Boxed F Photomic T

This one has been taunting me for a little while.

 

On one hand, it's boxed and in really nice cosmetic condition. At the same time, though, it has a sticky aperture feeler(easy fix that I've had to do to most of my other F metered finders) and the slow speeds are dead(not as easy of a fix). Also, the T and Tn are kind of a pain to use since you have to manually set the maximum aperture(the FTn is definitely the king here). Ultimately, the price and condition won me over. It's not perfect, but still nice.

 

The label indicates that this came with a 50mm 1.4, and the box is set up for one. I have a nice chrome-nose pre-AI, but I suspect that it is the lens that came with my Photomic and I'm loath to "permanently" separate them. I also have one coming on my PP. I'm going to keep my eyes open for another 50mm for one close in SN to what the box indicates, although the PP I have on the way is close to the camera SN so the lens on that may be close and get robbed.

 

I now have all of the metered finders for the F, although to be correct I guess I need a flag Photomic. Once my PP F(a recent Ebay buy) gets here I want to do a family portrait.

 

Of course, now that I have them in silver, I need to find another set in black :)

 

Nice! We seem to collect similar stuff.

I bought a Nikon F Photomic T with 50mm f/1.4 in Japan in 1965 when I was in the USAF. I paid $189.00 there was about $450.00 stateside at the time. Then I got a 135mm lens. A few years later, I lost the whole thing on a New York subway. Maybe you found it. :)

It was a beauty with the original pentaprism. Other finders, not so much.

 

A Nippon Kogaku Nikon F etc.

I love this camera, even more than my sleeker F2.

One thing for sure is that the metered finders can be rather polarizing with their "utilitarian" look. I think the F2 finders were better integrated into the lines of the body, but there's a lot to like about the classic lines of the plain prism.

 

I've never owned a waist level finder for a 35mm camera, although I've been collecting Canon F-1s for years and have thought that I SHOULD have one. I perhaps should get one for the F. I am a big fan of the WLF for medium format(I have several prism to fit various cameras and I rarely use them) but the screen on 35mm has always struck me as too small. Still, like I said, I should give one a try.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

I just saw, but didn't bid on, an auction for an F eye level finder, that went for $125.

 

That is more than I paid for an F photomic, though a little worn and the meter might not work.

 

But the eye level finder includes the box, so maybe that makes the difference.

Nice catch! A whole bunch of F finders have emerged recently - Roberts, Keh, and just Ebay, etc.. Don't have the box, but mine is close to as nice.

Nice. I hope one day to acquire a Nikon F. Currently I only have an FM and a FE2.

If anyone has a flag Photomic(loose) they would care to part with, let me know :) . I have a 6.4 million F that came to me with an FTN(and unfortunately was hacked up a bit to fit it). Since I don't have a flag Photomic, I figure that would be an ideal camera to which to fit it.

 

I'm also still keeping my eyes open for a 50mm 1.4 in the 500,000 SN range to go with the camera pictured here. For the time being, I have at least replaced the modern body cap with my one and only Nippon Kogakua cap...it's probably a bit early for this camera, but looks good on it.

Seems to me that non-photomic finders, eye level and waist level, are more expensive than photomics.

If you really want a shock, look for an F2 non-metered finder. The F2sb and F2AS are still up there in value, but the plain prism is not far behind them.

 

I suspect that the current market reflects both the fact that non-metered finders have much cleaner aesthetics than any of the meters(both for the F and F2, although I think the F2 finders do have a more "polished" look than the Fs) combined with the fact that many of the finders now are either inaccurate or non-functional.

 

The F finders often have sticky aperture followers, something that's easy to fix if you don't mind digging into them, but understandably scares a lot of folks off. I picked up a cheap, rough around the edges F FTN in black not too long ago where the indexing is gummy-that one will be an adventure for me as I've never torn into the indexing mechanism on an FTN. Also, I've seen jumpy or just plain inoperative meters(both on Fs and F2s) that I was able to bring back to life by putting a bit of carbon tet on the ring resistor and working it back and forth vigorously. Extreme toxicity aside, carbon tet remains the best choice for this type of job. With that said, I don't suggest that just anyone do it-I do the whole operation while wearing gloves and in a fume hood.

 

I think one reason why the F2sb and F2AS have held their value is that they have a silicon photocell that essentially never dies, completely eliminate the ring resistor, and don't have a galvanometer to break or get out of calibration. Of course they're also incredibly sensitive meters-much more so than anything else from this era.