ben_hutcherson

I'd second the others: Try a different card and/or different reader. On the reader part-if you're currently using an external reader and don't want to buy another, you can actually run a USB cable directly to the camera and the camera will appear as an external volume on your computer(Nikon killed that functionality a couple of generations ago, but the D70 still works that way). If you want to buy a reader and might upgrade to a more modern high resolution camera, I highly recommend a USB 3.0 card reader like the little "pop up" Lexar one that does CF and SD both since they make very fast work of moving big files off cameras. If the problem persists through a card and a reader change, I'd suggest writing the body off. A D70 or D70s will cost you next to nothing now. If you want to make a pretty big leap in technology, I'd consider a D7200 something of a sweet spot-it's a modern-ish body(a few generations old now, but in the last ~10 years DSLRs have become a mature enough technology that most new bodies are evolutions of previous ones and not revolutionary) that actually has a greater range of lens compatibility than the D70.

SOLD!

This is another I've had sitting around for a while and have never used. Pen FT with a 40mm f/1.4. This is a 35mm half frame camera, which will give a staggering 72 exposures on a roll of film. The lens is clear and the shutter works fine. The meter worked and was accurate enough the last time I had a battery in it. Unfortunately, this one has a bit of a "catch" to it. It works fine, but needs a second very small stroke on the advance lever to ready it for the next shot. I'm not sure what's going on with it, and have never dug in to figure out. Still, though, if you can live with that, the camera otherwise works perfectly. $250 inc. shipping in the lower 48.

Unfortunately, I think Nikon has forsaken updating its primes in favor of pushing folks to midrange zooms. I don't have the current 24-70mm f/2.8E, but do have the older 24-70 f/2.8G. It's a good enough lens that it's rarely not on one of my digitals. It's also miles ahead of the N-C or AI 24mm f/2.8(I have one of each) which to me have always been "meh" to the other range of excellent 52mm filter Nikon prime line-up goes. In particular, most of the old lenses have fairly consistent and nicely "poppy" color rendition, and I find the 24mm(along with the 85mm f/2) to be a bit dull in comparison. They both kind of defeat the purpose of-well-keeping properties like that consistent across a lens line. Of course an f/2.8 Zoom gives up a stop vs. the 28mm, but it's still better at f/2.8 and 28mm than the 28mm f/2. If there's interest, I'd be open to running a quick comparison this afternoon(hopefully). The big downside is that it's a chunk of a lens, and I've been known to use the optically inferior and slower 24-120mm f/4 because it's so much lighter and smaller. BTW, one surprisingly underrated sleeper IME is the 25-50mm f/4 zoom. It's a bit of an obscure lens and I don't see too many references to it online, but mine is excellent. Of course, like a lot of MF zooms, it's slow and also heavy.

Still peddling a bit and willing to go town to $170. Full disclosure, it's currently listed on Ebay. Here are some photos.

Darn-I was thrilled that I was able to get one at the time, but I wonder if they were working on old stock or if Metz decided to quit supplying them more recently. Out of curiosity, have you tried rehydrating the cells? IIRC, I was able to dig a bit and find rubber caps on my old one that I could pop off to access the cells. I put a few drops of DI water in an old one and milked a bit more life out of it. It still didn't really work, but I got some signs of life out. You could also try a car charger with a desulfate function, or of course if you have a bench PSU I'm sure you can do that yourself(it was one of the things I tried, also with a bench PSU, when I was trying to bring mine back to life). Not sure if this would work or not, but the Cyclone type lead acid cells are still available in a couple of different sizes. They are 2V each(just like all LA cells) so you can get away with 3 of them.

BeBu, I bought a new production Metz branded Dry-Fit battery from B&H a few years ago-maybe 2018ish. It might be worth checking to see if they still have them. IIRC, it was maybe about $70.

I know you are the perpetual pessimist, but quality E6 processing IS out there. Why would Kodak have gone to the trouble of bringing back E-6 if the market didn't exist for it?

For the record, Windows 10 will be no problem for the Meta35 software. It's only an issue for Mac users running MacOS 10.15 or newer, which dropped all support for 32 bit programs. You can also make Meta35 work by virtualizing Windows in VMWare or Parallels. There's some other fun "catches" in the pure 64 bit thing also. If you're a holdout on Lightroom 6/CS 6(as I was for a really long time), the software will continue to run fine. The installers are 32 bit, though, so you won't be able to reinstall.

I admit to never having bought camera equipment from Japanese sellers on Ebay, but my experience buying other items has been nothing short of outstanding. With that said, my Df came from KEH, and I've been happy with it.

The round about complicated way: Use VMware Fusion or the like to set up a MacOS Mojave virtual machine. Install the Meta35 software in the Mojave VM and "pass through" the USB connection. Not an option on a new one, but the real answer is don't upgrade your computer past MacOS Mojave if you can avoid it. With that said, I know I paid good money for my Meta35 set-up. It would be nice if they could provide a 64 bit software update, especially given how many target customers likely are Mac users. I'd be happy to pay(some) for an updated version of the Meta35 software. IMO, it's the nicest, most elegant solution for not just the F6 but also the F5, F100, and N90.

I run my Coolscan 8000 and Coolscan V on a Mac Pro 5,1 using OS X Snow Leopard(10.6) with Nikon Scan. Using it in Snow Leopard is very significant. Nikon Scan for Macs is a PowerPC native program, and 10.6 was the last version to include the Rosetta PowerPC emulator. I have run Nikon Scan with those two scanners on everything from a PowerMac G4(dual 1ghz) on up to the Mac Pro. Nikon Scan 4 is a "carbonized" program so it runs equally well in OS 9 and OS X on PowerPC hardware. On a G4 tower so capable, OS 9 can be desirable since it has lower overhead and if you run Nikon Scan as a Photoshop plug-in(as opposed to a standalone program) and have installed the multi-processor patch in Photoshop 6 or 7, you can use both CPUs. Otherwise, OS X is your only option on some computers, and does at least have native multiprocessor support even though the overhead is a lot higher. Of course, the USB scanners have a major downside in OS 9, and that's that there's no support for USB 2.0. Still, though, a decently specced Mac Pro(even a first generation) can run Nikon Scan faster than even a G5 Quad. You probably won't notice it if you're doing low-res scans, but applying ICE on a high resolution 6x7 scan is slow even on a high spec system. BTW, I've known folks to virtualize Snow Leopard to run Nikon Scan(I have a Snow Leopard virtual machine on my main laptop). This is fine for the USB Coolscan 5, but you can not pass Firewire through to a virtual machine. If you're running a SCSI scanner, give up on any of the above and grab a PowerMac G4. I mention that since a lot of the SCSI peripherals are Mac only, although that's not universally true. With a G4 running OS X Tiger(10.4) or OS 9(might be a better option anyway) the Adaptec 2930CU SCSI card that Apple shipped in a lot of Macs of this age works perfectly. A lot of other Adaptec PCI cards are plug and play also as long as you stay in OS X 10.4 or earlier. I've yet to find a SCSI card that played nicely in a PCI G5(even buying a few that SHOULD have), and heaven help you if you want a Mac-compatible PCIe SCSI card for G5 Quad or Mac Pro. They exist, but you'd probably pay more for one than just buying a Coolscan 8000/9000.

Any last takers at $180 on this?

If I'm reading the question correctly, that is not the question being asked. Rather, the question is-do TTL meters correctly compensate for colored filters? I'd guess, just to lay everything out, that both the film's spectral response and the spectral response of the meter will dictate that. One of the fancy 3D multi-pixel color meters like Nikon advertised for the F5, F6, and F100 probably don't need any help on a normal pan film like Tri-X. An old CdS cell might well be a different story. As Joe said, the best bet in fact likely is to meter without the filter and then apply the factor indicated in the film datasheet.

FWIW, I've been know to walk around with one stuck on the front of my Df as a "do everything" lens.

I'm just now getting around to posting this, but thought I'd ask. I have a pair of Delkin 32gb cards that I bought when I got my D800. They've always worked fine in that camera, and have been in rotation in my card wallet. I've not used my D800 that much since getting my D810 last summer. The Delkins are "low enough" in my CF wallet also that I hadn't gotten to them in a while. In any case, a few weeks ago, I was headed out the door and grabbed my D810. The CF was a bit full, so I just pulled one of the next CFs out of the wallet, which happened to be a Delkin. I stuck it in, and got "Err" on the LCD and a complete refusal to operate(there's an SD card in the camera also-it gets the JPEGs). I cycled the card in and out a few times with the same result. I took a look in the card slot, thought I saw a bent pin, said "Oh crap"(not exactly, but it works for here) then grabbed by D800, shoved the Delkin in it, and went on my way. A few days later, I sat down with my various tools to try and straighten the bent pin. The only issue was there wasn't one bent. I'd initially seen it not in the best light, and think I was seeing a reflection inside the card cage. None the less, I tried a bunch of different cards in the camera, from the big Sandisks and Lexars I normally use on down to some 512mb no-names and a bunch of sizes and makes in-between. I did confirm, though, that it happens with both my Delkin cards. I've not done anything else since then. I do know that the Delkins continue to work fine in the D800 as well as all my other CF Nikons that will actually handle a card that size(tried, just to make sure, in a D3s, D2X, D2H, and D300s). The D810 could not get past "err" enough to even format the Delkin card. I tried formatting one in the D800, and even with a fresh format it did the same thing. It's not a HUGE loss to me, probably just a sign that I should cycle these out of my card wallet and get some Sandisks to replace them, but I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this?

I still regularly use a Nikon D3s, which IIRC was released in 2010, and is a mild tweak of the 2008 D3(and the original D3 had the same sensor as the D700 mentioned above). At web resolution, I seriously doubt you could distinguish it from my 2014 D810, and that's a camera that still holds up under very close scrutiny today. If you want crummy, head to Ebay and grab an iPhone 3G or 3Gs, or for that matter a flip phone like a Motorola RAZR(there are other phones from that era with the same camera as the RAZR but without the cachet, so should be less expensive). Those look decent enough in good light-I can scroll back on my phone and see pictures taken with my 3Gs and they're a lot worse than the iPhones I've had since then but aren't terrible-but they do fall apart in low light. The other issue with early iPhones(aside from swelling batteries) is that the original, 3G, and 3Gs are on the upswing of being collectibles so you may have to deal with that. Other phones I had in the 2006-2010 period were some sort of Motorola flip phone whose model I don't remember, but it was popular and I imagine there are a lot of semi-functional ones still out there. I also had a Samsung Blackjack, which had a crummy camera but also had a micro-SD card slot so it was easy to get photos off of. Phone cameras, I'd suggest, were probably the worst in common circulation at the time. That was before manufacturers really figured out the "magic" that makes them so darn good today.

FWIW, I never use the clip at all in 120. I just kind of tuck the end into the center of the reel and go from there. I never used clips in 35mm either until I became a Hewes convert.

Thanks Andy! Got brave and pulled it. Now I can safely say that the floating disk is NO LONGER there and I gave the optics a good dusting so it's nice and clear now. This one is a great grab and go camera-I'm actually reconsidering now whether to sell it, so if anyone is considering, speak now or I'll probably yank the listing in a couple of days!

Wish I'd seen this... Do I vaguely recollect that there's an AA holder for the F6?(I know the grip can use them, but I mean one that fits in the camera) If so, I'd like to have one...

Last drop-$190 shipped. This is a great camera!

Price Drop-$210 shipped

Sold!

One can never have too many F2s...

Price drop- $60 for the card $45 for the reader $100 for both.