Nikkormat FTN - Forgot to set ASA, am I screwed?

I realized I posted this in the wrong forum before, so here it goes again...

 

Hello,

 

Student photographer here...I just got a nikkormat FTN camera and went out to shoot some B/W film for

class. Halfway through I realized at the bottom of the camera there's a small scale to set your ASA. I

believe it was at "200", when it should have been "400".

 

For the assignment we were only allowed to use 3 different fstops (16,11, or 8) and at 1/125th of a

second for the shutter. We were told to do all our measurements by "eye" without any light meters. In

other words, we only used those 3 f stops. (For example f8 for shade/overcast, f16 for sunny, etc.)

 

I didn't use any of the in-camera metering (speaking of that, how do I meter in camera?).

 

Anyways, I'm guessing that my pictures are fine because the ASA meter on this is used soley to get a light

reading and doesn't affect the way the light hits the film.. But, I could be wrong...

 

I hope that made sense!

You are right. The ASA setting on the Nikkormat FTN affects only the meter. Exposure is determined by the aperture and shutter speed you select. In ordinary use you would choose to be guided by the meter. In your exercise you have deliberately disregarded the meter, so you should be OK.

This is our "light meter" http://www.riggedproductions.com/temp/exposure.jpg

 

Also, anyone know where I can get a pdf of the FTN manual? I think I could use it...

Thanks Steve! I posted this same question on the Nikon board and got a bunch of confusing

answers!

Bobby,

 

Good to see that the schools are still teaching film photography, the basics, and mental exposure calculations.

 

Best of success and stick around this forum as well.

Try www.butkus.org, he has a lot of older manuals for downloading. And enjoy your camera.

even if you were using the meter, the difference between 200 and 400 is only one stop and for Tri-X negative film, that's negligible. So you would have been fine one way or the other.

Alan is quite right as a little overexposure on negative film doesn't matter one iota. You will need a 625 or equivalent battery for the lightmeter in the FTn, you will see the screw on cap on the base of the camera. To operate the meter the advance lever needs to be stood off a little, this is the switch, and you will see a red dot under where the advance lever sits which indicates that it is on. You then just centre the needle in the cutout on the right side of the viewfinder, provided the meter still works of course. I'm impressed that schools are still teaching people how to use film cameras, and using to sunny 16 rule!

Tony

WRT the previous post by Tony: Nikkormat FTn was designed for 1.35V mercury battery, now unavailable. Operating the light meter with a 1.5 alkaline or 1.55-1.6V silver oxide battery will result in ~2 stop underexposure; degree of overexposure varies with light level; so it's not just a matter of shifting the ASA/ISO setting (although for negative film that might be OK). Better use a hand held meter (e.g. Gossen Sixtar, Pilot, Weston Master), or eye guessing.

 

Sunny 16 is fine for the first 4 stops down from f/16. But guessing exposure at dusk is another story!

I did a quick Google search for the manual but here's some great info.

 

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikkormat/fseries/ftn/index.htm

Thanks everyone! I do love this camera!

As others have said, the asa/iso control setting is only relevant to the meter. Sort of like an "off-set" for the starting point.

 

Also, as already stated, being off one stop is nothing for negative film. In fact, I like to add a stop of light for B&W for shadow detail and subtract a stop on color for saturation.

 

You can use a (675 I believe) Wien cell from your local drugstore in the camera. They use them in hearing aids, and a six-pack costs about $7.

 

I've got an old FTN (1967) that I really like a lot. It's also great for the city, because it's weight at the end of the neck strap, can act as a "Mace" if things ever get scary. :)

My professor is Thomas Roma. He's a rare find indeed. Hates digital photography and is

very back-to-basics film in his approach. Love the class.

Awesome to hear about students using classics! Also even if you shoot your film at 400 asa, thats only one stop difference and for traditional B&W and color negative film, thats perfectly OK. If you shoot slide film or C41 process B&W then your metering needs to be much more exact.