Niels - NHSN

I think I recall @Sandy Vongries mentioning it helps. Some of those I flag seems to disappear shortly after but not all - I don’t know if there’s a moderator at play or if a certain number of spam reports hides/deletes a post??

I think I’m marked 40-50 posts this morning, most if not all in the Beginners forum - all from new users. I don’t think it is too hard to define a gentle but effective rule to prevent it, but without a system admin to implement it, the hard work is left to the poor moderators. Wish there was a “Donate a bottle of wine to the moderators” button - oh wait - no one to implement it 😢

Foma have had QC issues with their 120 film in the past. I have not used their 120 for a while -for that reason- so I don’t know if they still have issues. It is my understanding that Arista EDU is repackaged Foma film. - just something to be aware of. BTW I have only had good experiences with Foma in 35mm rolls and 4x5 sheets both of which I use regularly. 400 iso is the way to go as it will allow more flexibility with regards to experimentation with shutter/aperture combinations. If you find issues with Foma/Arista 120 400ISO film then I’d recommend Kentmere 400 which should be cheaper than HP5+/TriX and of better quality than Foma/Arista. I do agree with the recommendation to develop the BW film yourself. It is uncomplicated if you just stick to the film vendor recommended choice of chemicals and procedure - steer clear of things like “stand development”, caffenol etc. Not only is it cheaper, but also much more satisfying. Good luck.

We had a serious tsunami of spam around the shift to the current forum software. It took a while before things were normalised, but the initiatives taken at the time seemd sufficient to keep things at bay and - to my eyes - reasonably well controlled, at least up until now. I am not sure if the spammers have found a new "hole" in the defences of the forum software or if some preventive setting have been changed. It seems that we don't have the ears of the owners, and only rarely do we hear from system admins, so any remedial action is possibly in the hands of our volunteer moderators and the timezone they operate in. I know they are aware of the problems you describe, and I trust they do their best with the tools they have at hand. I appreciate their support of our community under the less than ideal circumstances they work under.

Just got the silver Nikkormat FT2 last week. It had some meter irregularities which I hope I have fixed, so I took it out for a spin this weekend loaded with HP5+. The lens is a <new>Nikkor 35/2. The black EL came along because it still had half a roll of Superia Xtra loaded. The lens is a silver nose 105/2.5.

I found it. It is my local currency, but adjusted for inflation and converted til US$, the equivalent price in 2024 would have been: Nikon F2 w. DP-1: $3,309 Nikkormat EL: $2,413 Nikon F w. FTN photomic: $2,375 Nikon F w. plain prism: $1,800 Nikkormat FTn: $1,345 (all in chrome finish) I think I paid around the same amount for my Nikon Z6ii body two years ago, so not unreasonable, but certainly not low enough to appeal to the average amateur I would think. My black pre-Ai collection as it looked last year. In the mid 70's, only the F2 to the left would have cost more than the EL.

Yes, they are cheap. I remember I was lusting for a F80 when they were new 20+ years ago, but couldn't really find room in my hobby budget. These days the F80 cost nothing, probably partly due to the gross stickiness they have developed by now, which is, as you note, easily removed with some alcohol and a little persistence.

Bees are beginning to wake up. I took out the Nikon F80 (N80) over the week-end loaded with Fuji Superia X-tra 400. The camera offers very good ergonomics, nice size, light but not too light, all the functions you need, and possibility for customisations, like compositional lines on the focusing screen and more. It has fairly quick AF, build in flash, quiet film advance and shutter. All in all a very well designed and competent photographic tool ...... except it isn't very charming for some reason. I feel almost bad for not loving it, as I am sure a lot of effort and consideration successfully have gone into designing this device. The lens (Nikkor AF 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G) is very good too. Yes it is plasticky and light and has only 6 elements, but very sharp and versatile due to a clever aspherical design. You'll have to forgive the barrel distortion at the wide end, which is easy when you look at the price tag; which was almost nothing back in the day and these days owners can't hardly give them away for free.

I wish I could find my 1974 Nikon price list - it is here somewhere. I recall that the Nikkormat EL cost the same or maybe even a little more than a Nikon F with the plain prism (1974 was the last year Nikon F was on the official price list). Just goes to show it was a certainly not inexpensive in its time, neither was the ELW or Nikon EL2 for that matter. On the other hand, The AE-1 @orsetto mentioned was very aggressively priced and produced to a noticeable lower standard - something you wouldn't know if looking at used prices today. I help checking used cameras in a brick-and-mortar camera shop, and Canon AE-1's easily sells for 3 times the price we can get for a EL or ELW and the AE-1 still moves much faster. Good for those in the know. On a side note, I notice that the EL/ELW as often as not come in with some dents on the top plate over the prism, something I rarely see on the Nikkormat FTn. I think the top plate may not have been designed for hard use in mind.

Intrepid’s backs rotate without removal. They are very light, but I don’t know if plywood would qualify as “wood” in your mind or if you are thinking about more precious wood types? https://intrepidcamera.co.uk/blogs/guides/setting-up-the-intrepid-4x5

This is a response to a very old post but I suppose people still use pol filters, so still relevant when it shows up in search results, I guess. A pol-filter test on a Polish site back in 2015 had Marumi in the top 3. https://www.lenstip.com/139.25-article-Polarizing_filters_test_2015_Results_and_summary.html It is also said that Leica uses Marumi for some of their filters (don’t let yourself be fooled by a Made in Germany label - “assembled” is more like it). I only own one Marumi filter (UV) but wouldn’t shy away from getting others if they were easily available- which they are not where I live.

I ended up buying the Pen FT I borrowed a few weeks back. The price was good and the camera nice. I have tentatively decided that half frame will be my format of choice for color film. Shooting color film is just getting too costly otherwise. I prefer BW when shooting film but it is nice to have room for a small camera with color in the bag. I ran half a roll of Fuji C200 through this one over the weekend.

I’d love to hear about anyone with the ability and not least willingness to repair a Nikon F Photomic meter, regardless of turnaround time. Please share. The often seen challenge is that if you have a functional meter, you’ll expect to get a functional meter back from the repair tech. Without parts this poses a serious risk for the tech. Since if diving into the Photomic meter unsuccessfully, any mistake will likely be un-recoverable and a liability for the repair technician. Luckily my FTn Photomic head works fine (with a zinc-air adapter or MR-9 Kanto converter) but if it wasn’t completely in alignment with a modern meter, I’d probably rather analyze the deviation and adjust, rather than opt for repair.

Or upload the images to flickr.com (if you use that) and simply paste the share links into a post. The photo.net forum software will parse it automatically and show your images.

That would be a strong indicator that your lens is a 7 element. The protrusion is cause by the 8th element - hard to imagine it could be an 8 element without it. But how about some pictures of your lens and perhaps a link to the video you mention? Here’s a site that seemingly has assembled quite a bit of data on how to ID those 8 element lenses. https://takumarguide.weebly.com/1--14--50-358-8-element.html