In Praise of the Nikon F

First released in 1959, the Nikon F became the dominant SLR among professionals due to its ruggedness, reliability, full complement of accessories, and ease of use.  The modular approach with different viewfinders allowed Nikon to upgrade the metering system without having to revamp an entire camera. The Nikon F was discontinued in 1974, after being replaced by the F2 in 1971. Fifteen years is a long time, and while the F was certainly not the only Nikon SLR produced over that span, it remains an iconic SLR. Over 860,000 Nikon F bodies were produced in that time, and I wonder how many are still working today. My guess is that most of them do.


The Nikon F was the first Japanese SLR to have:

• 100% coverage in the viewfinder
• Mirror Lockup
• Interchangeable focus screens
• Full Pro system from day 1 (a huge range of lenses on day 1)
• 250 exposure back
• electric motorized winder that could be attached to the body
• titanium foil shutter

I'm not going to provide an exhaustive history of the Nikon F, as it's certainly covered elsewhere on the web and in various publications.  For some great resources, check out the following two books:

1. The New Nikon Compendium. Stafford, Hillebrand, & Hauschild. 2004. Lark Books, NY. 415 pp. ISBN-1-57990-592-7
2. Nikon F Nikkormat Handbook of Photography. Cooper and Abbott. 1968. Amphoto. (ring bound with 14 chapters + index).

and web sites:

• Camera Quest's Nikon F History 
• Casual Photophile's Nikon F Retrospective 
• Mike Eckman's 1966 Nikon F 

Okay, back to my story. I first held a Nikon F around 2000-2001, when I was moving a bunch of equipment around where I worked at the UM Museum of Zoology.  A Photomic F belonged to a curator who had used it extensively in Australia in the late 1960s, and through the 1980s.  The worn leather bag held the camera and 3 lenses - 50mm f/2, 55mm micro-Nikkor, and the 200mm f/4, as well as an M extension tube.  That was my first contact with the camera, and while I thought the Nikon F with the Photomic finder was ungainly, the view through the lens was fantastic.  Plus, what was with the funky twist and turn when I mounted the lens?  Compare the Nikon twist with the predominant M-42 mount that was available in 1959, and one can see how much better it was.  The "Nikon twist" - was to index the lens to the maximum aperture, which all of the non-AI lenses required with the Photomic finders on the F and F2, as well as the Nikkormats (until the FT-3).  AI lenses - Auto-Indexing, which came later, was achieved with a small tab on the base of the lens that engaged a matching cam on the lens mount. If you had a plain prism or waist-level finder on the F, you did not have to index the lens. 

I found that old camera to be a challenge, but I was already a Nikon fan, having been the recipent of an N-50 and lenses from my mentor, Bill Brudon.  I eventually was given a Nikon F by someone that was cleaning out his accumulation of "stuff." It too, was a Nikon F with the Photomic finder.  Later, I bought an F2 which I used for quite a while. 

Over the years since, several Nikon Fs have come my way.  While the metered Photomic finders may have had problems, the bodies did not. My daughter also liked the Nikon F with a plain prism.  It was simple, less heavy than the Photomic version, and just looked awesome.  No meter? No problem, sunny-16 or a hand-held meter.

For a while, I divested myself of any Fs and then earlier this year, this lovely Nikon F with a nice plain prism found me.  I'm keeping this one.  It is a superb example of the iconic camera.  Plus, with a 50mm f/2 Nikkor-H lens, it's a lot of fun to shoot with. 

Using a Nikon F with the plain prism is as basic as you can get.  No meter, only the aperture ring on the lens, the shutter speed dial, and the shutter button, and film advance. It is very similar to using a Leica M2 in that aspect.  The Titanium-foil shutters of the Nikon F seem to last forever, unlike the cloth and rubber shutters found on the Pentax Spotmatics. 

The only area where the F is lacking would be in using a flash.  Because the finders are removable and interchangeable, the flash contacts are over by the rewind crank.  To use a flash connected directly to the camera with a hot shoe, you need the AS-1 flash adapter, which works with any flash with a standard hot shoe.  The original Nikon F flash adapter is a cold-shoe, and you connect to the X-sync PC socket on the body with a short cable.  You can also use a flash attached to a flash holder that screws onto the tripod socket, which also requires a PC cord.  The big potato-masher flashes of years past were connected this way. Flash sync is 1/60 sec, slow by today's standards. 

You may also be a bit confused on how to rewind the film, as there is no release on the bottom of the camera.  The collar that surrounds the shutter release button is rotated to "R" to rewind. Make sure it is rotated back to "A" to advance the film.  If you want to use a cable release with the F, you'll need to find a Leica-style cable release, or an adapter that screws onto the collar to allow a standard cable release to fit.  These are minor quirks that F users are familiar with.

If you have a Nikon F with the metered prism, such as the Photomic, you'll have to use hearing-aid batteries (zinc-air), because the meters required mercury cells. Of course, you can use Alkaline cells, and if you are using C-41 film, it probably won't make much of a difference in your results.  In addition, due to the age of the finders, they may not work at all, or be unreliable.  This is why I prefer the plain prism finder.

I took my F along on a trip to Collingwood, Ontario last month.  Sometimes I used a hand-held meter, sometimes I used sunny-16, and trusted my instincts.  I shot a couple of rolls of film, one of them being Fomapan 100, which I developed in HC110-B.  Here are a few images from that roll. 

I found the camera to be a joy to use, and its robust yet ergonomic construction just invites one to use it.  There is no chintzy feel to this camera whatsoever.   In fact, it could stop a bullet.    I only need mine to stop time for a fraction of a second.  It does that quite well.

Catching Up With My Past

Gray treefrog, Nikkormat FT2, 2001

When I first got really, really serious about photography in 2000, I wanted to become more proficient at macro photography to be able to take photographs of insects and flowers, as well as other scenes from nature that appealed to me.  I had been using cameras since I was in high school, and while I learned a few things over the years, I never really delved into the mechanics, aesthetics, and possibilities of photography.  My first year, from 2000-2001, I immersed myself in reading all I could about nature  and macro photography, and nobody wrote better books about it than John Shaw.  His books and videos inspired me a great deal, and like many beginners, I also fell into the trap of trying to emulate what he was doing.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it comes to doing macro work.  You must learn the techniques for best results.  However, in the days of shooting slide film, I shot a LOT of slides to get sort of where I needed to be.  I am glad that I did, though, because those slides are reminders that before the age of digital dominance, I could get quite a few good shots on a roll of 36 exposures of whatever slide film I was using.  They were not ALL good, however.  Lots of learning went into those, and I am glad that at that time, getting a roll processed was pretty cheap.  

Tent caterpillars, Nikon FE, 2002

So, the title of this post comes from me literally catching up with my past accumulation of 35mm slides.  Boxes and boxes of them.  laying them out on the light table and pitching the awful ones, the ones that have no real use, and keeping the good exposures, the ones that show a clear idea of subject, and of course, the ones that have photos of people and places.  Things that change over time, are frozen in time when you photograph them.  I am not the man now that I was in 1986 or 2001.  Some of the slides featured shots of volunteers that worked with my wife, and the ones she photographed in 1991 are all dead now.   Some of the slides are from the 1980s, when I was active in model rocketry.  Most of those will get pitched except for the ones with people I knew, and the ones that were shot at places where we did launches for the public.So, yes, I am catching up to my past by going through these slides -- some of them I have not looked at in 10 years or more.  When I am done, they will all be properly labeled as much as needed, and stored in archival slide pages in 3-ring binders or hanging files.  Want to see what's there?  Hold it up to the light.

Prickly ash, 2002. Nikon FE.

Imagine if these were all digital files... Nobody would see them.  They would just be file names on a disk somewhere (if it still existed).  The past could easily be erased, which is a sad thought.

me, 1986 near Rantoul, IL.

Bob Rau, with his thrust stand setup run via a Tandy Color
Computer. 1986

Adrienne and Jorie, near Carlsbad, NM 2003.

Building A Nation...Again.

If you appreciate the work of Lewis Hine, you may want to buy this sheet of stamps from the US Postal Service.  While these images celebrate the people and the machinery that helped build America, it should not be forgotten that Lewis Hine exposed the system that treated workers and especially immigrant workers, as commodities, not human beings. From the tenements in New York City to the coalmines of Pennsylvania, and the fabric mills in the South, people were left with no social net, no healthcare, no schools, low pay, child labor, and more.  Hine helped raise awareness of the plight of those people through the use of his camera.
It should not be underestimated how bad conditions were at that time.  Striking mine workers and their families were shot by National Guardsmen in Colorado (by order of the Governor) in the late 1800s.  People in New York tenements were dying of diseases caused by overcrowding and lack of sanitation. Girls were working 14 hour days with a few minutes off for a meal.  Ultimately, public opinion was swayed by popular articles and photography, as well as by marches and strikes for better pay and a decent workweek.  The good old days were only good if you had money and social status.
The job isn't finished yet, as GOP Congressmen and certain right-wing groups demonize unions, demonize the poor, deny a living wage, healthcare and more, while the ultra rich get ever more rewards.  This is not too different from what happened a  hundred years ago.  We should learn from history, and yet we don't.