case anyone is interested:

Huss · Mar 18, 2023

Bob Eskridge said:
It is true that the N75 is DX only. And that is an advantage. However, you can set exposure compensation to, in effect, get the speed you want.
I have had to do that with some pretty high end P&S cameras n the past.

Not sure how DX only is an advantage…. And of course there are work arounds, but it is so much nicer when you don’t need work arounds.
Also it offers exp compensation in +-3 ev. Which means the lowest you can effectively set it to is ISO 12. And the highest is iso 800.
So w non DX film you got a range of 12-800. I shoot a lot above that, and actually more below that, enjoying the films like Lomo Fantome iso 6, FPP Blue Ultra iso 3, Slow Your Roll iso 1.6

Of course you can shoot in manual mode and do the math, but the bummer there is not just the math part… but the fact that as the camera has only one control dial, to change aperture you have to hold down a button, and then turn the control dial.

You don’t have to deal w any of this grief w an N80 because you can set ISO manually, it has two control dials etc.

Of course at the time these cameras came out they were aimed at different market segments, with the corresponding different price points so it made sense that the N80 cost a lot more, as it offered a lot more. Problem is today on the used market the N75 and N80 are pretty much the same price.

Moose22 · Mar 19, 2023

ic-racer said:
My impression is that these were last 35mm cameras designed around the time of Nikons peak of film camera development, then, when market for film cameras fall apart they just quit all of them and got out of 35mm film all together and did not look back.

F100 - 1999 to 2009
F80 - 2000 to 2009
N55 - 2001 to 2009
N75 - 2003 to 2009
F6 - 2004 to 2018

They didn't discontinue the F6 until December 2020, actually.

Huss said:
Not sure how DX only is an advantage…. And of course there are work arounds,

It is not. You are completely correct.

And, yes, there are workarounds. I've made my own DX encoding stickers from copper foil tape and stickers (which I had on hand) and you can buy them from Freestyle, etc. All a pain in the arse, really, when I can just spin the dial to ISO and set it to whatever I want on the F80.

I'm a huge fan of the N75, but this one thing about it is definitely a limitation. Especially as I like to bulk roll HP5 and shoot it anywhere from 200 to 1600, just because I'm weird like that. I also have catlabs, and santacolor, and... crap, I have to have at least 5 weird choices in the freezer that don't have DX encoding outside of my bulk rolled film in the metal soviet cans. I have a roll of HP5 I'm shooting at 1600 in the N80 right now, in fact.

Besk · Mar 19, 2023

Huss said:
Not sure how DX only is an advantage…. And of course there are work arounds,

I misspoke. I meant to say it is a disadvantage - sorry. Can't imagine how it would be an advantage. (And edited it in my original post.)

Huss · Mar 19, 2023

N75 + 50 1.8d + dx film is such a great tiny package.

ic-racer · Mar 19, 2023

Moose22 said:
They didn't discontinue the F6 until December 2020, actually.

Yes, as I look back at my receipt, I got mine new in 2020 right when I heard they were being discontinued.

ic-racer · Mar 20, 2023

Went to Photorama recently and one table had a BLACK N75. Since I already have 2 black ones, I walked by, but on my way back around it was gone. I asked him how much he sold it for and he said $5. I asked if it worked and he said yes. BTW I paid $90 for one of my black ones, they are pretty rare.

Huss · Mar 20, 2023

ic-racer said:
Went to Photorama recently and one table had a BLACK N75. Since I already have 2 black ones, I walked by, but on my way back around it was gone. I asked him how much he sold it for and he said $5. I asked if it worked and he said yes. BTW I paid $90 for one of my black ones, they are pretty rare.

sonofa

Dachshund · Mar 27, 2023

I’ve got two N80s and one N75. One of the N80s is for color and the other is b/w, the N75 is in semi-retirement. The N80 is a my favorite, lots of options that are my choice, not the camera’s. Neither of these cameras have “snob appeal”, they just take good photos

Huss · Mar 27, 2023

Dachshund said:
I’ve got two N80s and one N75. One of the N80s is for color and the other is b/w, the N75 is in semi-retirement. The N80 is a my favorite, lots of options that are my choice, not the camera’s. Neither of these cameras have “snob appeal”, they just take good photos

They indeed do not have 'snob' appeal which is why we can get them so cheap! I have an F6 which DOES have snob appeal, and yet I use the N80 much more.

Dachshund · Jul 10, 2023

I recently got a nearly perfect F100 to go with my other gear, very similar to the N80s

250swb · Jul 11, 2023

I never had it for long anyway but never thought about my old F80 until I got a mint F100 (after cleaning the sticky back). The F100 is a very nice camera, but that's when I started to miss my F80, so I got another not long ago, also in mint condition (after cleaning the sticky back) and now the F100 is gathering dust. The F80 is pretty nice for features and balances with my AF primes beautifully whereas the F100 seems like it's 'all body' no matter what lens is mounted.

acrobatic_citron · Jul 11, 2023

Moose22 said:
anywhere from 200 to 1600

Does the exposure comp dial not take care of this for the N75

BMbikerider · Jul 11, 2023

SteveInConverse said:
Speaking of D lenses... I find them a bit "cheaply made". I've got a 28-80 that's just loaded with plastic...not sure that there's any metal in it. It takes good pics, just feels super cheap.

The more expensive D lenses certainly are not 'plastic' I have 3 and they weigh a lot much more than a plastic lens would. My 20/35 F2.8 AFD, 37/70 F2.8 AFD and the 80/200 F4 AFD were, when they were introduced were as good as they get and can still hold their own when used on a modern digital camera.

The Great Nikon N75 vs N80 Shootout!

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