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Modern
Classic SLR Series
Nikon F2 Series Models
Nikon F2 High Speed Motor Drive camera w/MD-100
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Based on HIURA Shinsaku's
summary website
on some of the special production and prototype models of Nikon SLR cameras; Nikon
had introduced a Nikon F High Speed Motor camera which was capable of delivering
a blistering 7 fps film advance rate. It employed a stationery Pellicle Mirror design
and has a fixed accessory shoe rest atop the camera pentaprism.
I am not so sure when
exactly was the high speed Nikon F first produced, but the competing Canon has their
first Canon high speed motor
camera based
on the original Canon F-1 specially designed for Olympic Games at Sapporo in 1972.
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The speed control
setting allowed user to defined the film advance speed of 3.5 fps, 5 fps and 7 fps.
Very little info is available on this camera except at Hiura's site where he obtained
a special permission from Nikon to grant him to publish these pictures.
NOTE: Picture at left Extracted from
Hiura's summary site; by the way, HIURA Shinsaku also maintained a "Nikomat ML" in Japan. "Nikomat"is the
Japanese version of the Nikon "Nikkormat" camera. This PIM website has
a full scaled Nikkormat website.
Credit: Picture at left
courtesy of Hiura
Shinsaku
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However, Nikon introduced a ultra-tough Titanium
version of the popular Nikon F2 in 1976. Two years later, the same F2/T standard
version with a eye level finder DE-1/T has been chosen as the body for a special
production High Speed Motor Drive camera to fulfill certain request for such a specialize
camera. The resultant F2H was officially made available in 1978 with a titanium
body and adopting a similar pellicle mirror designed used on the earlier Nikon F
HS. The pellicle mirror does not flip up like a normal reflex mirror does when an
exposure is made.
Although its intention was to use for scientific
research, sports, and specialize applications, but it may also change a photographer's
normal shooting behavior because, the pellicle mirror permit viewing through the
lens while a picture is being taken. In the case when flash is used, there will be
no time lapse and black out during exposure due to mirror flip up and blind the eyepiece
momentarily, you can even see the flash light striking on the object during an exposure
process. Next, the fixed mirror also eliminating any possible movement cause by mirror
bounce.
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Credit: Robert Johnson for some
of his original images on the F2H-MD.
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To preserve
and minimize download time, Click
on each image
to
see an enlarged view.
The F2H camera section is different in other
ways as well. For an instance, focusing screens are not interchangeable in the F2H;
it uses a type B screen which is permanently installed.
More ? The camera body also removed some basic features such as the self-timer
function, the "T" (Time), "B" (Bulb), and reduced its maximum
1/2000 sec shutter speed. I am not sure WHY these feayures are not retained with
the camera, but it certainly narrowed down the scope of applications especially the
1/2000 sec speed setting which may comes in well supplementing the camera in extraordinary
speed handling. It has only 1/1000 sec maximum speed setting on its shutter speed
dial.
This camera will not
function like a torpedo but rather, it has to work with a special production motor
drive which handles the rapid film advance sequences.
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A modified Nikon
MD-2, called the MD-100 which was actually a combined unit of drive/motor
into a single piece has a double MB-1 which holds a capacity of 4 x MN-1 NiCds for
a staggering total of 30 volts to drive the motor.
Credit: Robert Johnson for some
of his original images on the F2H-MD.
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Well, when the US was
hosting the L.A. Olympics in 1984, Nikon also "revived" the production
of a very limited number of around 500 units of a special version of the Nikon F2HS
for the journalists covering the gallantly staged sports event. It was known as the
Nikon F2H-MD. Nothing significant have been noticed between
the two models except that the batch of Olympic Nikons came with a special serial
numbering of F2H-MD.
That was perhaps to
neutralize Canon's production of another upgrade based on their latest professional
Canon New F-1 which was introduced in 1982, the camera was called "Canon New-F-1 High
Speed Motor Drive Camera"
which has three metering options, interchangeable screens and can operate at 14 fps
(H), 10 fps (M), 5 fps (L), and 1 fps (S). However, as with any High Speed Motor
Drive camera, there is no self timer and bulb ("B") mode.
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A section of
an image of a F2H-MD that recently surfaced for auction at EBay. Note the missing
self timer lever. Owner claimed the unit came completed with complete with MD-100,MB-100
+ charger batteries, Body serial number is: 7850325. This raised some question as
why this unit bears number with "78XXXXX"... as some reference claimed
that the F2H has a production cycle from 1976 and stretched to 1980. While the F2H-MD
was supposedly introduced later in 1984. Incidentally, both cameras featured here
and the one unit owned by Robert has a seriel number that marked F2H-MD "78xxxxxx"
Credit: "arsenall"
for using his image published at Ebay on February 2001.
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The shutter release
button knob on the MD-100 visually looked slightly different from MD-1, MD-2 and
MD-3. In fact, I doubt it can be removed as with the MD-1 nor the MD-2 as a remote
control device. You may mail in your finding IF you have come across a MD-100 Motor
Drive unit.
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I cannot really
comment too much with this camera as I don't have one of it (other than the F3 High
Speed which I have one in my collection). I would suggest anyone of you want to find
out more with the camera to mail Robert Johnson who is also a photojournalist
with one of the local daily in his county and he has some practical experience using
it on the field.
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However, Michael Liu
in his earlier F2 site did has some good compilation of prices and a quick summary
on this very specialize collectible camera.
"..... As a rough range
of prices, Samy's Camera has two of these at $2 000 to $2 600 depending on condition.
I'd say that these prices aren't too unrealistic (although a few lines later, they
list the 21f4 with finder at $1 500, when I paid about ten times less than that for
one, albeit with a non-OEM (Zeiss) finder (which was cracked, too)). Keh has just
the motor with battery back (but no MN-1's) for about $2 000 -- try to find just
the body, though! And if you want to go whole hog, Del's has a complete body and
motor for $7 000, which seems to make less and less sense, especially when the listing
comes right after the one for the F3H, which is faster and a nicer camera for $6
200 or so (list price). The body itself was stripped of the mirror lockup (of course),
the self-timer, and the 1/2000 shutter speed.
Of course,
the loss of the self-timer meant that the F2H has the same shutter-speed range as
the F (1-1/1000 plus B and T). According to Gray's of Westminster, there was at least
one and perhaps two more variants.
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The definite
variant is the F2H-MD, which has "H-MD" engraved above the serial number,
and which is stripped of B and T. Robert Johnson was kind enough to do some measurements
on his MD-H model and tells me that all together (with batteries), the camera without
lens weighs 74.0 ounces (4.63 lb. or approximately 2 kg.), with the motor itself
weighing 33.7 oz. (plus 14.5 oz. for the four NiCads required).
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A wild guess
is: The
"maybe" camera is one that may have been built for the 1984 Los Angeles
Games and could accept the MF-1 or -2 250/750 exposure backs (the other variants
of the F2H could not). It's somewhat interesting to
note that both the F and F2 were produced in very high speed variants after the regular
production lifetime...".
-
Michael Liu -
Well, to add more to
what Michael concluded at the last paragraph, the 13.5 fps Nikon F3H is even more
strange with its introduction: It was quietly brought to the market in 1996 - that
was 16 years later after Nikon F3 was introduced back in 1980 and two years later
and almost immediately after Canon announced their 10 fps autofocus Pellicle Mirrored
EOS-1 RS which I thought that was almost a generation ahead in terms of technologies
!
NEW
UPLOAD:
--->>> "
... Circa 1978 Nikon F2 High Speed “Titanium” camera F2-7850389, with factory matched
H-MD 785367 Motor drive and custom made "C" cell battery pack for lot's
of power for a great deal of rolls of film without changing batteries. No one knows
for certain, but the guess is that production ran under 500 units, therefore making
it very rare and highly desirable for Nikon Collectors world wide now. For a camera
which was actually used professionally, it seems to be in nice cosmetic and perfect
mechanical condition. As you can see the first titanium curtain has a couple of tiny
spots of paint wear. The second curtain is perfect. There is some paint wear on the
corners of the camera. A few minor dings which can be seen in the photos as well.
The special pellicle mirror allows the photographer to shoot at up to 10 frames per
second! All camera functions work perfectly. The Pellicle mirror is also perfect
without marks or scratches. Motor runs like it did the day it was made. Please review
the photos thoroughly and if you have any questions, please email. For those of you
requiring more detailed information that I can't provide here on this camera, you
can research it more on the internet with such sites as Stephen Gandy's Cameraquest.com
and various others through the Nikon Historical Society web site (www.nikonhs.org)and
their links. And One more thing about the asking price. I thought it to be very fair,
there is one other camera dealer in the UK who is advertising an F2 High speed in
Ex++ condition for a mere $19,000.00 US$$. ..."
Mr.Imre dePozsgay
Other references that may also help:
Nikon
F2/T, Gold plated Nikon F2, Nikon F2H-MD, Nikon F2 DATA Camera Set, Nikon F2 Slidemagic SS-F2 system, Nikon F2A 25th
Anniversary model,
Nikon F2 Pin
camera,
Nikon F3 H-MD4/H; Hiura Shinsaku's Rare Nikon Models, Nikon F3 Limited Edition, Nikon F3 SpecialEdition, Nikon F3 Oxberry Pro; Nikon FM2n Millennium (Year of the Dragon), Nikon F5 50th Anniversary Model
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to Main Index Page of Nikon F2 Series SLR models
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Index Page of Michael Liu's Nikon SLR Models
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Main Index Page of Pictorial History of Nikon SLRs
System Accessories: Motor Drives / Prisms / Screens / Macro / Film Backs / Flash Other
Accessories: DS-1 / DS-2
/ DS-12 / eyepiece
/ DH-1 / cases
/ Cable
releases / Miscellaneous
Nikon Auto Focus Nikkor lenses:-
Main Index Page
Nikon Manual
Focus
Nikkor lenses:- Fisheye-Nikkor Lenses - Circular | Full Frame |
Ultrawides Lenses - 13mm15mm18mm20mm | Wideangle Lenses - 24mm28mm35mm | Standard Lenses - 45mm 50mm 58mm | Telephoto
Lenses - 85mm105mm135mm180mm & 200mm | Super-Telephoto Lenses - 300mm 400mm 500mm 600mm 800mm 1200mm |
MF Zoom-Nikkor Lenses: 25~50mm | 28~45mm | 28~50mm | 28~85mm | 35~70mm | 36~72mm E | 35~85mm | 35~105mm | 35~135mm | 35~200mm | 43~86mm | 50~135mm | 50~300mm | 70~210mm E | 75~150mm E | 80~200mm | 85~250mm | 100~300mm | 180~600mm | 200~400mm | 200~600mm | 360~1200mm | 1200~1700mm
Tele-Converters: TC-1 | TC-2 | TC-200 | TC-201 | TC-300 | TC-301 | TC-14 | TC-14A | TC-14B | TC-14C | TC-14E | TC-16 | TC-16A | TC-20E
Recommended links to understand more technical details
related to the Nikkor F-mount and production Serial Number:
http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/lhhansen/photo/fmount.htm by: Hansen,
Lars Holst
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/nikonfmount/lens2.htm
http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html
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Copyright
© 2000. leofoo ®. MIR Web Development Team.
In
memory of my friend Com.
Augusto Staut,
Brazil, 1971-2000.
Credit: Robert Johnson for some of his original
images on the F2H-MD appeared in this site; Hong-sien Kwee of Singapore for
all the images appeared in this site; Chuck Hester, US for his patience, encouragement
and help to setup the various content in this site; Genesis-Camera for granting permission to use an image of the SS-F2 camera;
Mr
Sover
Wong,
Australia for the great image of his F2 Gold; my ex-staff, KiaSu for his superb
3-D logo appeared in this Nikon F2 site; Marc Vorgers from Holland who
generously provide me with some of his images of F2AS; MCLau®, who has so much time with me to
re-edit the content in this site and not to mention buying a Nikon Coolpix 990 just
for this site. Keat Photo,
Kuala Lumpur for providing
their Nikon F2A to take some images for this site; again, Mr Edward Ngoh the
great camera collector who provides us his collection of F2AS with MD-2; hawkeye.photographic.com
for their images on the Speed Magny film backs; Sean Cranor for his image
on Nikon F2 25th Anniversary Model; Ted Wengelaar®, Holland for his continuous
flow of input on some of the early Nikon bodies; CYLeow ® , photo editor of the Star
newspaper, Malaysia for some of his images used in this site. Ms Rissa Chan, Sales manager from
Shriro Malaysia who has helped to provide some of the very useful input. HiuraShinsaku®,
Nikomat ML, Japan for some of his images on various F2 models; my staff, Wati, Maisa, Mai and my nephew, EEWyn®, who volunteered and helping me
did so many of the film scanning works. Contributing photographers or resellers:
Jen Siow, Foo KokKin, Arthur Teng, Mark Fallander, John
Ishii, Ed Hassel, YoonKi Kim, Jean-Louis, M.Dugentas (Dell Corner.com.), Mr "Arsenall" and a few images mailed
in from surfers with no appropriate reference to their origin. Dedicated to KU Yeo, just to express our mutual regrets over the outcome of
a recent corporate event. Made with an IMac.
