Brian1664876441

With glasses- I have to "look around" the frame to see the exposure settings on the FE2 and FM. I do not have to do this with the F3HP and N8008s. Both have the same high-eyepoint viewfinder. I traded the N8008 with a couple of lenses even for a Nikon S4 with 5cm F1.4, 10.5cm F2.5, and 3.5cm F2.5. First Nikon RF I saw and owned, the owner needed an AF camera. This is when the N8008 was new. My N8008s that I have now- used to be a Kodak DCS200ci.

It was a problem with the firmware, and could be reproduced. This was in the N8008. I never had the N8008s do it.

The F-801/N8008 firmware induced jam: if you shoot to the very end of the roll, and the last picture is exactly at the end of the roll in such a fashion that the camera cannot advance it at all: you must drop the batteries from the camera and leave them out for a few 10s of seconds. Turn the camera off, put the batteries back in, turn camera on and immediately hit the buttons for film rewind. This happened to me decades ago on vacation with my new N8008. There are a lot of great Nikon cameras, everyone has a favorite. Mine is the SP. After that, the F2AS. I'm happy to see prices going back up- for a while BGN condition F3HP bodies for ~$100 at KEH. For the OP- pick a price range, but sounds like it's meant to get an FM2n at a premium. Do you wear glasses? That is my main reason for suggesting an F3HP. Want a classic camera- go for it. Want dirt cheap with lots of features- then you can get an N8008s with the same finder as the F3HP for about the cost of batteries.

Checking KEH- FM2n bodies are $340 or so, later FM (unofficial ver2, SN starts with a 3) are at $175, both BGN condition. For that little difference- I'd go for the FM2n. I paid $50 for my BGN condition, black FM- "ver2". I guess film is making a comeback. I had to change the light seals and mirror bumper. Easy. Nikon FM w Kiron35~135 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Should add- IF you wear glasses, the High-Point finder in the Nikon F3HP is worth looking "through". No need to look around the finder to see the full frame and exposure information. The manual states that the LCD needs to be replaced in 7 years. My oldest is 37 years, works perfectly. So do the other four. One was $60 from KEH advertised as "meter INOP". Only time I had issue with KEH's description, because it "OP'd" as soon as I put a battery in the camera. Nikon's center weighted metering in the F3 is 80/20, 80% of the reading over the center 12mm circle of the frame, 20% outside of it. Older cameras are 60/40. Once you visualize it, never let you down. I read the FA manual on matrix metering, being built by analyzing 1000's of photos. The problem is, I did not take any of the photos that they analyzed. I take all of my pictures using center-weighted, including cameras such as the N8008s, N90s, N70, and DSLR's Nikon E3 and Df.

The FM2n offers 1/250th sec Sync, 1/4000th top shutter speed, and (limited) interchangeable screens over the original FM. The FM used Gallium Arsenide photocells, which did not require the IR blocking filter of the Silicon Photodiodes used in most Nikon cameras. The FM cost $50~$100. You could get an FE2 and an FM for less than the price of an FM2n. Or- stick with an FM, money for lenses. The FG- reputation for electronics going bad, but mine has worked for 35 years. My FE2- works/looks like new. Weak point: variable resister can crack, same problem in the FE, EL, ELw, and EL2.

You should be able to adjust the RF by taking off the name plate and adjusting through the access ports. Until the thing broke. Had to open it up, find the broken screw, managed to find a replacement and calibrate it. After 12 years: the RF is still accurate, the shutter working- which required a good cleaning. I have the Prominent 1 and the 1a with lever wind. Great lenses, nice finish, pretty cameras in a "Studebaker" kind of way. But horrible to work on.

The Voigtlander cameras in general, Prominent, Vitessa, Vito: great lenses. Someone should have given some thought to the design of the cameras. The rangefinder mechanisms are miserable to work on and adjust. The advance mechanism of the Vitesssa locks up easily, only camera that I've had film jam up while going through the sprockets. The rangefinder must be adjusted taking the top off the camera and has to be checked after putting the top back on. Need to re-adjust, take the top off again. I bought a second top, will cut it up if I ever need to adjust it again. The Vito- vertical alignment was off, affected the calibration- no practical way to set it that I could find. Ended up putting pressure on one side of a prism to force it into shape, like I did with the MUCH cheaper Kodak Signet 80. The rangefinder mechanism of the Prominent: after opening up one and finding the failure point: it;s just delicate, the screw used to set horizontal alignment sheered off when adjusting it.

If the prism moved I don;t think you would see the RF circle centered in the VF. If the prism split- that would leave one optical path working.

> About when the AF-S 60/2.8 (the first one) came out, I was looking at it and the MicroNikkor 55/2.8. I have the AF-D 60/2.8, have used it on the N8008s, D1x, E3, and Df. I also have the 55/2.8 and 55/3.5. The 60/2.8 gets to 1:1 without extension tubes. I typically use manual focus lenses, but make an exception for the AF-D Micro-Nikkors. The AF-D 200/4 Micro-Nikkor is one of the sharpest lenses ever made, the 70~180 Micro-Nikkor-Zoom is one of the best Zoom lenses ever made. All have a good feel when using on manual focus, which I do quite a lot.

Looking through the front of the viewfinder- can you see anything? Is there anything blocking the finder? I've heard of this happening on a Leica M3, where the prism separates making it so you cannot see straight through the viewfinder. I know Youxin had some repaired to fix that problem. I've opened up the Canon III to clean the VF/RF, have a parts camera that I practice on.

The "dead" Minolta fixed-lens rangefinder is an "Electro-Shot", about the same size as the HiMatic 7 but features the 40mm F1.8 lens of the Minolta AL series. I did try to track down the issue, power was getting to the board- just no life in it.

Well- for new vs old, I spent the last cold/windy weekends going through boxes of camera gear and doing some repair. No luck with the electronic shutter Minolta Hi-Shot and Yashica Super-Electro-X. Brought a few fixed-lens RF's back to life, flood clean the shutters. Most cameras needed new light seals and mirror bumpers. The Minolta AL-E: resoldered a corroded wire. Luck on a Pentax Spot-Meter with TTL viewing, corrosion in the battery chamber and electrical contacts needed alignment. I had given up on that one almost 20 years ago, could not figure out why it would not work. Odd meter: 9v battery for low-light reading, 1.35v button battery for bright. There were two set screws that aligned the battery contact with the lever that latches the battery compartment closed. The electrical contact has to be rotated to make contact when the latch is in the closed position. It had been set to be aligned with the compartment open- by someone else, not me!

The Tessina uses a special cassette, meaning you need to always load your own. The image size is not standard full-frame or half-frame, but is 14mmx21mm. So- Tiny, beautifully made- but "not standard". I recently picked up the accessories required to load the cassettes. No where near as tiny as the Tessina, but I picked up a Minolta AL-E. About the same size as the Canonet QL17 GIII.

Just checked out my EF- all good. Bought dirt-cheap, a screw was missing from the advance sprocket when bought in "as-is" condition for $35. Turns out a screw from a parts Fed-2 was a perfect fit.

I also read of techniques to pre-expose plates to increase sensitivity. For astro-photography, my friend in High-School used a dry-ice back to reduce film reciprocity for long exposure. For work, we used cooled detector arrays to decrease noise. The Nikon F mod was interesting as it was built into the camera and engaged when the shutter button was being pressed. I'll try to find the article- I think it was in Modern Photography magazine, somewhere in the basement. The article showed a 2-stop improvement in performance for Tri-X. On the M Monochrom- I was impressed by the shadow detail, which was clipped by the "Black-Level" field set in the DNG file- and recovered by changing the value to 0. In any event, film has a higher saturation count than digital. This means it is easier to recover features from overexposed portions of the image using film. Higher resolution sensors, means smaller pixels, and lower saturation count. My Nikon Df has a high saturation count, 16MPixels. 40MPixel cameras- not so much, you can only pack so much material into a pixel.

https://cameraderie.org/threads/experiments-in-leica-m8-and-m9-conversions.38737/ I also played with using a yellow filter with the M8 and M9, wrote a custom monochrome conversion routine that merged channels. If one color channel saturates, use the neighbor in the interpolation. Using this algorithm, the M9 recorded images where the M Monochrom saturated. Also used an Orange filter with the M8 and a custom DNG processor. The Blue channel responds to IR as the orange filter blocks visible light in the blue channel.

Film vs. Digital: This is How Dynamic Range Compares Interesting comparison. BLUF- film does better with overexposure, digital does better with underexposure. Of course there are tricks that you can play with film. Back in the early 70s, a company modified a Nikon F with small lamps to pre-expose the film to make more sensitive to underexposure. The small lamps basically gets the film past threshold to record an image, "kind of like" using a bias voltage for an avalanche photodiode. My Leica M Monochrom is very capable of pulling images out of the shadows, and has a reasonably good saturation count. I wrote my own DNG processor to add a gamma curve to pull details out of shadows. https://cameraderie.org/threads/adding-a-gamma-curve-to-a-digital-image-thinking-out-loud-and-experiments.38778/

No- based on reading sensor data sheets for decades and understanding how a digital sensor works, and how film works. Digital sensors have linear response, film has non-linear response for shadow area and highlights. For work- used film for radiometrically calibrated data, and used digital sensors going back to 1982. I work in the same place- and have written a lot of image processing software to work with both.

Everyone else uploaded a gratuitous picture... My counterbalance for a 40-year career as a computer engineer is to work on older, mechanical cameras. They are going to long outlast their digital and electronic counterparts. A little cleaning, occasional lube, clean the battery compartment, solder a couple of corroded wires, calibrate the RF, change the light seals- ready to go. There are still shops around that offer these services, and a number of DIY repairers that keep these cameras working. Eventually capacitors leak, tin parts grow "whiskers", electronic components blow-out. Replacing a gear using a parts camera is possible- replacing a blown circuit board is on a 30 year old camera is more difficult. With that stated- my Nikon N8008s still works, used to be a DCS420 DSLR. The Kodak Digital back blew out, bought a Nikon Data Back for $20 to use the camera with film. Difference in exposure for film and digital? Growing less as sensors get more dynamic range. Digital is not as forgiving for blown highlights or shadows, but for those that shot Slide Film or Polaroid- not so different. For someone wanting to pick up a first good film camera: I would avoid cameras with electronic shutters, such as the Canon AE-1, A1, Nikkormat EL series, even the Nikon FE. On the latter- a variable resistor going will ruin the exposure. On a manual-exposure camera, will just produce jumpiness when metering. Imagine the Jump being the exposure. That happened to me. I replaced the variable resister- lucked out, bought a lot of parts cameras. For a mechanical camera: the cosmetic condition is often a good indicator of how the camera was treated. You do better to find one on a camera forum where the seller has used the camera. Ebay- buy from a camera shop that sells on Ebay. The last "tested" camera that I bought on Ebay- seller did notice that the shutter would not open, the RF was way off, and that the advance lever was crooked. They gave a full refund, told me to keep the camera. Good for parts. I started with a fixed-lens rangefinder, a Minolta HiMatic 9 with a 45/1.7 Rokkor lens. Same formula as the Leica mount 50/1.8 Super-Rokkor that I bought for my Leica M Monochrom. You can get the HM-9 for ~$40. I've had mine for over 50 years. Pop Your Top- Cleaning the Viewfinder for the Minolta Himatic 9, also applies to the 7, 7s, and 11. The equivalent lens in Leica mount goes for 10x the HM9. Leica Showcase - Minolta 5cm F1.8, Leica Thread Mount Pick a budget, pick what you want to do with the camera.

This is an old thread. I had a Contax T years ago, bought for $85 at an antique store and sold for $350 on Ebay a few years later. Great lens. I found a Rollei 35T for $15 at an antique store, very small, sharp lens, fully manual, but scale focus. This month I picked up a Minolta AL-E, shutter preferred automatic, full manual exposure, auto-parallax corrected framelines, 40/1.8 lens, about the same size as a Canonet QL17 GIII. It was under $40 on Ebay, some cleaning and repair required. I had to solder a broken wire to the negative terminal of the battery chamber. That was "tedious". Minolta AL-E, removing Top Cover to clean the Viewfinder. I've had the full-sized Hi-Matic 9 since 1969. Minolta lenses are first-rate, sharper than the 40/1.7 on my Canonet. https://cameraderie.org/threads/pop-your-top-cleaning-the-viewfinder-for-the-minolta-himatic-9-also-applies-to-the-7-7s-and-11.50150/ You pay a premium for well-known, small cameras. There are many "great unknowns" that fly below the Ebay Bidder's RADAR.

I downloaded Nikon F3 manuals several years ago- not sure if that website is around. I uploaded 3 manuals to dropbox. Dropbox - repair_manual - Simplify your life Dropbox - f3 v1.pdf - Simplify your life Dropbox - f3 v2.pdf - Simplify your life Dropbox - f3_part.pdf - Simplify your life I'll leave them there for a few days- been a while since I used it. I have a 1983 F3AF and two of the last made. Bought one as a replacement, one as a spare, but the 1983 body works perfectly.

35/1.7 Ultron - IT'S FIXED!!!!!~ There was a description of the problem and a DIY fix back in 2003. I've owned my current 35/1.7 Ultron for years- not a problem with it. The Ultron was introduced in 2000. I'm thinking that a problem would show itself by now.

Probably worthwhile if you gibe a budget- [Excellent++] Voigtlander Ultron Aspherical ASPH 35mm f/1.7 Screw From Japan 773 | eBay "Random Ebay Example"- but this is what I paid for my Ultron 35/1.7 several years ago.I had the chrome version before this one, sold it as a favor to a photographer and then replaced it. Another Random Example- Voigtlander 35mm 2.5 MC | eBay The 35/2.5 mentioned above, even less than I paid for the vintage Nikkor 3.5cm F2.5. I also have the 3.5cm F1.8 in S-Mount, it's a stop faster than the F2.5, and a ridiculous amount of money on LTM. The F2.5 is just as sharp with both lenses at F2.8.

The Nikkor 3.5cm F2.5 in LTM is small, the same basic formula as the Summaron- but higher contrast. I kept the Nikkor and sold my 3.5cm F2.8 Summaron. The 35/1.7 Ultron in LTM is also very good, and not too expensive. The Canon 35/2.8 is lower contrast, also small. The Canon lenses tend to have haze build up internally- usually require cleaning.