Nikon 'H' focusing screen question

Hello!

 

I'm currently using an H2 focusing screen in my F3 HP. It's actually an F/F2 screen, which fits properly in the F3 finder (you do have to push it out thru the mirror box to remove it, but it is in perfect registration). I love this screen. I get sharp focus about 90% of the time with lenses from 85mm to 180mm. I am now wondering whether I can put an F/F2 version of this screen in an F4 frame (this works with F3 screens). Anyone ever tried this?

 

Thanks,

Les

If I have read this correctly, no. A lot of great info here & on sub links. Link Nikon F and F2 Screens

If I have read this correctly, no. A lot of great info here & on sub links. Link Nikon F and F2 Screens

I'm very familiar with that site. It has the following: "WARNING: F screens are NOT compatible with the F3." This is actually not true. The F/F2 screens will fit in an F3. They will be correctly registered--I get accurate focus with mine. The F/F2 frame does not have the "lip" that an F3 screen frame has. In order to remove an F screen frame from an F3, you have to remove the finder and push up on the screen with a soft object (cotton bud works).

Well, I have quite a few screens for my older Nikons that fit cameras up to the F 2. It would never occur to me to put a screen into a camera it wasn't spec'd for - screens are pretty affordable F 3 all the way through F 5, my newest film Nikon. Possibility of harm to camera or bad images when making do vs. a few dollars for the correct item just doesn't make sense to me. Different strokes...

Well, I have quite a few screens for my older Nikons that fit cameras up to the F 2. It would never occur to me to put a screen into a camera it wasn't spec'd for - screens are pretty affordable F 3 all the way through F 5, my newest film Nikon. Possibility of harm to camera or bad images when making do vs. a few dollars for the correct item just doesn't make sense to me. Different strokes...

Hey, that's cool. No problem here. I do check the focus out with cheap film before I shoot for serious, and I make sure that the screen "pops" in without force and rests correctly on the registration pins (if any). Also, F4 screens are rare, and the less common ones go for USD 100 or more. Sucks.

Some of the screens are really specialized and rare - I just looked on line before I wrote my note to be sure things hadn't changed as to the market for Nikon screens since I last looked for one. Seems like there is a lot out there - ! searched F3 - F5. There's always that "Holy Grail" and we all have our own needs & preferences! With the F 2 and before, I had 10 or 12 different screens, and changed them less often than I had anticipated. Gave away or sold quite a few. Even when I do use the film cameras these days, I don't find them particularly useful - I suppose it is because I stay with a fairly standard range of lenses. Edited September 13, 2018 by Sandy Vongries

I have shot sports before with an F2AS/MD-2 and H4. It's a screen that takes a bit of getting use to, but honestly there's really nothing quite like it and it definitely makes tracking action easy.

 

I have never experimented with using an F/F2 screen in an F3, so that's good to know that it can be done. I know that F3 screens GENERALLY can be used in F4s also with a bit of finagling, so I don't see why you couldn't use an H screen in an F4 frame-again assuming that it will keep the spacing the same. Just watch the exposure compensation, and remember that there is a small dial on the F4 prism housing to set for screens that require compensation.

 

I do wish that even something like a K screen wasn't so unbelievably pricey for the F4-I'd love to have one as I'm in the camp that considers the F4 one of the best manual focus bodies Nikon ever made. I actually got a nice prize with my F5 from KEH as it came with an L screen-I'm not sure I've even seen another for sale.

Back in the '90s, we used to migrate screens between the F/F2 and F3 by using a jewelers screwdriver to remove the glass package from the frame, and switch it to the frame required by the destination camera. Usually, this was done to replace the old F/F2 screens with glass from new F3 screens (i.e., your F/F2 A, K, E or P screen was old and scratched, and it was often easier/cheaper to get a brand new F3 screen than a brand new F/F2 screen).

 

I never tried to put an unaltered F/F2 screen into the F3: I was always afraid it would get stuck, so switched the glass to an F3 frame to be safe (and of course vice versa, as the F3 frame lip was problematic in the F/F2). Given that I developed an almost immediate (and enduring) loathing for the F3, usually I was swapping F3 screens into F/F2 frames for my expanding collection of backup F2s. I'm fairly certain I swapped F4 glass into F2 frames once or twice, when I needed a brighter variation of B screen, so it should be just as easy to swap an F2 H2 screen into an F4 frame. You may encounter some odd metering issues, however, especially with matrix mode. The auxiliary F4 spot meter should still be usable, if you offset the film speed to compensate.

Scratch what I said about compensating the film speed when using H2 screen with F4 spot meter: I was thinking of the F/F2. The F4 spot meter reads thru the mirror (like the F3), bypassing the screen altogether. Only the matrix and averaging meters in the F4 DP-20 prism might be thrown off by a G or H, because they do read the screen. Whether the F4 prism meters would read consistently thru G or H screens with an adjustment to film speed, like the F/F2 prisms, is something you'd need to test. Edited September 14, 2018 by orsetto

Whether the F4 prism meters would read consistently thru G or H screens with an adjustment to film speed, like the F/F2 prisms, is something you'd need to test.

 

Why adjust the film speed? The F4 has an exposure compensation dial built-in specifically for the differences in focusing screens, and it would make sense to me to use that.

Why adjust the film speed? The F4 has an exposure compensation dial built-in specifically for the differences in focusing screens, and it would make sense to me to use that.

 

You're absolutely right, of course: thats the proper workaround on an F4. I seem to have the little screen compensation numbers of the F2 prism ASA dials permanently etched in my brain. AFAIK Nikon didn't make G or H screens for the F4, tho: if the prism compensation knob doesn't have enough range to cover them, a film speed tweak might still be necessary (unless you use the spot mode only)?

Edited September 14, 2018 by orsetto

You're absolutely right, of course: thats the proper workaround on an F4. I seem to have the little screen compensation numbers of the F2 prism ASA dials permanently etched in my brain. AFAIK Nikon didn't make G or H screens for the F4, tho: if the prism compensation knob doesn't have enough range to cover them, a film speed tweak might still be necessary (unless you use the spot mode only)?

I believe there were G screens for F4, but no H. I'm looking at some reasonably priced G2s.

The optical elements inside an F2 and F3 screen look identical, and can be easily swapped between frames. I've done this a couple of times in order to get newer and less scratched or dusty screens for an F2.

 

The F4, I don't know about. It's my least favourite Nikon body, which lies damaged and definitely unloved. Therefore I've never bothered to look into changing screens between it and anything else.

I can now certify that an F/F2 screen WILL fit correctly in an F4 screen frame. Focus with the screen agrees perfectly with the Green Dot of Doom, so registration would appear to be correct. It's so damn dark out today that I can't check the exposure easily, but the Nikon chart indicates no compensation necessary with the lenses I have.

I can now certify that an F/F2 screen WILL fit correctly in an F4 screen frame. Focus with the screen agrees perfectly with the Green Dot of Doom, so registration would appear to be correct. It's so damn dark out today that I can't check the exposure easily, but the Nikon chart indicates no compensation necessary with the lenses I have.

 

- That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. The condenser/fresnel optical screen components are taped together within a thin metal frame, and on the thinking of 'if it ain't bust, don't fix it'; then why would Nikon bother to redesign and retool for a different optical configuration or slight change in size?