Infrequent Questions about the Nikon F
Why infrequent? You can do a count of the number of questions asked about the F on usenet -- everyone wants to know everything about the F5 or the EOS-1n or the N90s/F90x or the Maxxum/Dynax 9000 (ok, so no one wants to know much about the Maxxum, more's the pity), but no one wants to know anything about the F.
What's a Nikon F worth?
How do you remove the prism?
How do you remove the screen?
What prisms are available?
What metering options do I have with the F?
What screens are available?
What's a Nikon F Red Dot?
How do you work the mirror lock-up on a F?
How come my F has plastic tips on the wind lever?
How do you use flashbulbs on the F?
What should I look for in a used F?
What size are the forbidden mercury cells?
What's the significance of "Nippon Kogaku" markings?
How would I use my Photomic on non-prong coupled objects?
How do I motorize my F?
How do I mount the 21f/4?
How do I take multiple exposures?
Where do I take my F to get fixed?
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+
| Flash Bulb | Shutter Speed |
+-----+-----------------------------------+ |
| | Make +-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| +--------+--------+--------+--------+1| | | | | | | | | | | |
|Class| G.E. | | | |0|5|2|1| | | | | | | | |
| |Westing-|Sylvania| Mazda | West |0|0|5|2| |3|1| | | | | |
| | house | | | |0|0|0|5|60|0|5|8|4|2|1|B|
+-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| FP | PH/6 | Type | No.6 | No.6 | #1 |#2| #3 |
| | | FP/26 | No.6Z | No.6Z | | | |
+-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+--+-------------+
| | | | F1 | SM | | | |
| F | PH/SM | Type SF| F3 | SF | % |#5| #4 |
| | | | F5 | SS | | | |
+-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+-+-----+--+-------------+
| | | | Press | M5 |%| #1 |#2| #3 |
| +--------+--------+--------+--------+-+---+-+--+-------------+
| | PH/5 |Press 25| No.3 | No.3 | |#| | |
| M | AG-1 | AG-1 | No.5 | AG-1 | % |1|#2| #3 |
| | M5 | M25 | Z5 |Z-Press | | | | |
| +--------+--------+--------+--------+-----+-+--+-------------+
| | PH/M2 |Type M2 | No.0 | No.0 | % | #3 |
| | | | 2-M | MX.0 | | |
+-----+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+--+-------------+
| X | All Electronic Flashes | % | #4 |
+-----+-----------------------------------+-------+----------------+
Key:
#1 = green dot #4 = red F, red X
#2 = red dot #5 = white dot, red F
#3 = red dot, red F % = unuseable (no symbol)
According to the Nikon-Nikkormat Handbook (J.D. Cooper),
the socket of the BC-7 is designed to accept three types of minature bulbs: S.C.
bayonet base, minature base, and AG-1; the bulbs specifically recommended are FP
6, FP 26, M3, and AG-1 (in that order), along with the blue-coated versions of them
(e.g. they have a "B" suffix: FP 6B, FP 26B, etc.). The blue-coated bulbs
are required for daylight-balanced film, as the uncoated bulbs are tungsten bulbs
(and therefore require either black and white or tungsten-balanced film).
It's usually a matter of what you should look out for. As with
all cameras, check to see that the mirror-damping strip isn't too badly degraded
(it's the thin foam bumper on the top of the mirror box that the tip of the mirror
strikes when it fires up). If it is, though, it's a fairly easy fix, but I'd recommend
taking it to a shop, where they'd be in charge of cleaning all of the little foam
bits out of your camera after the deed is done. You also want to make sure that there
are very few scratches in the screen of the F. Pop off the prism and look at the
screen itself -- the top side (convex) is made of plastic and scratches rather easily.
While you're at it, you might as well check out the prism and make sure that there
aren't any silvering problems or chips in the glass -- all of these are annoying
to deal with when looking through the camera, but keep in mind that they're not fundamentally
damaging to the picture-taking ability of the camera.
Next, you'll want to make sure that the mechanics are working fine: try out all of
the shutter speeds, and "time" them by ear to make sure that they're all
at least fairly reasonable (i.e., 1/8th shouldn't sound like 1/125). Lock the mirror
up and fire off a shot to make sure that the mirror lock works properly. Before you
release the mirror-lock, take off the back and look through the shutter (or try to)
when holding the camera up to a strong light source -- you shouldn't see any pinpoint
holes. Advance the film and check the other shutter curtain carefully for holes.
Nikon F Photomic heads have a fairly poor reputation for reliability, as they relied
upon the universally reviled "ring resistor" to communicate lens aperture
to the meter. Basically, it was a poorly-sealed ceramic plate that is irreplaceable
if it gets dirty (and scratched) or cracked. You want to make sure that a Photomic
head does not have a "jumpy" meter movement when moving through the aperture
ranges, which indicates a dirty ring resistor. Of course, this is assuming that you
have a forbidden (well, at least in the US) mercury battery set in the finder, or
a reasonable placebo for them (Wein makes cells with the proper voltage and size).
Wouldn't you really rather have a hand-held meter and an eyelevel prism and feel
like a studly photojournalist from the mists of the past?
Right. Sorry. Got carried away.
As far as I know, they're PX625 (or equivalent) mercury cells -- I need to check again, though. You might be able to find the Wein cells, but Phillippe Ducor warns me that they only last about two to three months. In one of the more recent (11 or 12/96) issues of Popular Photography, they introduced an adaptor for silver oxide batteries that regulated their voltage to conform to that of mercury batteries; as I remember, it was slightly pricey, but it just might be the only game in town for mercury-powered items.
Slightly more recent update on the adapter: try looking at C.R.I.S. Camera's website, or, more specifically, at the MR-9 Adapter. Current (1998) price is about $30 US and it lets you use standard MS76 silver cells (pick 'em up at your local Radio Shack for $5 US). I haven't tried it yet, but am sort of looking to get a smaller, more bang-e-able camera (a'la Olympus 35RC, Canonet QL17 GIII) that does take mercury cells.
Nikon switched the die-stamper on their lines around about 1965-ish (I'm not sure exactly when) from "N.K.T." to "Nikon" for the top plate. I know for sure that a 674468x has the "N.K.T." on the top plate, and that a (probably) later 68xxxxx has "Nikon" instead. Basically, it just means that your camera is older than the general Nikon F, but a better way to tell would be via the serial number (which does NOT correspond to the actual date of manufacture -- the 640xxxx's were made in 1959 and the 74xxxxxx were made in 1972.
You need to slide the prong all the way to the right of the prism (i.e., towards the lens-mount button, not the DOF button) and employ stop-down metering. For those of you without FTn's, you also need to set your film ASA to correspond to the red dot on the ASA/max-aperture indexing ring (that being the red dot that's to the left of "1.4", not the red dot that indicates that you have one of the nice bodies that doesn't waste a frame on mirror-up). The MLU-body red dot, by the way, should be next to the serial number.
Whoa! You must have a F3 (or later), which actually does TTL flash exposure. If, on the other hand, you have to calculate macro compensations manually, the simple answer is that your effective aperture becomes (1 + M)*indicated aperture. So at 1:2, or half of life-size, you need to open up one stop and at 1:1, you need to open up two stops. (and the answer to the question is no, the TTL sensor will take care of your exposure, including whatever filtering effects, etc. are in place).
Nikon made two different motorized backs for the F, the F36 and the F250, which, as the names imply, take up to 36 and 250 exposures, respectively. You can read more about these on my accessories page. Both of these motors slip on and off the F just like the regular back. In other words, it's not something that you screw into the tripod socket, like the MD-2 and MD-4. Both of these motors require some kind of a power pack and a modification to the F body itself. As box-stock, the F has no couplings to the motor, like the F2 and F3 do (i.e., no little swivel-plates and levers and other gizmos); you need to add what's becoming known as a "F Motor Drive Plate", which replaces the bottom of your camera (not the back, but the bottom inside the camera casting) with a bottom that has the added levers and gizmos. There is a chance that the F will not synchronize properly, even with the added plate, so you'd have to find a technician to get the F to synchronize. After you've added the plate and the motor, you need to track down either the corded pack (uses 8 "C" size batteries and works with either the F36 or F250), the cordless pack (uses 8 "AA" batteries, for the F36 only), or one of the innumerable cordless packs that were made in the early sixties, before Nikon finally made the cordless pack. The F36 has a "countdown" timer, which counts down the number of frames that you can shoot (settable anywhere from 36 to 0), a shutter release on the back of the drive, and a "firing rate converter" which lets you select the speed of the drive, based on the shutter speed of the camera -- this is needed so that the drive motors don't try to rip out the shutter-speed gears every time you try to take, say, 1-second exposures at 4 frames per second. I believe that the F36 also has a power rewind, although it lacks a provision to stop the rewind before the film leader has entered the cartridge. The cord and cordless packs both add another firing button, along with a L/S/C collar which sets the firing mode of the drive to lock/single/continuous shot. I think that there's a L/S/C collar on the back of the F36 as well, but I'm not sure. The neat thing about the cordless pack is that you can still use your self-timer lever -- something that's impossible with the MD-2 mounted on an F2. Unfortunately, that's about the only advantage that the F36/cordless has on an MD-2/MB-1: all F2's are synchronized for a motor, and the absolute worst surgery that needs to be done (when mounting an MD-1 or -2) is the removal of the O/C key on the bottom of the F2 (which can be done with a dime in half a minute or so).
The 21f/4 is one of those oddball mirror lock-up lenses. In addition, the rear element is not completely circular -- it started off being round, but then Nikon decided that they had to take a sliver back, so that they could clear the back of the mirror as you put the lens on. Of course, if you can't take the rear cap off, all this is moot. Because of the un-round rear element, the lens has an additional prong to make sure that the lens is oriented in the right direction. Because of the prong, which happens to overlap one of the three bayonet "teeth", you can't just flick the rear cap on and off as is usual. Assuming that your lens has been stored at infinity focus, you need to turn the lens itself so that the focus mark is not at the infinity focus mark -- I'm not sure where it ends up (maybe around 3 feet or so?), but you need to do this so that the additional prong lines up with one of the bayonet teeth -- then you can lock up the mirror, put the lens on, and shoot away with great delight.
The F doesn't have as nice of a multiple exposure (ME) facility as does the F3, or even the F2, but taking ME's is not as big of a chore as mirror lock-up can be. The as-yet untested answer is to
Generally, I don't like to give out specific recommendations, but I've received input from several sources on this, so I'll just leave with the disclaimer that I have not used any of the following shops and that you do so at your own risk (but other people have had good experiences with them, so you should feel reasonably comfortable). Probably a better source to consult would be the Alpa Resources Page (and if you know anything about the jewel-like Alpas, anyone able to fix an Alpa should be able to fix just about any camera out there ...).
For general problems, such as shutter or wind mechanism repair, etc., you will want to try (from the Camera Repair Resource Guide, (c)1994-1997 by R. Lee Hawkins):
- Professional Camera Repair Service
- 37 W. 47th Street #902
- New York, NY 10036
- (212)382-0550
- Essex Camera Service, Inc.
- 100 Amor Avenue
- Carlstadt, NJ 07072
- (201)933-7272
- Essex Website
- Photography on Bald Mountain
- 113 Bald Mountain
- (or P.O. Box 113)
- Davenport, CA 95017
- (408)423-4465
More specifically, if you have a problem with your ring resistor, you might want to try:
- Cleaning the Ring Resistor
- Southeast Camera Repair
- 6300 Jimmy Carter Blvd
- Norcross, GA 30071
- (770)441-7700
- Many thanks to Tyler Knapp, who has used this repair shop and wanted to share it with everyone.