Also Check:- Pre F-mount period Finders for Nikon rangefinder cameras
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All those interchangeable finders for the Nikon F series professional cameras |
Viewfinders for Nikon F Series cameras
Nikon F5 could well be the last
remaining professional SLR camera that provides an option to use interchangeable
finders. (Other than Nikon, Canon has
given up this design on their flagship EOS model, the EOS-1 way back in 1989. I heard
the Asahi Optical Co.'s manual focus Pentax LX
has also retired from service). Dated back to the days of Nikon F in 1959, all Nikon
F models have an interchangeable finder system. During the early days of the Nikon F
and Nikon F2,
the bare bone F & F2 with the standard eyelevel prism was essentially a meterless
camera. The role of the finders was to provide metering. Thus, various function of
viewfinders were also used to differentiate model designation. Other than some special
application finders such as: waist level finder, high magnification finder and the
action finder, these finders has their respective spec, metering sensor used, metering
patterns, metering range, different sensitivity and it even affects how the viewfinder
displays the information inside when look through the eyepiece.
Beginning with the F3, things were getting a little bit different. Why ? Because
the Nikon F3 has a single SPD sensor built-in the camera body, locates at the bottom of the reflex mirror to perform ambient and TTL flash metering.
The biggest advantage for this was, regardless of the change of viewfinders, optical
devices, lenses, the metering yields is active and TTL. This means the role of the
viewfinder was far less important than the era of the F & F2.
Note: TTL OTF (Through the Lens, Off the Film Plane - a revolutionary technique first seen in a Olympus OM2(n) in 1975, which has the metering cell locates just in front of the shutter curtain, facing backward to measure the light reflects from the film surface during an exposure to determine duration of shutter opening or termination of the flash output (Similar to the 1980's F3 modified principle). Nikon currently leads in the flash technology, where it adds a layer to that with their pioneered Matrix metering with distance information, color temperature, and multi pattern metering into calculation for ambient/flash exposure.
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The Nikon F4 and F5 are essentially an autofocus camera, they are design and made far complex than the manual F & F2 and even the hybrid F3. The respective standard prism has a renewed function. These two cameras have to handle sophisticated, complex and advance operation for metering and autofocus. |
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This is the mirror box of the Nikon F5 that I took during an "disassembling operation" by a few friends. Complicated ? I thought so, worried ? You might not have many choices either. From a top notch professional camera body like a Canon EOS-1n, Minolta 9xi, Leica R8 to an entry camera model like a Nikon F-60, Canon EOS-888 or even a Pentax's MX-5 will almost look identical with clusters of wiring, circuit boards, pins and contacts beneath the exterior shell. Give up ? Don't be, after all you will never notice it anyway. |
(* Note: The AF sensor, TTL OTF metering sensors for both F4 & F5 are still located under the main mirror box, so does the spot meter. But the sensors that handle matrix metering are located at each side of the eyepiece (F5's color sensor is also there in the prism). For instance, we take the multi-metered prism DP-20 for the F4, the metering in spot meter mode is not handle by the prism (The spot sensor is at the camera's base). But apart from metering, modern viewfinder design does has various functions such as displaying viewfinder information, diopter adjustment, metering selectors etc. Somehow, the importance of the viewfinder is back, it provides a flexible way to control and assist a photographer in a more responsive way to handle personal photography.
The Nikon cameras are acknowledged to be one of the few 35mm SLRs with a truly accurate viewfinder system. It shows virtually 100% of the picture area to be recorded on the film (Canon finally made it after few decades later with the EOS 1 in 1989). The main advantage is the precise coverage allowing accurate framing right to the edges, and offering a distinct advantage in scientific, precise reproduction works, astronomy, macro works etc. We should treasure this feature and hope there are more innovative applications to apply on the concept of interchangeable viewfinder.
Note: I have seen some "innovative" prism before, unfortunately made by other manufactures, click (1) for Canon New F-1's Speed finder & a highly impressive Pentax LX's SB-1 System Interchangeable Finder (2) and compared Nikon's own Action finder, where the basic design has not been changed or upgrade since the days of the Nikon F in 1959. If you ask me what I would like to see in a potential popular viewfinder model in a camera such as the F5, well, I don't think it is impossible to bring us a viewfinder with a sophisticated built-in flash such as the F-601. Amateuristic ? Oh, we use to think programmed AE are meant for amateurs in the late seventies...and they are here in the F5, EOS-1n and 9xi.
