Mikon oldys

<p>One of my favorite, the 2.1cm f/4 Nikkor-O om the Nikon F bogy.The day befor yesturday I shoot 2 rols of Tmax-400. the other is a Nikon FM3a</p><div></div>

<p>Nikon FM3a</p><div></div>

<p>NIKON FE2</p>

<p>NIKON FE-2</p><div></div>

<p>NIKON-EL2</p><div></div>

<p>The trio with me most a time. Nikon F2+2.1 cm f4 & NIKKORMAT. Loaded.</p>

<p>The camera you are showing as an FE2 is actually an FE. The top shutter speed shown is 1/1000. The top shutter speed for the FE2 is 1/4000. </p>

<p>The top photo is of an original F? I guess I've never seen one. It's adorable, especially with the popup viewfinder on the corner. Now I'm feeling a new case of GAS coming on...</p>

<p>Very nice...I'm really liking the FM3a.....adding that to my ever growing want list now! :)</p>

<p>That Nikon F has the prism taken off, and the viewfinder is mounted in the flash mount that covers the knob, not built in.<br /> I'm guessing "Nikon body", not "Mikon bogy"?<br /> Bela, using your phone to post? ;)</p>

<p>I too like to see pictures of old cameras, as well as pictures from old cameras!</p><div></div>

<p>Hi Jeff. I have several FE & FE2s. You right, I mixed up the photos.<br>

Hi Fred. The top is an original NIKON, but not the one with the Nikon Kogaku Japan. I have that camera too, using for astronomical shoots only. Specially for long overnight exposures.<br>

Her is the other F body with the 2.1 cm lens.</p><div></div>

<p>Hi JMD. I like your complete set of NIKON F with all the finders. Do you walk them sometime? I do load a roll of film sometime and get out to shoot with them. The 50mm f/2 one of the sharpest Nikon lens.<br>

Typing error...! </p><div></div>

<p>My other favorite camera of NIKONs is the FA. It traveled with me years to Europe, Greek, Mediterranean Islands, Israel, Egypt. Produced tons of slide films perfectly. I never had a bad exposure with this camera. I think, it is a beauty. Owned two, sold the silver version.</p><div></div>

<p>As is so often the case, the Photomic head is dead. There's therefore no reason to use it, but I do shoot on occasion with the waist-level finder for closeup work. Mostly use the plain prism, which cost me a great deal more on its own than the camera body with the Photomic head. (report at http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00RjC9 in various other responses, etc.)<br>

Mine is the Nippon Kogaku early version, but not in the rare serial number category.</p>

<p>JDM -- Once the electronics in a Photomic head are dead, then it already is just a plain prism! Why spend your money to a plain prism when you've already got one? :)</p>

<p>Because the Photomic head is ugly, heavy, and unbalances the camera. Because the plain prism is well-balanced, beautiful, and light.<br>

They got it closer to right with the F2.</p>

<p>Now I like Photomic F heads when they work. In fact I have three that do, but there is no question that a plain prism is better looking, and I can certainly go along with the notion that it's irritating to have a big hunk of equipment that is broken. Better not to have it at all. Of course this is all theoretical, since all three of my Photomic FTn's work, and not only do they work, but they're all calibrated to run on silver oxide batteries. Still, that plain prism F is prettier. Here's my fleet a while ago.</p>

<p>Every one of these is a bit beat up, one of them a hybrid of black body and bits and pieces of a chrome FTn, another bought in the 1970's as a black finder on a chrome body, and the plain prism F an older but not rare one, found in a camera store's junk bin for 5 bucks, with a loose prism easily fixed and a wrinkled shutter that works fine. They all work just fine. The F3 works beautifully, with little wear, except that a previous owner had metal strap buckles that seriously wore and brassed the corners. A bargain from a local dealer who could not sell it to collectors, so sold it to me with a nice warrantee. Not shown here are later acquisitions: an FM10 on which a piece of the winder mechanism had become unscrewed. No work to work took about 15 minutes. It lives in my truck as an emergency shooter. And a very beat-up and well worn F4 that I got from the same dealer as the F3. This latter was 90 bucks out the door, with fresh batteries that are still going a year later. Looks like hell, works like new. </p><div></div>

<p>Craig -- your reasoning is right and logical. But photographers sometime more the photographers only, many time, a specialist on gears, machine creation, industrial beauties, like those old mechanical cameras, build in precision like a Swiss watches, (almost) and mostly they are an art pieces. I my 25-30s, I don't appreciated as much the beauty of cameras, just shoot them and when wanted to get a new camera, sometime I trade them in for a new one. Unfortunately in this way, I lost some of my treasured photo items, realizing later in my life. I had the prism, and all prism heads for my two "F" - "F2" 7 F3s, and trade them to. As we get older we appreciate, or discover beauty differently, then when we are younger. Wise guy, I had a chance to buy the Nikon 13mm f/5.6 AI-S and the Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 AI-S from my friend, for half the price on that time, now I banging my head to the wall, because the value of those two lenses is skyrocketed. My cry is not the value for the 13mm f/5.6, it is for the beautiful rectilinear vide angle view I like to have today. It is not the point JDM has to have the plain prism finder. The camera looks beautiful with the prism finder. Period. I marvel the beauty of those machined cameras, no plastic or absolute minimal plastic, not like todays almost total plastic cameras, even they are extremely refined photographic computers. But, 5-7 years, and no value at all.</p><div></div>

<p>What is that AIS lens on the FM3A in the second picture? It has a barrel cutout for the distance scale and an f2.8 max aperture. </p>

<p>My EL2 and 50-135 AIS Zoom.</p><div></div>

<p>Hi David. It is a Nikon Ser. E 100mm f/2.8 AI-S lens very sharp and useful short tele, on a FF camera. If I go for a walk in the city, I cary two film cameras, FM or FE and the 100/2.8, and a very sharp, Nikkor-H 28mm f/3.5 AI factory converted lens and the 200/4 AI-S in my packet and couple of rolls of film. I also have to admit, I own 3 Olympus OM-2 cameras, witch I using them occasionally. The same set up, 100mm and 28mm or 35mm Zuiko lenses on them. Some time mounting the 21mm zuiko for cityscape shots<br /> This is an other story to tell.</p>

<p>I just noticed you post. I own and using the 50-135mm f/3.5 AI-S all the time on my D4 or the D3s bodies. I like this lens very much, all the Banff and Jasper images in my PN folder was done with this lens, most of the time. Actually, I have two copies of it. I like this lens better then the behemoth 24-70mm f/2.8 I'm own too.<br>

You set-up with the Nikon and the 50-135 is a beautiful unit.</p>

<p>Nikon Nikkor 50-135mm f/3.5 AI-S</p><div></div>

<p>Here is my old Nikkormat EL (a much loved camera still) with some of my Nikkor and Nikon-F mount lenses. Not all, I have to admit.<br>

All of these lenses are non-AI, which is why I stayed with my older Nikon bodies for so long.<br>

The PC-Nikkor was the stimulus for my going Nikon in the first place, and it continued to influence what bodies I bought, even into my Canon EOS days.</p><div></div>

<p>Hi JDM. I like you collection. Nikkormat EL, 50/1.4 - 20/4 - Nikkor-P 105/2.5 the legendary one, Nikkor-PC 35/2.8 - 500/8 mirror. And the best, Vivitar Series-1, 80-200mm Zoom. I don't care if the new lenses designed for the digital shiny sensor, I still making very nice images with those lenses on the D4 & D3s bodies. Some of my old non AIs factory converted to AI and able to use them on DSLR bodies. Those not converted, used when I shot film or used on the D40 body I have. 6MP, ? So what? I have plenty of images on the <strong>PN</strong>, and nobody would tell the difference if it was taken with the D40, D2X, D200, and so on, or the latest D4.<br>

I know a couple photographers, using Nikon and jumped to Canon and back again or used both systems , but me, I never had a need to change system, Nikon always served me well. Then, I'm a very loyal person, unfortunately. </p>

<p><em>"The best people posses a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed."</em></p>

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<em> - Ernest Hemingway</em>

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<p>JDM, or anyone else in the same boat: if you love that PC Nikkor but wish to use newer equipment, you should know that it is extremely easy to make old PC Nikkors AI compliant. Since there is no actual aperture ring, the ring that takes its place is simply held on by a few screws. If you take it off, you can file, sand, grind or turn it down by about an eighth of an inch at the back, and put it back on. It's AI now.</p>

<p>Now you can put it on a Nikon F3 without remembering to flip the tab, and the unique meter on the F3 will allow you to shoot in A mode with the lens shifted. </p>