FM2N titanium shutter vs. "regular" shutter

I am going to buy used FM2N at eBay, and for some reason sellers

almost always mention if their camera has titanium (honeycomb)

shutter blades or "regular" ones. Which is better and why for

professional work? Thank you.

Toomas,

The late Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live fame, used to do a skit concerning various professions...one I remember was called "The Anal-Retentive Carpenter". IMHO, this FM2n shutter thing is something that would apply only to "The Anal-Retentive Photographer".

The titanium shutter is older so you'll have a newer camera with the aluminum shutter. The titanium honeycomb shutter is generally regarded as more delicate with respect to mechanical damage (fingers).

 

Mine has the aluminum shutter but I need to wait 20 years to come to any firm conclusions ;)

Not so I feel too inferior in the eyes of the anal retentive carpenter, my F3HP's have horizontal travelling titanium shutters rated for 150K cycles. Quite different shutter than the vertical honeycomb.

 

So they probably mention titanium to capitalize on the legendary titanium shutters in the F/F2/F3 cameras.

Honeycomb titanium on my trusty FE2, not like I ever use it anymore.

 

Don't Leica's use an electro reinforced single molecular chain alloy to achieve their near nero mass shutter kick?

 

I believe the production change in the Nikon was motivated by some cost factors, but also, acording to Nikon, 'the fabrication process of the older titanium shutters produced environmently unfriendldy byproducts'.

It is no secret that titanium is stronger and lighter than it's competition. However,

that doesn't necessarily make a titanium shutter better in practical use. It's also a lot

more expensive, and there is the path to investigate for a difinitive answer. As for

environmentally unfriendly by products of a manufacturing process, that reasoning

has been used to remove many useful and superior products from use by the scare

monger crowd, so it is of suspect value.

I suppose Scott this is fancy Leica <i>Sprache</i> for rubber impregnated cloth!

 

<p>Aluminum is weaker but quite a bit less dense (lighter) than titanium. In any case, I think Nikon got it better with the aluminum shutter since the same design goes to 1/8000 in the N8008.

My FM2n(s) have smooth aluminum shutters as they were purchased in the early �90s while my FE2(s) have etched titanium shutters. I bought most of my FE2(s) in 1983 and the last in 1987. I don�t poke the shutters with sharp foreign objects so I haven�t noticed a difference.

 

I would buy the highest serial numbered FM2n to get the newest camera. The titanium shutters do look techno cool!

 

Regards,

 

Dave.

My FM2n has the titanium (honeycombed) shutter.

 

The newer aluminum shutters are supposedly more reliable in cold weather. I haven't noticed any problem with my titanium shutter in this regard (and I live in Saskatchewan, where "It's cold outside!" doesn't mean that there's a skiff of frost on the green lawn :) ).

 

All things equal, I'd prefer the newer aluminum shutter, but I should pay less for a titanium one, and if the differential is significant enough, why not take it instead?

there's no sync speed difference, or max shutter speed difference.

 

ie: it doesn't really matter.

IMO, Nikon managed to get the same performance of the titanium shutter out of the new aluminum shutter and so decided that all future units to be fitted with aluminum to lower costs. The reason to go for the aluminum shutter is because there are spare parts sold by Nikon. I like the look of the titanium one though. Does anyone know if you need to have the titanium shutter blades replaced, does Nikon replace it with aluminum blades or do they change the WHOLE shutter unit to the aluminum one?

 

Aaron

I haven't seen one personally, but I've heard of FE2's and early FM2's with aluminum shutters which were presumably part of a Nikon repair.