Nikon F3HP - light meter malfunction

[c_watson1]

The Nikons in question are over 40 years old. Whatever the alleged fragility of the FRE components, it never amounted to a baked-in defect that surfaced during, say, the F3s long production run or among the many FEs sold. Recalls? Service advisories? Don't recall any. Compared to the failure rate of Minolta's X-5xx and X-700 cameras due to defective capacitors, the Nikons were virtually trouble-free.

 

BTW, zero problems with my high-mileage, multi-owner "beater" Mamiya 645 Super. Lucky me!

Edited November 3, 2020 by c_watson|1

[Vincent Peri]

I have 8 F3HP's and all work perfectly. I've never had an F3HP fail me... NEVER. I did have trouble with the original F3, two of them. The exposure memory lock buttons had a tendency to pop out and get lost. After several months, Nikon came out with a much better button that just pressed into the hole left by the missing button. I never had any trouble with my original F3's exposure buttons after I replaced them. When the F3HP's came out, they had the new button and never had a problem.

[BeBu Lamar]

Wouldn't every Nikon camera that has an Ai follower tab have an FRE as part of that assembly?

 

I think so. So even many current Nikon DSLR's have the FRE. Of course Nikon may (or may not) make better FRE now.

[rodeo_joe1]

Wouldn't every Nikon camera that has an Ai follower tab have an FRE....?

The early AI Nikkormats had a simple resistor track directly under the lens surround. No bit of string linking the AI follower to the rewind housing either.