I'm having a problem with my Nikon FM-10...

I have a Nikon FM-10, a fully manual camera which I love. I've only

had it for 3 months or so, and it is doing some very strange

things. When I use shutter speeds that are relatively fast,

starting at 1/250, it starts cutting off portions of the frame on my

negatives. Once I get to my cameras fastest shutter speed, 1/2000,

there is little or no picture recorded on the negative. If you

would like to see a scan of my weird negatives, I can scan them for

you so you can see exactly what I'm talking about. Is this problem

common? Is it something that would potentially cost me more than

the camera is worth to fix? I didn't send in my warranty card,

shame on me, cuz my other camera, a canon, I've had for over 2 years

and not one thing has gone wrong with it. Thanks for your help,

hope to hear from you soon! Erin<div></div>

Erin,

Doesn't look good. Seems like your second curtain is being released too early or is slipping past the first on the +1/250 speeds. I would try to send in the warranty card in to see if they accept it, then send in the camera at a later time.

 

Regards,

Gary E

Your FM-10 is not 'really' manufactured by Nikon in Japan, but by another company. Yes, it has a Nikon nameplate, but it is not built as rugged as a Nikon (FM2n, F3, F4, F100, F5 - as examples.) If it lasted two years, that may be the lifespan of the FM-10 under moderate use. (The FM- cameras were designed and priced for countries that have low "per capita" income levels. The chance of a $200 sale (camera and lens) in those countries was better than trying to sell a $1,000 camera body.)

Are you using flash? This is exactly what your film will look like if you use flash at shutter speeds faster than your flash sync speed. If that's the case, there's nothing wrong with your camera.

As a matter of a fact, I am using a flash. I am new at the hot shoe flash stuff... can someone tell me any rules of thumb or anything? WOW! I didn't know there was a flash sync speed.... it's just a little quantaray thing, the cheapest one that does nothing special. Thanks!!! Erin

I'm with Andrew here, does it do this without flash or just with it?

--evan

Sold it and buy a FM2n or FM3a...you will go to another world.

Erin, the maximum sync speed of the FM-10 (I just looked it up) is 1/125 s, so you need to shoot at that speed or slower with a flash. 1/125 s is the slowest speed at which the shutter curtains are completely open. At higher speeds, you effectively have a slit that moves across the film plane, so when the flash goes off only that part of the frame uncovered by the slit is exposed.

Wow, thanks Mark! That explains a lot. I know it said that the "ideal" shutter speed was 1/125 of a second, but it didn't spell out the consequences of using a higher speed. Thanks so much!

Erin, if you're getting this with flash, then the flash is your problem. But the good news is that it's not really a problem. There are probably other threads on this subject you can search on, but here's the basics of flash with a simple camera such as the FM10.

 

This problem has to do with how focal-plane shutters work. You've got two shutter curtains. One, the front curtain, opens the shutter; the second, the rear curtain, closes it. At slower shutter speeds, the front curtain opens, the camera sits with the shutter fully open, and then the rear curtain closes. The curtains themselves always move at the same speed; it's the time they're open that matters.

 

Problem is, you reach a top speed at which the rear curtain begins closing as soon as the shutter is fully open. Since the curtains always travel at the same speed, you can't get any faster unless you change how the shutter works.

 

To get higher speeds, the rear curtain begins closing before the front curtain finishes opening. The effect, essentially, is that the two curtains form an open slit that travels vertically across the film at a set speed, and the width of the slit determines the exposure the film gets, or the shutter "speed."

 

The upshot of all that confusing stuff is that below a certain shutter speed, the shutter is fully open for a time; above it, the shutter never fully opens. This is called your flash sync speed. On the FM10, I believe it's 1/125 s, although I could be wrong. You should look it up. If you go faster than your sync speed, your image is partially blocked by the rear curtain, which is what your negs show.

 

The thing to remember with flash is that the exposure is made by an extremely brief flash (< 1/1000 s) from your flash unit. The shutter speed doesn't really enter into it, unless you want to try your hand at slow sync, which at this point you probably don't. So the easiest thing to do, until you're fully comfortable with basic flash photography, is to always set your camera to the sync speed.

 

So how does the exposure work? Automatic thyristor flashes have a little sensor on the front that measures the light reflected from the subject. They usually have a power setting. The flash cuts itself off when its sensor reads enough reflected light to make the exposure at the power setting you selected. You use a chart or other calculator doo-dad on the flash to determine what aperture to set on your lens for the film speed you're using.

 

Set the indicated aperture on your lens, set the shutter to the sync speed, and you're good to go.

Once again, the answer is NOT that someone needs to spend a lot of money on something that someone else thinks is "better". BTW, warranty cards are usually not required, as long as you have kept the original sales receipt.

Erin, just an additional note on the FM-10. Most other manual Nikons have a red flash-ready light in the viewfinder eyepiece. If there was a Nikon-dedicated flash attached, this bulb would light up steady if the flash has recycled. It would also blink if the shutter speed was set to higher than the cameras's top sync speed. Sadly, this ready light was omitted from the FM-10. (On the good side of things, it wouldn't help anyway if your Quantaray flash was not Nikon-dedicated.)

Erin,<br>

As established by now, using flash at speeds beyond the sync. speed causes the problems you have experienced -which is the case for any SLR, not just your model. I am happy for you that nothing serious was wrong with your camera.<br>

Do not let the thoughtless remarks take anything away from your joy of your camera. The FM-10 is not made for professional use, but it is based on a well proven design which most likely will last for a long time. Cosina (the maker of your camera) has produced this model in different incarnations for almost all the mayor camera brands, and rest assured that the brandowners wouldn't put their name on a piece of junk. After all it is an entry camera, and Nikon et al. hopes that you will stay with them, not run away with a bad experience.

My SO was out yesterday taking infrared shots with an FM10. He has other Nikons (F100, F90s, etc.) but wanted to use this camera because he enjoys it. I look forward to his photos.

 

The late Galen Rowell used an FM10 because he appreciated the light weight. If you look at Nikon literature, you will see several of his shots taken with an FM10. Of course, he got good shots with many different cameras.

 

Conni

First of all, Erin, glad to hear that your FM-10 isn't defective. Secondly, it seems some people at photo.net will never learn. Dont jump at every opportunity to put down inexpensive equipment, everyone cant have their FM2n's and FM3a's, some have to make compromises too. I am sure many people would love a 600$ FM3a but sometimes its better to have a cheap FM10 rather than NOT having an expensive FM3a.