Want to Buy wtb Nikon F3 brightscreen

[illumiquest]

I recently purchased an F3 and have found the standard screen that came with it to be difficult to focus, looking for something brighter/more accurate.

Not sure if a Beattie is the way to go or if there's a better option from Nikon.

 

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[flavio81]

I recently purchased an F3 and have found the standard screen that came with it to be difficult to focus, looking for something brighter/more accurate.

Not sure if a Beattie is the way to go or if there's a better option from Nikon.

Usually brighter screens are less accurate and viceversa.

I had the F3 with many screens and the plain ground glass (with no markings) was good and accurate. There is also a special screen where you can only focus in the center microprism and only works with fast (f1.4) lenses; it was great for low light.

 

[illumiquest]

Thanks for the input, I waas going to look at the G2 screen which I think is what you're referring to.

Has anyone tried the Beattie screens? Compared to a contax camera I have the screen on my F3 is really dim, since most of my shooting is low light that's kind of a problem.

 

[wiltw]

About 20 years ago I considered the Brightscreen for my Bronica ETRSi. I contacted Jim Beattie and asked about what effect of his screen on the metering accuracy. His reply (my words), "Try it and let me know". He sent the screen and I installed it in my ETRSi with AE Prism III. Viewfinder was noticeably brighter, and its brightness did not seem to be accompanied by loss of focus precision/repeatability. But the metering was indeed afffected.
And while the AE Prism III did have a metering compensation switch, it was not in the needed direction to compensate the Brightscreen (the switch only set + compensation, no - compensation). While I knew that I could simply dial in diferent ISO to compensate the unit, at the time I was shooting weddings and using different EI than the rated ISO film speeds, and I was putting different films into different backs, so I had to deal with 3 different [EI values:ISO values]...to much to keep straight in the heat of battle.
So I thanked Jim for the offer of the test, detailed my findings, and returned the Brightscreen to him.

 

[flavio81]

Thanks for the input, I waas going to look at the G2 screen which I think is what you're referring to.

Has anyone tried the Beattie screens? Compared to a contax camera I have the screen on my F3 is really dim, since most of my shooting is low light that's kind of a problem.

Just as a food for thought:

I have many Pentax Spotmatic cameras. The screens on them are dimmer than other cameras i have (i.e. Nikon F2), but the precision of focusing is so high, that i can nail the focus even on rather low light without problem.

Yes, mine was the G2 screen. But the matte (type D) screen was very good as well.

 

[illumiquest]

Yea, this standard screen (K) is dim and i'm really having trouble focusing even in normal light. I"ll try the G2 and see how that goes. Should that work with a 35mm 1.4 lens?

 

[removed-user-1]

You may have already seen this, but here is a list of info about Nikon screens for the F3.

http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/screens/index.htm

 

[Mick Fagan]

If you are having trouble focusing with a lens as fast as f/1.4, then I would start to ask is there something wrong, either with the camera, or my eyesight.

Many moons ago I was able to use a few of the different focusing screens for F3 bodies at my place of employment. For my own F3, I eventually settled on the E screen as the focusing screen of choice. It, along with the B screen, is the only focusing screen for the F3 that is rated as excellent for every Nikkor lens.

That means, it is supposed to work from the 6mm f/2.8 right through to the 2000mm f/11 lens; it does.

The G2 screen is not too flash for anything slower than about f/3.5, which could limit you a bit if you run any zoom lenses.

The difference between the B and E focusing screens is that the E screen has vertical and horizontal lines which are a great aid in getting verticals and horizontals aligned. I even have the E screen in my FE2.

Mick.

 

[Leigh B]

Are you still looking for a Beattie screen?
I have a plain 821110 available, in EXC condition.
It's shown on that MIR page.

- Leigh