Workhorse Replacement?

[Sirius Glass]

Nikon F100

 

[Huss]

F4 is very solid and smooth... Also it labors to focus and the focus assist is awkward spot for me....

Hmm, I have an F4 and an F6 and I have never had an issue with the focus on my F4 - either with speed or accuracy. Never thought I wish I had my F6 with me instead.
I've used a 50 1.8G, 50 1.4D, 28-105 D, 24 2.8D, Sigma Art 35 and 50 1.4...
The G and Art lenses can only be used in Shutter or Programme modes.

 

[mshchem]

F5 and a 85mm AF-D f1.4. Stop buying Soviet junk, keep using the gaffers tape for a couple months/quarters/years until a nice F4s or F5 comes along. Or a spectacularly mint N90 for £50.

 

[KPtheamateur]

Well, all my lenses are Ds, so no issue there. Tbh, I am pretty sure I am going to save up for a 4s, it just seems like a robust and well featured camera for about half the price of an F5. The Fed 2 arrived yesterday and it's gorgeous! Just a shame the range finder needs calibrating, as I don't have the skillz to sort it out but don't fancy spending 4s money on having it serviced. There are days when I think I should have picked something less ridiculous as a hobby than film photography.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Make a pinhole body cap for that Fed, and you won't care if the RF works or not.

 

[KPtheamateur]

But then my Ondu would be jealous! I have found a manual that takes you through adjusting the range finder, so will give it a go. Have you done the pinhole body cap thing for your bodies? I gave it a go once but made the pinhole too big so I just ended up with a load of Gaussian blur!

 

[Donald Qualls]

I had some experience making and measuring pinholes before I made a pinhole cap for my M42 bodies, so I got pretty good results. One limitation is that a flat cap will have a projection distance close to your flange-to-film dimension, which is usually a little long for 35 mm pinhole -- on M42, for instance, it's 45.6 mm, and a 35 mm pinhole camera works better at 15-30 mm projection. Now, your Fed (or any M39 LTM body) has one of the shortest flange-to-film distances going -- thirty-some mm, as I recall. Should work quite a bit better than the one I had on M42.

Load with Tri-X and make up a batch of my Super Soup, and you can hand hold in daylight, even as dim as cloud shadow (three stops off Sunny 16) at EI 5000-6400.

For a single 35mm roll in a stainless tank:

6 ounces water
24 ml Dektol stock solution
8 ml HC-110 syrup (or 32 ml stock solution)
1 g ascorbic acid
1/2 tsp washing soda (sodium carbonate monohydrate)
2 g potassium bromide (optional)
Water to make eight ounces

Develop fifteen minutes with vigorous agitation every 30 seconds. Tri-X 400 from the 90's will give EI 6400, Tri-X 320 from the same time frame is good for 5000; grain is obvious, but tolerable (not much worse than a 1-stop push in Parodinal) and contrast seems near normal.

 

[Autonerd]

My 135 workhorse is a much loved and much-abused Nikon F-801s. It's a great and economical camera that does almost everything I need - the only thing missing is a mirror lock-up function for when I do landscapes.

Get another one. You know the camera, you love it, and they're cheap. If you can do without spot metering, the non-S is even cheaper. And while you're at it buy a spare. Don't forget to search for N8008/N8008s, the camera's American name.

PS, I have one, not my favorite thing to shoot with and the AE system sometimes guesses way, way wrong, but it is a magnificent camera. Love the lenses.

Aaron

 

[Deleted member 88956]

...
I also didn't want anything that might be unreliable and unpredictable, or turn out to be basically a brick.

So I've bought a FED-2 with a 50mm f/3.5 Industar.
...

Fed-2 might last a bit, just how did you get to this, given the premise of your thread, I will never know. I assume, for now your Fed isn't a brick. I have a few, like the looks, not so much using them though. But as any light tight box, it is capable of delivering within its limits.

 

[GarageBoy]

Another 8008 or n90 is $20-30 on eBay - just grab one

 

[ts1000]

you have G.A.S. unfortunately.
you will be back on another thread, asking if FTn , FE or FM2 is better for your needs.

Yes I will! I just decided I could keep using my gaffer taped F801s for a while and have fun with a new toy

 

[Joseph Bell]

The F100 is delightful and has never let me down. I bought it in very used condition and have put hundreds of rolls through it myself without a single problem. I recommend it highly.