Nikkormat EL - Nikon's "first electronic camera"

<p><strong>Nikkormat EL</strong><br>

<em>Another personal history with digressions on perspective-control lenses, camera bags/cases, and Paris forty-plus years ago</em>.<br /><br />Kadlubek Nr. NIN 0100 (black model)<br /><br />Nikon itself gives very little historical information on older models, and the closest to Canon's "museum" seems to be some sort of silly game ( http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/history/sp/index.htm ). There are, in no particular order, a bunch of "missions" that have to be completed (none of them nocturnal, so far as I could see) in order to win some "wallpaper" - whoopee. The first question under Nikon F mission was how many yen it cost when it was first introduced. I'm afraid that was as far as I got. Somehow how they got the idea that Ashton Kutcher would help them sell cameras was more understandable. :( If you know of more serious "official" NIkon history treatments, please give us a link.<br /><br />"Feel Nikon", indeed. Is Nikon "touchy-feely" ?<br /><br />The well-done mir pages, make up for the corporate 'fail' on this - see posts at <a href="http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikkormat/elseries/el/index.htm">link</a> , for example.<br /><br />A much briefer, but cogent summary of the Nikkormat line is also found on Wikipedia at the time of this posting ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikkormat ).<br /><br /><br />Of course, there are a very large number of postings here on P.net from the days before Modern Film Cameras came along (e.g., here on P.net: http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00Fcqs )<br /><br />This camera is often described as Nikon's first "electronic camera". A version for using a motor winder (the ELW) was made. It later was renamed as a Nikon proper.<br /><br />I bought mine new from Sharp Photo, now gone, I think, but at the time, one of the New York City mail order houses. I had had a couple of problems with my older Nikkormat FTn that I have already mentioned in my account of my little Rollei 35, and I was preparing to take a trip to southern Germany and France. <br /><br />The camera was heavy, but I took both it and my older Nikkormat FTn along with me, and have not had a problem with either to this day. I carried them in my Nikon FB-8 bag which I have already reported on in Classic Manual Cameras forum ( http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00YehQ?unified_p=1 ). The lenses shown are (from bottom left, counter-clockwise) PC-Nikkor 35mm f/2.8, Nikkor-S 55mm f/1.2 (on camera), Nikkor 20mm f/4, Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/3.5 VMC [Kiron see <a href="http://www.robertstech.com/vivitar.htm">link</a> ], Reflex-Nikkor 500mm f/8, and upper left, Nikkor-P 105mm f/2.5.</p><div></div>

<p>Here are some pictures of my trek from Munich to Paris. By the time I took this trip, I had discovered that if you rented and prepaid the cheapest car offered, you always got something better, since the cheapest one was a loss-leader and there were, in fact, only three of that model in that company's inventory. Your chance of getting a VW 900, for example, was nil, and in this case I actually got a nice fluorescent orange BMW for the price I had prepaid. If worse came to worse, you could always upgrade (and pay the difference), but if it was their fault, you got whatever was in the pool at the time. It also helped to fly Lufthansa, since in those days they would always lose a piece of your luggage, so you would also be the last one off the 747 or other jumbo jet to reach the car rental office. There's a picture of me and the BMW at <a href="../off-topic-forum/00YdoQ">link</a> (scroll down)<br /><br />Anyhow, The following pictures were taken mostly with either the Nikkor-S 55mm f/1.2 or the PC-Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 on Kodachrome 25, and sometimes with a linear polarizer.<br /><br />The first set are from Munich. The one on the left is the Residenz in the early morning. On the right is the Hofbräuhaus. I'm pretty sure the guy in the straw hat is NOT the famous beerhall putz.</p><div></div>

<p>Then I was going west toward Paris to a charming medieval town, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, once an imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation (jokingly known as the "empire of the lies" since it was said to be neither holy, Roman, an empire, German, nor a nation). The Rathaus on the left, and the Imperial Hall arches on the right.</p><div></div>

<p>Then on into France. I wandered around in the Alsace, once a part of Germany, then of France, then of Germany again, and finally French again (look it up). In my German car with German plates, I was puzzled when I crossed the Rhine into France, but the personnel at the entry station persisted in speaking to me in German although I was trying to use French and was presenting an American passport. Then I noticed that the uniform patches said "Bundesgrenzschutz" - this was forty years ago, mind, and I was surprised to find that the German police were operating on the French side. They seemed to feel that I might be smuggling out some Red Army Faction terrorists (long before Al Queda).<br /><br />I visited charming villages in the Alsace - here are pictures from Riquewihr (left) and Ribeauville (right).</p><div></div>

<p>When I got to Luneville in the Lorraine (also German/French etc.), I stopped and asked a policeman "Bonjour, Ou est le Chateau?, etc.," looking for the famous chateau built by the former king of Poland (Stanisław I Leszczyński) who became the Duke of Lorraine i the early 18th c. When the policeman answered my broken French, however, he did so in German - I guess the BMW again. When I reached the Chateau, the first thing I did was to stick an American flag decal on the windshield. Figured I might as well be taken for a goat as a sheep, so to speak. The top picture shows some of the gardens of the estate.<br /><br />Finally made it to Paris, The image below is of a portion of the Eiffel Tower.</p><div></div>

<p>I also used my f/1.2 Nikkor and good old GAF 500 slide film to do some low light shooting. On top is the main Arc de Triomphe at night, and the bottom is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel at the Louvre in early dawn light. As I have noted elsewhere, a few years later <em>Popular Photography</em> described this film as the "worst slide film ever", but of course it made shots like these possible when combined with a fast lens. Plus, you don't even have to do post processing to achieve a "pictorialist" effect. :)</p><div></div>

<p>It was a great trip and a good baptism for the Nikkormat EL.</p>

<p>That's all, folks.</p>

<p>Many thanks for this post. Ever since I got a FTN I always wanted an EL. But somehow it gets postponed. Now this post of yours may change that. Looks like you had a good trip. I liked the shots from Munich and Paris.</p>

 

<p>The motor winder quit on mine. Tried advancing by the advance lever and it disengaged. The lever now swings freely but doesn't do anything. Took off the winder. Tried again but the advance lever never re-engaged. Anybody got a clue how to remedy it? I looked in the manual. Doesn't say anything. The advance is not damaged or stripped or anything. Didn't force it.</p>

<p>I bought a new EL in black right when they came in at the local dealer. I had one problem with the mirror causing focusing problems, but it was fixed under warranty, and I sold it after three or four years. It was an OK camera, but I would not consider it a great Nikon design in terms of ergonomics.</p>

<p>I was so used to working with a handheld meter that the in the EL seemed (and was) a crude device by comparison, albeit a convenient one. </p>

 

<p>Great series, JDM. True that GAF 500 wasn't a world-beater for fine grain or color saturation, but it did the job. At the time Kodak's fastest offering (if I did my math correctly) would have been the old E4 process high speed Ektachrome at ISO 160. With special processing it could be pressed into service as an ISO 400 film, but at the expense of more grain, lower saturation, and lower d-max. Even with those limitations, your GAF 500 shots still look quite nice. Thanks for posting.</p>

<p>There is a decent Nikon history site <a href="http://imaging.nikon.com/history">here</a>. The "Thousand and One Nights" theme of the lens history section is pretty silly, but the contents are interesting. There is some discussion of the EL about halfway down <a href="http://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-f2/index.htm">this page</a>.</p>

<p>Thanks Aron, I vaguely remember finding that discussion in an earlier form before they added the Arabian Nights theme. It surely beats the "Feel Nikon" game I found this time.</p>

<p>I personally love the Nikkormat EL, and I had to fight off my daughter who learned (and was "imprinted"?) on this camera in order to keep it. For me, it still represents the culmination of the traditional camera form as it made into the electronic age. The Canon T90 has a similar attraction for me, but as a precursor of what <em>all</em> cameras were to become.</p>

<p>My first Nikkormat EL came from a pawn shop for $25 without lens. Niether the dealer nor I could figure out where the battery goes. At home I looked it up in my Nikon literature (under the mirror with mirror locked up). I sold it some years later. My second was mint and was used as a back-up to a photographer. I don't believe he ever used it as the condition was so good. Sold it some year or two later. My third was an ELW with motor. The motor failed almost immediately and I sold it and the camera shortly thereafter. It's not that I didn't like the EL but my preference has always been the F and F2, totally mechanical which my collection of many makes involve battery non dependent cameras.</p>

<p>On the EL shutter speed dial, you'll notice an extra wide space between the 4 second setting and B? If you set it midway between 4 and B, you have an 8 second shutter speed. No "click" but it works. The EL2 had the 8 second click, I remember modifying my EL SS knob and adding the click. John</p>

<p>Thanks, John, I had never tried that. Good to know.</p>