raf_belgium

Have you tried pushing the film rewind button on the bottom of the camera ? It would cause the film transport mechanism to disconnect from the advance lever.

It are indeed great deals, but I rather not want to see people scratching their name in a Nikon.

A Nikon-freak like myself always thinks it's really a pitty when they see a nice Nikon with a name scratched in the bottom-plate, or even worst, on the rear :-(

Bad thing, don't do it...

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think the curtains travel from the right to the left when looking from the rear side of the camera.

If you advance the film (=cock shutter), the trolley on the right side of the camera is turned to roll the curtain on it, so when the camera is cocked, the second curtain is on the right trolley of the shutter mechanism and will go to the left when firing.

 

...but I'm not sure :-)

 

Regards, Raf

Yep, sounds like the second curtain is catching up with the first one during their travel time.

If I'm correct the curtains move from right to left during travel. Image is being projected upside down on film. Dark side is on right side of picture, so the fault happens at the end of the travel-time.

Hi,

I had a similar problem with my F2.

It turned out the aperture lever on the inside of the lens mount of the body was a little bent because the previous owner had once mounted a lens wrong (I presume). The problem only occured with 1 of my lenses and was solved after I had re-bent the lever.

If you dismount the lens on your F3 you should be able to freely move the body's inside lever with your finger. Check if the lever can move freely completely down without rubbing to something what can slow down or stops the movement. You should only feel the tension of the spring pulling the lever back up.

Hope this helps :-)

 

Regards, Raf

Those are indeed the ways I would do it.

Some people even advice to underexpose two stops.

 

I always find it annoying that as soon as I connect my Metz 45cl4 on my F3 through a SCA connector (TTL), the meter of the F3 stops working. This means I have to do a light reading with the flash turned off, adjust settings on my F3 for correct exposure and then turn on the flash.

 

Therefor I find it sometimes easier to do fill-flash with the sync-contact on the F3. This way the shutter speed doesn't automatically go to 1/80 and the meter keeps on working.

 

I don't know if I change the ISO settings of the SCA adaptor to a higher value, the TTL metering will underexpose the flash-light. I should give it a try.

 

regards, Raf

When you open the back of the F3 and look at the lower left side (where the film cartridge rubs against the body) you can have an indication of the amount of use the F3 had with a motor drive.

 

I don't believe the multiple exposure button is vulnerable. It certainly looks that way but i haven't seen many F3's with a broken one.

You might also think about the not so well known 25-50 /4 .

I use it a lot on my F3 and it's really a wonderfull lens.

 

Might not be exactly what you're looking for (slow, no tele)

 

www.sundownshadows.be

I'm also a big F3 fan, but when using it in manual mode, i first select my shutter speed and then turn the aperture ring till the +- sign appears. It is indeed not very convenient to turn the shutterspeed-knob while looking through the viewfinder.

I would have preferred a readout like in the FM, using three symbols. This way you can see when you're over- or underexposing a little bit instead of having it the F3 way.

But hey,...the perfect love doesn't exist ;-)

You can try to 'rewind film' with no F3 attached to the MD-4. The electrical motor should start spinning then.

That's about the only thing the MD-4 does when there's no F3 attached.

 

Regards, Raf

What Bjorn means is that pro-bodies like d1-d1x-d1h-d2h CAN meter with non-chipped manual lenses, but only center-weighed and spotmetering are available (no matrix).

Consumer bodies like the f65-75-80 or d100-d70 cannot meter with manual lenses (= not feeling comfortable like Bjorn says), unless they are chipped (with chipped ones you also get matrix metering and it doesn't matter if they're ai/ais).

The new D2x, F4 and F6 however are able to perform the three metering modes with manual lenses, even if they're not chipped.

 

www.SundownShadows.be

Hi Raven,

 

It's the same with slide film. When you expose your film longer, everything will appear brighter. When you expose less, your slide film will come out darker. It's as simple as that, but you'll have to take into account that the latitude of slide film is less than with negative film.

 

Regards, Raf

 

www.SundownShadows.be

It's mentioned in the manual, if i'm right, that this way of shooting will not guarantee you that the shutter will be completely closed before film-transport begins.

If you already have a Nikon, take it with you to compare light meter readings. Also compare the meter reading of your F3 in Manual and Auto-mode. With my F3 it was 2/3rd stop off between Auto and Manual. The viewfinder illuminator light bulb is broken on lots of F3's, but this is nothing to worry about.

 

Regards, Raf

I'm using the 25-50 as a standard lans on my F3 and i really love it. This lens was very expensive in the 80's and there's a reason for this. Built quality is very good and it really gives very sharp images. Back in the eighties this lens got the reputation for being as sharp as prime lenses. I paid 250 euro for mine in mint condition. It isn't a very popular lens because of the weight and limited zoom-range, but the lack of depth-of-field scale and rotating front annoys me the most. Nevertheless it's a top-quality lens for not much money.

I already saw two examples of which the aperture ring was rather stiff (one of them is mine). Don't know if it's normal.

Good luck in your search.

A Casio?

I refuse to wear something that does not say Nikon, although i have to admit the F3/MD4 combo starts to feel heavy after carrying it around for a complete week, attached to my wrist.

Big advantage is the 8 MD4 batteries should last at least 20 years.

Hi,

 

In the Nikon product brochure is written that the MF-18 databack has

an alarm option (just like the MF-14).

However, i don't see it on my MF-18, and there doesn't seem to be a

symbol in the display like with the MF-14.

 

Can one of you please tell me:

Is the MF-18 equiped with an alarm clock or not ?

(and how to activate it)

 

thank you very much.

I partially agree with Joseph.

 

For the 'old-faithfull'- Nikon users who're having a nice collection of MF-lenses which they really like to use (like me), it's a big disappointment that Nikon is no longer supporting these lenses in consumer film and digital SLRs. The commercial reason for this is obvious. They don't want people buying secondhand MF-lenses.

 

Taking pictures with them using the histogram for determining the exposure is OK for landscape shots or other static things, but that's about it.

 

Don't understand me wrong, i really like the fact that those MF-lenses are becoming cheaper and cheaper in the used market.

As soon as time is right, i buy a secondhand pro D-SLR to replace my F3, and i hopefully will be able to enjoy my lenses for a long time to come.

Hi there,

Being a F3 user i can completely understand your way of thinking.

The shots you posted here look really nice, but the D1 stays rather limited if we're talking about the quantity of pixels.

I'm waiting for the prices of the D1x to drop to a level that i can afford one.

It's got everything i want a DSLR to have, unlike the D70, which cannot meter with my MF-lenses.

The CCD of the D1x will offer me enough prixels for the prints i want to make of my pictures, and that's what i still miss with the D1.

I really hope the prices of the D1x will go to the same level as the ones from the D1.

Untill then, my (much loved) F3 will give me everything i need.

 

Enjoy the D1.

Your shots look great!

 

Regards, Raf

I once shot my grandmothers Chihuahua (not sure how to write that :-) with a 28mm lens on which i put a 3T closeup lens. I used Velvia and the result was nice. The wideangle perspective looked really neat on the little fellow.

Hi Michael,

 

I've been shooting with the 135mm series E for about a year now and it's one of my favourite lenses. I mainly use it for portrait. I got mine in mint condition for 50 Euro and it is really tack-sharp. Offcourse i'm not a professional user and my standards might be somewhat on the lower side. But (and i'm almost afraid to admit) i use this lens more than my 180mm ED ais and cannot say the image quality of the 180 is better.

So you got a F3P as a gift from your boss...

I think it's time for me to look for another job.

I wish my boss also gave me Nikon equipment.

 

No serious:

Major differences are: better sealing against environmental conditions, non-ttl hotshoe on top of the prism. This (titanium-made)prism doesn't have a blind to prevent unwanted light from entering. No self timer foreseen.

The film counter window is round and the serial number starts with P.

These cameras were originally only sold to press-people and have a higher value than a normal F3.

 

So you have a F3T and a F3P.

Ok, now i'm jealous ;-)