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A Gift


Ricochetrider

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Talking to some friends yesterday and our conversation turned to photography. Eventually it came out that I shoot film in

older cameras and they gave me this:

 

E3C5431D-F997-4A30-ABD3-84F9FFECBB7D.thumb.jpeg.1c08f5199e8b52b0efb0c08705c957a0.jpeg

 

The thing feels like a real tank of a camera.

 

4 lenses: 50mm f1.4 NIKKOR Nippon Kogaku, 55mm Micro-Nikkor f3.5 (macro?), 24mm f2.8 Soligor, & 200mm f3.5 Soligor tele-auto. There’s a lens shade, an extension tube, and 2 expired rolls of iso 64 Kodachrome! All in a sweet suitcase-type box.

 

Ha ha I needed this like a hole in the head. at the very least I want to figure out how to use it and shoot these two old rolls of film through it.

 

Insight, opinions, stories, wisdom, and everything else is welcome.

 

PS: just a word of caution: I shot the pic with my phone and uploaded it straight to the site so file size is probably large. FYI, click on the photo at your own peril- or that of your data plan!

 

Cheers,

Tom

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Talking to some friends yesterday and our conversation turned to photography. Eventually it came out that I shoot film in

older cameras and they gave me this:

 

[ATTACH=full]1385715[/ATTACH]

 

The thing feels like a real tank of a camera.

 

4 lenses: 50mm f1.4 NIKKOR Nippon Kogaku, 55mm Micro-Nikkor f3.5 (macro?), 24mm f2.8 Soligor, & 200mm f3.5 Soligor tele-auto. There’s a lens shade, an extension tube, and 2 expired rolls of iso 64 Kodachrome! All in a sweet suitcase-type box.

 

Ha ha I needed this like a hole in the head. at the very least I want to figure out how to use it and shoot these two old rolls of film through it.

 

Insight, opinions, stories, wisdom, and everything else is welcome.

 

PS: just a word of caution: I shot the pic with my phone and uploaded it straight to the site so file size is probably large. FYI, click on the photo at your own peril- or that of your data plan!

 

Cheers,

Tom

Nice camera! Have a couple still. The Nikon lenses are good ones, have them and use both on occasion. Don't know of anyone processing Kodachrome, I think Dwayne's was the last and that was years ago. Good camera to have fun with!

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What's the gadget beneath the cable release (with the dial and a hot/cold shoe) and silvery thing under the flash manual?

 

I never knew the 200mm 3.5 Soligor had a tiny tripod foot! :cool:

 

AFAIK Kodachrome dev. isn't possible any more, but the recent 'retro' love for film will mean you can atleast find film and get it developed.....:)

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What's the gadget beneath the cable release

 

I can see an AS-1 flash coupler, with perhaps a small shoe mounted exposure meter on it.

 

and silvery thing under the flash manual?

 

One of those slinky metal neck straps?

 

Either way a magnificent gift indeed.

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Thanks everybody.

Yes it is one of those slinky metal neck straps. Pretty cool, never saw one before.

 

The little hot shoe mount thing seems to be a flash sync device. I’ll get close up pix of everything, hopefully this evening as I actually have a gig today! For a change. :-)

Edited by Ricochetrider
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....at the very least I want to figure out how to use it and shoot these two old rolls of film through it.

Load it with film, push the spikey wind-on lever to the right until it won't go any further and then press the badly placed button in front of the lever. Repeat until the rewind knob stops turning when you push the leverwind.

 

Have a sticking plaster ready for the graze on your thumb caused by the poorly-designed lever.

 

Sure; you can shoot that Kodachrome, but you'll never be able to get it processed - except as poor black and white negatives.

 

The 55mm f/3.5 micro-Nikkor will probably be the sharpest lens you've ever owned, and totally wasted on film! OTOH the two Soligors are basically landfill fodder.

 

P.S. I think the thing sitting on top of the flash foot is some kind of flash connector cable.

Edited by rodeo_joe|1
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I used an F like that for many years. If film weren't such a bother I'd be using it still. The cable atop the flash connector is a cable release. F's, like the old Leicas, require a little adapter to fit over the shutter button, which is visible here.

 

As Rodeo Joe says, make sure the film really engages with the take-up spool, by watching the rewind lever. It's pretty easy to miss the wind and shoot blanks.

 

If the meter has not been recalibrated (likely), but still works, you can still get the big sized alkaline batteries for it, and offset the ASA by about two stops. If you become a serious F user, there are instructions on line somewhere still, I think, for recalibrating the meter to use alkaline or SO batteries. It's not terribly hard to do. But nowadays the batteries are harder to come by. Because unlike some meters this one makes positive contact on the side rather than the end, you can't adapt smaller batteries just using an O-ring, but must have a metal ring or a bunch of foil. That also can be done, but it's a bit of a hassle. If you're not going to use the camera a lot, I'd skip the meter adjusting, just either go meterless or compensate.

 

It looks as if the 55/3.5 lens is a pre-AI version and has the extension tube with it. That's matched to take the lens from its native 1:2 to 1:1. If you aren't going to use it on the camera, I would suggest you get it converted to AI, so you can use it on newer cameras. It's really very good. If I am mistaken and it's AI compatible, just use it as it comes.

 

Be aware that the mirror lockup requires that you fire the shutter to raise the mirror. Not a malfunction.

 

I love the F. Even if you end up not using it I think you should run a couple of rolls through it.

 

p.s. if you're using the meter, don't forget the "Nikon shuffle." When you mount the lens, turn it to wide-open aperture and back once, to index it. If you don't do this, the meter will not be accurate. This is required only on FTn meters, but becomes such a habit that years later I do it still!

Edited by Matthew Currie
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What nice friends and what a great gift! One of the best 35 mm cameras ever made. I bought mine about 50 years ago and it is still going strong. Get some film and use it. You will not be disappointed. You can find the instruction manuals for the camera and for the FTn meter/finder on ebay.
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If the light meter still works, there's a battery issue. A meter from that era used a mercury battery.

 

As an alkaline battery is used, it's voltage drops. Devices that use alkalines are designed to cope with the decreasing voltage and still function as intended.

 

Mercury batteries produced constant voltage, which is why they were so popular among camera manufacturers. Using an alkaline in place of a mercury battery in a light meter will cause constantly changing voltage and therefore constantly changing inaccuracies.

 

Zinc-air hearing aid batteries (Wein batteries) also produce constant voltage. I used them in my Nikkormats before I went digital, and I got anywhere from 1 to 3 months from each battery, depending on my camera use. A package of 5-6 of the hearing aid batteries cost me $4.95US back them, so the battery expense was negligible. The bonus is that hearing aid batteries are available in just about every pharmacy everywhere. They are generally smaller in diameter than the camera's mercury battery they replace. I found an O-ring in a local hardware store's assortment of O-rings that was a great fit in the battery compartment to keep the hearing aid battery centered in its compartment.

 

As others have said, you got a great gift. The Nikon lenses are excellent, the Soligors not so much. Send the film to the Smithsonian, get some 21st century film, and go shooting! Have fun.

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I have not had such bad luck with alkaline batteries as some people suggest one ought to. The FTn meter has a battery check. A fresh alkaline in an unconverted meter will show conspicuously high voltage, and can be adjusted accordingly. But in general, it seems that when an alkaline drops, it drops fairly consistently and for a long time to about 1.3 volts. It's usually possible to offset your ASA or exposure using the battery check as a guide. Once it settles, it may stay right for some time. In any case, alkaline batteries, though they've gotten more expensive, may still be a cheaper solution even if they don't last for decades as the mercury ones did.

 

I reiterate that although O-rings are a common and good solution on many cameras, they may not work on the FTn meter, which uses two batteries, and has its positive contact on the side, not the end. Although that side contact is common to the chassis of the meter, including the screw-on cap, the label and painted threads make poor contact with the end, and there is no spring on the cap. A conductive ring on the top battery is reliable, but without that you may need to use tinfoil or the like to get good contact with the side terminal.

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The best solution to the battery problem is the battery adapters from CRIS camera repair service. This adapter uses a 1.5 volt silver battery and reduces the voltage to 1.3 volts. Silver batteries hold a constant voltage until they die just like the old mercury batteries did. Alkaline batteries and Wein cells star loosing voltage as soon as you start to use them and will give inaccurate meter readings. The CRIS adapters are not cheap but you got the camera for free so it is no big deal. You will need 2 adapters.
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"I reiterate that although O-rings are a common and good solution on many cameras, they may not work on the FTn meter, which uses two batteries, and has its positive contact on the side, not the end. Although that side contact is common to the chassis of the meter, including the screw-on cap, the label and painted threads make poor contact with the end, and there is no spring on the cap. A conductive ring on the top battery is reliable, but without that you may need to use tinfoil or the like to get good contact with the side terminal."

 

A learning experience for me! I have a couple of Nikkormat FTNs, and each uses a single battery in which the hearing aid batteries work well. And the O-ring idea has also been a success. But never having owned an F with FTn meter prism, I defer to your expertise. I've never heard of a design with a flat, circular battery using edge contact, and am not sure how it would work, but facts are facts, whether I understand them or not.

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If the light meter still works, there's a battery issue. A meter from that era used a mercury battery.

 

Many years ago (early 2000's), the light meter on my FTn failed. Nikon Repair would not touch it and mumbled something about "ring resistor". The local camera repair service that the company I worked for used for their cameras said, "Ring resistor is bad; we cannot get them." So I bought a hand held meter and finally a F100. Then I saw a post by a retired engineer in Utah who fixed FTn meters. The cost was $85, so I gave it a try. The fellow said the ring resistor was fine; the Cd cells had failed. He replaced the cells and recalibrated the the resistor ladder to work with 1.5v Silver Oxide batteries. The meter worked perfectly. It agreed with reading on my F100 in center weight mode, and slide film looked good.

 

The service in the link FPapp (see post #17, above) posted advertises that they recalibrate the light meter to use Silver Oxide batteries. I suspect they use the same technique. It is not the same person who worked on my meter; I think he retired.

 

My FTn continued to work perfectly for me until my home was burgled and the camera was stolen. I miss that camera.

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The cable atop the flash connector is a cable release.

That's obvious.

The intriguing mystery object is the black plastic thing with an aperture and ASA setting dial on it. It looks as if there's an electrical cable leading off from it as well.

 

Maybe a Vivitar flash remote sensor?

 

WRT using smaller A76/SR44/AG4 cells. They can be easily packed out by scooping the innards from a depleted alkaline 625 cell and using the outer shell. Note: I definitely don't recommend doing this with a genuine mercury 625 cell!

Edited by rodeo_joe|1
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