Nikon F Classic Beauty

Nikon F beauty
Originally uploaded by mfophotos.

The estate sale is over, and time to reflect on one of my purchases -- this very minty Nikon F with a plain prism, for example. One of the classiest of SLRs, this particular camera was made in 1965. It hardly looks worn. If it had been used to take 360 images a year (that's 10 rolls of 36 exposure film) - that would be a little over 144,000 exposures. I doubt it was anywhere near that.
The Nikon F was introduced in 1959, and quickly became the PRO camera of choice. If anything, it also signalled the soon to be dominant Japanese camera industry. Even though Minolta, Pentax, and Canon had SLRs with similar features, none had the "system" that Nikon introduced. None of them had the ruggedness and other features that have been the hallmark of the Nikon "pro" line of cameras. Sure, the Nikon F might not be the feature-laden wonder that we see today, but it doesn't need batteries, gives 100% coverage in the viewfinder, and takes an enormous array of lenses.

I have wanted one of these plain-prism Fs for quite a while, and ebay prices for them are ridiculously expensive. So, I was pretty amazed to see a bunch of them for sale from the Naslanic estate, and because I had been sorting cameras all day, I got it at a very good price. I can carry a little Gossen Scout light meter with me for tricky lighting situations, but otherwise, I don't need to have a meter on the camera. Yeah, this is almost like wearing bearskins and using spears for some of you out there...