Richard Williams

I suspect storage conditions matter. I first noticed it on an F100 and D70 that had been kept in a Crumpler camera bag in contact with foam-filled artificial fibre dividers and a rubberised mesh retainer. Perhaps outgassing or contact with migrating plasticisers from the bag or simply keeping the cameras in a confined space for an extended period triggered this? Airing them on an open shelf helped, especially the F100, which also benefited from a few applications of that green gunk they sell for cleaning keyboards: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleaner-Keyboards-Mobile-Phones-Computers/dp/B00C6LS64I The D70 probably needs the full isoprop threatment at this point - all the grips are affected. With the F100 the problem was limited to the back, which is easy to swap if you can find a replacement for a reasonable price (I have a data back in reserve, in case the original goes sticky again or the door catch breaks).

I've never had a stuck lens cap, but I did have a problem with a stuck body cap when I bought a secondhand F80. When I eventually managed to prise the thing off, it turned out to be a BF-1, the body cap from the AI era. Apparently you need a BF-1A or BF-1B to use safely on the AF bodies: Nikon Body Caps Typology of the Nikon F Camera Body Caps New Nikon Body Cap Design?: Nikon FX SLR (DF, D1-D5, D600-D850) Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Since the Fuji version also has a free 'Express' edition, I wondered if they might be doing the same thing for Nikon. And sure enough: Free photo editing software for Nikon Download Capture One Express Nikon| Capture One

I understand the attractions of classic manual cameras, but if you already have a Nikon AF dSLR and want to share lenses, one of these AF models can make a lot of sense. I think all mainstream AF lenses except the latest AF-P and electronic aperture E type lenses will work on the F5, F6, F100, F80, F75 and F65. And all these cameras have the familiar dial interface that began with the F5 and is retained in the dSLRs. I think the F100 is the pick of these (the F5 is very large and heavy, and the F6 is very expensive), but the F80 is a decent alternative, smaller, lighter and quieter. And the F100 is still relatively expensive as far as AF SLRs go - I've seen nice ones sell for more than I paid for my F5. The cost of shooting film is a good point to consider, and worth comparing to the price of the camera. I picked up an F80 last year that came to about the same as I'd pay for 4 rolls of film plus commercial processing and scanning. If your budget is too low to stretch to an F80, consider whether shooting a cheaper body will be affordable. It's also worth checking a range of dealers, not just ebay.

I have a 167MT, but not the power pack, which I think will be the P5 battery holder. I assume this replaces the original baseplate with the off-centre tripod mount, and you don't have the original baseplate? If you do, I would just try that with AAA batteries. Have you tried the reset button? Unfortunately, it looks like the P5 can sometimes cause (irreversible?) problems: Contax 167MT Help Wanted

I might hold out for an F80 at the right price. The F75 is OK, but it's cut down in various ways compared to the F80. The F75 doesn't have the sub-command dial (the one on the front in the F80) so it's not as easy to use in full manual mode. Film ISO setting is DX code only without manual override, and the flash sync is a bit slower if it matters. Still, it is compatible with the same lenses as the F80, including G and VR. The F70 is a solid but older design with more primitive AF and a quirky interface, and it isn't compatible with VR or with manual aperture control on G lenses. You can set ISO manually, though. With the F75 I'd go with the 28-100, unless the 37-70 is the f/2.8 version, which was a professional lens.

To be fair, I had no idea about these early M lenses until I saw them discussed on places like l-camera-forum - a few of the guys over there seem to have collected or at least know about every minor variant. When the M2 came out, I wonder if some buyers of the M3 lens wished they'd bought the screwmount version so they could just swap the adapter to bring up the correct framelines? I don't think I could face taking a file to one of these things in its oriignal condition, but I can understand why people do the modification.

That's very dogmatic, but I don't think correct. According to multiple sources, there was an early M-mount Summaron 3.5 (SOONC-M) that was intended to be used on the M3 together with the SBLOO shoe-mount finder. I think the original poster has this. It will bring up the 50mm framelines on Leicas where these are selectable. It appears to have been produced from 1954, when the M3 was launched, and coexisted with the screwmount version for a few years. The goggled version (SOONC-MW) did not appear until 1956. Later there was a version for the M2 (SOONC-MT) that brings up the expected 35mm framelines. See discussion here: Summaron-M 35mm f/3.5 for M2

It's almost as if the OM-1 was the SLR Leica should have made. Legendary Olympus designer Yoshihisa Maitani started with a IIIf himself, and his goal with the OM-1 was to create a camera with the size and quality of a Leica but the versatility of an SLR: the Semi-Olympus I - the Pen Series | Special Lecture | Cameras | History of Olympus Products | Technology | Olympus the Olympus OM-1 - the XA Series | Special Lecture | Cameras | History of Olympus Products | Technology | Olympus

I'd assumed that the original poster has a Summaron designed for the M3 (before 35mm framelines existed), but a later camera with 35mm framelines. When the earliest M Summarons are fitted to an M3, you just see the 50mm framelines that are there all the time. With a later 35mm lens on the M3, you'll also see the 135mm framelines. So to use your trick of taking the entire M3 viewfinder as an approximate 35mm frame, it's actually better to have the earlier unmodified lens as you won't see the distracting 135mm framelines. Goggled 35mm lenses behave the same way, but have extra optics to reduce the viewfinder image so that the 50mm M3 frameline can be used with a 35mm lens. Sometimes lenses designed to be used with goggles turn up with the goggles missing - as Brian suggests, these won't focus correctly with the rangefinder.

For a 35mm lens I think the single focal length SBLOO is much, much nice to look through, but it's far from cheap and rather large. The modern Voigtlaender brightline finder (metal version) is nearly as good, and more compact (rather like the Leitz finders for longer focal lengths). I bought the SBLOO but would be happy with either.

I don't pretend to understand the prices paid for some serial numbers by serious collectors, but I suspect there woudn't be a premium for the batch unless you had a very low or otherwise significant number. The Leicavit may roughly double the value of your kit, and if you happen to have the rare case that was made for the IIIg with the winder mounted it might be worth more than the camera.

Nikon's best package for raw conversion is Capture NX-D. The default output should be similar to an in-camera jpeg, and it will read the in-camera settings that other converters ignore: Capture NX-D: Nikon Imaging | Global Site | Capture NX-D ViewNX-i should also work, but it has less scope for adjustment: Nikon Imaging | Global Site | ViewNX-i CS6 shipped with Adobe Camera Raw 7.0, but the D800 needs at least 7.1: ACR Application compatibility: Camera Raw plug-in and Adobe application compatibility ACR Camera compatibility: Cameras supported by Camera Raw I think you should be able to update ACR from PS using Help->Updates. If not, you can download ACR directly. If you have an up to date version of Windows or MacOS, the most recent version of ACR that will work with CS6 is 9.1.1: ACR 9.1.1 Windows: https://helpx.adobe.com/content/dam/help/en/camera-raw/installer/CameraRaw_9_1_1.zip ACR 9.1.1 Mac: https://helpx.adobe.com/content/dam/help/en/camera-raw/installer/CameraRaw_9_1_1.pkg.zip But Adobe says "If you are using Mac OS 10.6, Windows XP, or Windows Vista, Adobe Camera Raw 8.4 and later is not compatible. You can use up to Camera Raw 8.3." ACR 8.3 is available as a bundle with the same version of the DNG converter: ACR 8.3 & DNG converter bundle Windows: Adobe - Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter : For Macintosh : Adobe DNG Converter 8.3 ACR 8.3 & DNG converter bundle Mac: Adobe - Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter : For Windows : Adobe DNG Converter 8.3 Note that you don't actually have to convert to DNG. Your NEFs should be directly readable in ACR after it is upgraded to 9.1.1 or 8.3. Personally, I only find DNG useful for compatibility with older versions of Adobe products (like CS5) that aren't compatible with a recent enough version of ACR to read your files directly. Some non-Adobe software has problems with some DNG files, even when it works with the native format from the same camera.

Even in the 80s, there were few affordable options from European manufacturers, at least in the West. You could buy a Minox or Balda pocket camera for a reasonable price, but Leica, Hasselblad, Rollei and Alpa have always been expensive. Most European camera production was presumably in the Eastern Bloc, and Praktica, Zenit, Lomo (pre-Lomography), FED and Zorki models were widely exported. Now the Praktica name seems to be stuck on cheap point and shoot cameras that I imagine are produced a very long way from Dresden, the Lomo LC-A+ is made in China to be sold at an absurd price to hipsters, and (most bizarrely of all) the Zenit M is lightly disguised Leica M240. Cosina in Japan has made excellent use of the Voigtlaender brand, though, producing gear worthy of the original company's heritage. It's a shame they now only make lenses, not cameras.

Mostly I've stuck with NXD for how the colours look out of the box, without fiddling. I suppose Nikon know their own cameras and have profiled them well. I also like Capture One, but NXD wins on price! I was never mad on Adobe's rendering of NEFs in the days when you could still buy their software rather than rent it - always needed to tweak more to get something approximating an NXD conversion (or the in-camera jpegs).

Yes, they should have made all their packages free. It's not as if the dated Camera Control software gets great reviews, and there are good third party alternatives, some free. On the other hand, the free NXD is a decent raw processor and, with control points back in recent versions, competitive with the Capture NX-2 package that is (oddly enough) still sold for £159, though it doesn't support the current generation of cameras.

You could actually capture images with the earliest versions (pre NX) - they included the tethered camera control functions that Nikon later spun off into a separate package (Camera Control Pro).

New tech hybrid viewfinder like Fuji has!

I don't think I've ever had this problem with Nikon or any other rear caps, and only with one front cap, a terribly designed rectangular hood cap. I guess my lenses generally don't have much freedom to rotate relative to the bag, as they are either held in place by adjustable soft dividers or kept in neoprene pouches. So assuming the caps aren't worn down, I'd be more inclined to look at the bag and to what extent the lenses are rattling around inside it.

I used a 50mm from time to time on a D300, but found it too long for general use (I wouldn't want a 75mm on full frame as a standard lens either). The 28mm f/1.8 FX would be an interesting choice on a DX camera, but it's relatively large for a wideangle prime and, while not a heavyweight lens, is still significantly heavier than the 18-55 zooms or the 35mm DX. At the longer end, a 105mm is for me a useful focal length on both formats - I have the DC, which is a really nice portrait lens, but has screwdriver AF and is built like a tank, so no lightweight. The old 18-70 is another nice standard zoom on DX and it's nice to have a bit more range at the long end, but its robust build quality makes it heavier than the 18-55 lenses.

Looks like Nikon made four versions of the AF-S 18-55, and somehow the VR II manages to be the lightest of all: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G - Wikipedia I suppose the 35mm DX prime would be another lightweight option, more versatile than a 50mm on the D300. But the D300 itself, of course, is still more than double the weight of a D3500.

There's a very interesting find over on l-camera-forum. A guy goes to an estate auction and comes across an old Leica, which he knows nothing about, and puts in a bid (presumably not much). Nobody else bothers, so he gets the camera, No 360001. Then he finds conflicting information about the model on a couple of serial number lists, posts some pictures, and asks the forum for advice. Maybe it's a fake of some kind?: Auction Find It turns out to be an extremely rare IIId (basically a 'stepper' IIIc with a self-timer). But not just any IIId, the first IIId. And since the IIId, at least by serial number, preceded the IIIc, it is (if genuine) a landmark Leica, not only the first with a self-timer, but also the progenitor of all the cameras that used the new die-cast construction method, including the IIIc, IIIf and IIIg. It's off to Germany for authentication.

People are asking $300-400 USD on ebay. A suspiciously similar Minolta without the Leica badge or styling goes for about 1/10 of that price (or probably $5 at a yard sale).

I would give Fixation a ring: Camera Repair | Lens Repair | Fixation UK From previous threads, it sounds like getting at the socket requires major disassembly and maybe replacing the rubber grips you have to remove to access the screws.

It's been suggested that if you have firmware version 1.204 the new generation sensor has been fitted to the M9. This firmware version was apparently not available for download and was only installed at the factory to support the new sensor. However, Leica later released 1.210, which anyone can download and is compatible with both versions of the sensor. If 1.210 is installed then you can't be sure which sensor version you have. That just leaves the date to go by. Leica announced the new generation sensor at the end of June 2015, though they didn't give the exact date they began fitting it. Sensors changed in late 2015 or more recently should be fine, but you'd probably want to check anything done in mid 2015 with Leica - they should have the sensor version in the service records for your serial number.