Camera Repair Recommendations

I am a beginner B&W photographer in a college intro course. I have been using my Grandpa's 1959 Nikon F which works perfectly except for the light meter. I've been using light meter apps but it really is a pain and they aren't very accurate. Does anyone have any recommendations of where I can get my light meter fixed for a fair price in South/Central Jersey?

I doubt you'll get it fixed 'for a fair price' anywhere, I'm afraid. I believe the meters are notoriously prone to failure, and the power cells may no longer

be available either. May I suggest you look for a Weston hand-held meter, which will complement your adoption of mature technology nicely, and can

be used for both reflected and incident light readings, which an internal meter can not.

I will definitely look into that. Thank you for your suggestion!

Tony is right about the likelihood of a repair of a vintage Nikon Photomic finder. A working Weston would be a good meter, but you might want to consider something newer from Sekonic or Gossen, which are still in production and more easily repairable. I have had good luck with Sekonic meters for the last 30 + years, with no problems that couldn't be solved by a new battery or re-zeroing it after it was dropped.

My Weston suggestion was purely for reasons of being of a similar age to the camera (of which I am jealous, BTW !) - I agree there are many other fine meters that will do a superb job as well. I use a Weston V with my Pentax K20D, which occasionally gets me strange looks.

The old Nikon F meters are long out of production, so even if repairable, spare parts are hard to come by. They were originally meant for mercury batteries, and require conversion to newer ones, which are hard to find in the correct size, and even when they are working correctly, they require some second-guessing for the best performance. That said, a good one working well can be very handy, and if you are determined to get yours fixed, you might try Vermont Camera Works (can be found on line). Dave, the boss there, knows his Nikons and has spare parts often, and might even be able to scare up a good meter replacement.

 

Nikon F meters came in several different generations: The original Photomic had a non through lens meter, and would not be a good candidate for fixing. The T and the Tn were through the lens, but required indexing the lens by setting its maximum aperture on the dial. The FTn, was more convenient, and lenses could be indexed by giving them a twist. I would not bother to fix the earlier ones at all, and hesitate even with the later ones beyond cleaning and new batteries. This is even more the case if the prism is beginning to show corrosion (brown patches in the images) which is caused by deterioration of the mirror that cannot easily be fixed.

 

Given that most of the old Nikon lenses have only full stops, and the shutter has only full stops, the meter need not be pinpoint accurate, and you're going to have to learn to compensate yourself anyway, so I'd suggest just getting a good hand held meter. Once you've mastered it, the meter is just a guide for a good starting place anyway.

Or, for free, you could download the Jiffy Calculator here: http://www.cppdh.org/download/jiffy-calculator-for-night-light-exposures.pdf

 

Although it says night exposures, it covers the whole range, based principally on the sunny 16 rule.