Prisms for the Nikon F2

• DE-1 Eyelevel Prism (1971)This very plain prism provided a non-HP view of the camera, just like the F's eyelevel prism. In fact, I've popped off and interchanged the prisms between the two cameras and noted virtually no difference, except that the F2's DE-1 is more "rounded" than angular, and that it has a coupling pin on the back left of the finder (nearest to the finder-removal button) to light up an LED in the eyepiece of the finder when the appropriate flash (SB-1, 2, 3, 4, or 5?) is ready. Of course, all of the metered prisms allow the same LED-ready-light feature.

• DP-1 Photomic Prism (1971)This is essentially the same as the F's FTn prism, which provides centerweighted metering and semiautomatic aperture indexing. It has a match-needle meter that is also visible through the top of the finder. You can see the aperture and shutter speed through this prism. It uses Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) cells, which have the (materials-related) problems of a "memory" effect -- in short, they don't react as quickly as the later silicon blue meters. Of course, it uses the semi-beloved semiautomatic indexing system (mount the lens at f5.6, and do the twist from max to min aperture to properly calibrate the meter -- I call it the SAI system, to distinguish it from the FMI system on some of the non-AI F meter finders). Again, you need to be careful of the ring resistor on this model, as it does wear out or get scratched and dirty with time -- remember, if your meter is jumpy, it's probably not nervous: it's very, very sick.
  Michael Cunningham informs me that Nikon changed the DP-1's trim at some point during the model run. Apparently, the trim was "expanded" from originally covering just the back, bottom, and top of the eyepiece to also covering the left and right (or vice versa) of the eyepiece.

• DP-2 Photomic S Prism (1972)This prism not only provides a LED readout for the DP-1, it also has a coupling for the DS-1 or DS-2 EE (electric eye) motorized aperture control, a hulking mechanism that moves your aperture in response to the shutter speed you set. In all other respects, it's the same meter as the DP-1, down to the SAI system, CdS cells, centerweighting, and ring resistor.

• DP-3 Photomic SB Prism (1976)Nikon made this fabulous meter for all of one year, which means that I get to spend lots of time, effort, and probably money when I look for it. It's perhaps best known as the non-AI version of the DP-12, which is ironic, since the DP-3 came first. It does not use the ring resistor, but is non-AI, and uses the fast-reacting, low-light-reading silicon blue cells that have proven to be far more durable and reliable than the CdS cells used up until the introduction of the DP-3. It has an LED readout and I think will accept the same DS-1 and DS-2 accessories as the DP-2. So why do I want one? If your Nikon lens has a meter coupling prong/fork on it, it will couple to this meter. The DP-12, on the other hand, will only couple to AI or later lenses. Granted, the new AF-Nikkors don't have the prong, but they do have the dimples that you can have drilled out and the prong installed. In other words, it's compatible with more lenses than the DP-12, albeit at the price of using the SAI system, but when you see someone nervously twitching their aperture back and forth when they put a new lens on their camera, you can rest assured that that person cut their teeth on the SAI Nikons. One other feature that this meter has is an eyepiece shutter -- because the meter is in the head itself, stray light entering from the eyepiece can reflect off of the mirror and prism to give a false meter reading.

• DP-11 Photomic A Prism (1977)This prism is kind of a throwback: it's a DP-1 with AI coupling, which basically means now you don't have to worry about sticking your lens on too quickly: just put it on the camera, and it knows what the maximum aperture is. Spooky, huh? This prism has match-needles, centerweighting, aperture and shutter speed readouts, and the ever-infamous ring resistor.

• DP-12 Photomic AS Prism (1977)This is a DP-3 (silicon blue cells, LED readout, centerweight, aperture and shutter display, eyepiece shutter) with AI coupling. One thing that you might want to note is that all of the meter heads have top-deck readouts. On the DP-3 and DP-12, it looks like they're broken, because you can play with the aperture and the shutter speed to your heart's delight, and never get the top deck to say anything: what you need to do is close the eyepiece shutter first. Then you'll be able to see something happen. This finder couples to a new EE thingy -- the DS-12 -- but provides the same shutter-priority automatic exposure function.

• DA-1 Action FinderThis is just like the Sports/Action finder for the F. It gives a true image and provides enough eye relief that you could use it in an underwater housing and still be able to see it through a mask, provided that you're willing to spend the time digging up a housing for the F2 (which would probably cost you more than a new Nikonos V ...)

• DW-1 Waist Level FinderThis has four sides, like the later F WLF. It's a fairly basic finder, with (I think) a fold-in 3x lens that mildly magnifies the image. I believe that the image is also true (i.e. not reversed left-to-right) when using this finder.

• DW-2 6x Waist Level FinderThis finder looks vaguely like Abraham Lincoln's hat: there's the "brim", which is the rectangular base and the "pipe", which contains the optics for the 6x magnification. You'd use this finder for critical focussing (astro and macrophotography) or copy work (which also probably includes critical focussing).

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