F4 & F5 Dry firing

[jay_drew]

<p >I have always checked my manual 35mm cameras before starting a day of shooting by dry firing the cameras & lenses planned for uses in the near future. My procedure was to open he camera back w/o film. Sighting through the film plane of the camers, I would set the shutter speed for ~ a second, set the f stop for the max apparatus, fire the lens @ max Aperture, Then min aperture. I've developed a pretty good sense of about it should look like. Then I'd set the lens to Min apparatus (f16 or whatever the smallest, & fire. Then I might set for a medium f-stop say f8 & the longest time the shutter will time & count the seconds, Then set the shutter for B/T to make sure they work.</p>

<p >Then I'd repeat w/ a 2nd camera that I plan on using for the next few days. Then I test each lens planned on using in the immediate future, doing the same routine. Of course my eye can't determine a precision job of calibration, but is is plenty close enough to prevent any catastrophic failures</p>

<p > So for my real question how do I perform this procedure w/ an F4 or F5. There must be a button(s) that fool the camera the camera in thinking film is present. So does anyone know how this might be accomplished?</p>

<p >Thank you JayDrew, the answere is greast importince to me.</p>

[hans_janssen]

<p>You need more trust. Did you ever find a malfunction in a lens or camera?</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>"So does anyone know how this might be accomplished?" - Not easily, is the short answer. The F4 has an interlock that prevents full shutter control until the film has been wound onto frame 1. I imagine the F5 is the same. So you'd not only have to push in the [back open] switch but also fool the automatic film sensor into winding on 3 frames. So "dry" firing isn't really an option.<br /> What you can do instead is to have a scrap film that you put into the camera and test it that way. It's reasonably easy to assess the shutter speed from the sound it makes, and you can look into the lens throat with the lens removed to make sure the mirror is going up and the shutter opening. You can also see the iris stopping down from the front of the lens when re-fitted. Choose the tongue-out rewind option and you can reuse the test film again and again.</p>

<p>BTW, I don't blame you for not trusting the F4. Worst film camera Nikon have ever made IMHO, but an excellent doorstop.</p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<blockquote>

<p><em>Not easily, is the short answer. The F4 has an interlock that prevents full shutter control until the film has been wound onto frame 1.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Actually Joe, quite easily on the F4. The interlock is not tied to the frame counter and is independent of whether or not there is film loaded in the camera, and easily bypassed.</p>

<p>The shutter interlock is a tiny white button in the film back seal channel located on the left side directly below the R2 rewind button. If you push in that little white button, you can dry fire the shutter with no film in the camera and with the frame counter at -2 (empty). There is also a little silver button on the far right side near the hinge. That is the frame counter reset switch. You do *not* need to depress this switch to dry fire the shutter.</p>

<p>I have never used an F5, but I believe it uses a similar interlock switch. Check the film back seal channels.</p>

<p>If you want to verify that the shutter is actually opening prior to heading out for the day, it's just as easy (and accomplishes the same thing) to set a slow shutter speed (say 1/2 sec), remove the lens, and fire the camera while looking into the mirror box. If you see the smooth surface of the pressure plate, the shutter opened. If you see shutter curtains, obviously not.</p>

<p>The reason (presumably) for the interlock is that pros have to change film quickly on the fly when the action is moving fast. The last thing you would want to happen while you are in a hurry pulling film across the gate on a powered up camera is an accidental shutter release while your fingers or the film leader end are on top of the shutter curtains.</p>

<p>I have a much higher opinion of the F4. It remains one of my favorites. :-)</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>It's certainly possible - I can fire my F5 without film in it (I wouldn't demo the full frame rate to scare people if I was wasting film), and I think I always could. Whether there was a custom function, set before I got it, that's allowing this is another matter.</p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<blockquote>

<p><em>"Worst film camera Nikon have ever made..."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I think that honour rightly goes to the EM. The F-401(s)/N4004(s) takes the prize for ugliest camera Nikon ever made. :-)</p>

[Dieter Schaefer]

<blockquote>

<p>F4. Worst film camera Nikon ever made<br /> I think that honour rightly goes to the EM. The F-401(s)/N4004(s) takes the prize for ugliest camera Nikon ever made. :-)</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Like Michael, I have a much higher opinion on the F4 - best manual focus film camera I ever had (never used the AF). Certainly second Michael's opinion on the EM - only Nikon camera that ever failed me in the field (the other was a Leica M6).</p>

<p>To the OP - checking the operation of the camera can quite easily be performed without the back open - just look from the front.</p>

[pc_b]

<p>The F5 (and F6?) auto-checks the shutter action with every shutter cycle. They'll go 'err' or similar as soon as the shutter is clocked to be off.</p>

[bebu_lamar]

<p>I am not sure how the interlock work with the F5 but easiest thing to do is to check from the front. Remove the lens, lock up the mirror and you can see the shutter operates.</p>