Category: Nikon

A few frames from… Paris

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On the Nikon F90X Pro…

As a couple of my recent posts have mentioned our wedding anniversary I thought I’d dig out some of the shots I took 17 years ago while on honeymoon in Paris.

I took two cameras with me, a Nikon F90X Pro fitted with a borrowed Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro zoom lens, and a Yashica T4, most of the black & white films were shot on the Nikon.

Flower Power Peugeot, Paris, September 2000Flower Power Peugeot, Paris, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

I have to admit that it took me a couple of days to ‘get’ Paris… I’m not normally a city person and at first I really didn’t like the noise, or the number of people but the more we wandered around, the more photos I took, the more I fell in love with ‘La Ville Lumière’ (The City of Light).

Cimetière de Montmartre, September 2000Cimetière de Montmartre, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

Lunch in Montmartre Cemetery consisted of nothing more than bread, cheese and red wine… red wine that we ended up drinking straight from the bottle as we’d forgotten to bring anything to drink out of!

La tour Eiffel, September 2000La tour Eiffel, September 2000
Nikon F90X Pro, Sigma 28~200mm f/3.8-5.6 DL Macro – Ilford Delta 400 rated at ISO 320

The films were developed at home (something I really need to start doing again) but have no recollection of the chemistry used, I probably picked whatever was the cheapest available at the time… The Sigma 28~200mm lens was chosen for convenience rather than quality and as a result I steered clear of ‘super zooms’ until last year when I bought the Fujinon XF 18-135mm f3.5~5.6 R LM OIS WR lens to go with my Fujifilm X-T1.

I wish I’d never parted with the Nikon F90X though…

A few frames from… the Nikon F3HP

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High Tide, Sheringham, October 2016High Tide, Sheringham, October 2016
Nikon F3HP, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – 1/500s, f11, +2EV – Fuji Neopan 400CN

Union Jack, Sheringham, October 2016Union Jack, Sheringham, October 2016
Nikon F3HP, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – 1/500s, f11, +2EV – Fuji Neopan 400CN

Wells-next-the-Sea, October 2016Wells-next-the-Sea, October 2016
Nikon F3HP, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – 1/500s, f8, +2EV – Fuji Neopan 400CN

Scans by Ag Photo Lab with minimal cropping and tweaking in Lightroom CC.

I’m not over keen on Fuji’s C41 process black & white film… I can’t quite put my finger on why though, other than it seems very ‘grainy’ for an ISO 400 film. Once my existing stock is used up I’m going to try shooting some Ilford Delta 400 and Kodak T-MAX 400 and see how I get on with those…

Nikon F3 – A professional heavyweight.

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I’ve been a Nikon user for over 20 years now, 35mm SLRs, digital SLRs and compacts and even an Advanced Photo System (APS) compact (the tiny Nuvis mini i) have all passed through my hands but I always hankered after one of the ‘single digit’ professional models…

I eventually splashed the cash a couple of years ago when a clean and tidy F3HP turned up on the secondhand shelf at Harrison Cameras in Sheffield for a very reasonable sum.

Nikon F3HPNikon F3HP + Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

Introduced in March 1980 the F3 amazingly continued to be produced after it was superseded by the F4 in 1988 and the F5 in 1996 with Nikon finally announcing that production had ceased as late as 2001!

The F3 was the first of a number of Nikon models to be designed by Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro (better known for his many automotive designs including the first Volkswagen Golf and the legendary DeLorean DMC-12) and was also the first to feature the now well-known Nikon signature red stripe on the handgrip…

With interchangeable viewfinders, focusing screens and a wide range of dedicated accessories, including the high-speed MD-4 motor drive, the F3 is still a precision tool capable of handling any photographic situation… So far I’ve managed to resist the battery hungry MD-4 but have added the DW-3 waist level finder and a Type G2 focusing screen to my bag.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to accumulate a number of manual focus Nikkor lenses ranging from the 28mm f/2.8 Series E up to the 200mm f/4 and now the Zoom-Nikkor 80~200 f/4.5 that I picked up at an auction last week. Every single Nikon lens in my collection, even those dating from the 1960s and the more recent autofocus AF-D models can be used with the F3, it really is an incredibly versatile piece of kit!

It’s not all beer and skittles with the F3 though… The viewfinder display is poor, just a tiny LCD to indicate shutter speed and exposure information. In good light the aperture in use is visible in the equally tiny ADR (Aperture Direct Readout) window, in poor light it can be difficult to see any information at all.

Nikon F3HP Viewfinder‘Poor’ viewfinder display

(I fitted the DW-3 waist-level finder in place of the DE-3 high-eyepoint finder to take the above shot with my iPhone… The display is actually much easier to see like this, the DW-3 doesn’t cast a shadow over the aperture ring like the DE-3 does…)

Nikon F3HP Accessory Shoe‘Less than ideal’ accessory shoe

In aperture priority mode, dialing in exposure compensation is a job for two hands and the accessory shoe surrounding the film rewind crank is certainly less than ideal… Overall though, using the F3 is an enjoyable experience and it’s a camera that I can’t ever see me parting company with…

A day at the auctions…

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A few days ago my father piped up ‘let’s go to the auctions, I’ve never been to one before…’

Neither had I, so off we trot to the local auction house which was holding a sale of die-cast model cars, toy trains, huge live-steam model traction engines and dolls… and as it turns out… cameras.

I spotted a few things that might be of interest: Mamiya TLRs, Leica SLRs, a box of assorted Nikons and a few odd lenses. I spent 40 minutes perusing the more obvious items and then in a moment of (potentially expensive) madness, I found myself registering as a bidder!

The auction proper started at 10am and by 10.45 the auctioneer had rattled through 50 lots, mainly vintage Dinky and Corgi toys and I was fascinated!

Next came the dolls and then the cameras… a couple of plate cameras preceded a number of Leicas, then it was on to the Mamiyas: C220, C330, 645 1000S and a variety of lenses went under the hammer as did a number of Rollei TLRs before it was the turn of the Nikons…

A pair of FMs, an F2 plus 50mm f/2 lens, and an F3 plus 50mm f/1.8 all sold quickly as did a Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 lens (which I was tempted by) and then there was this…

Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5 (front)

The Zoom-Nikkor 80~200mm f/4.5 lens is, according to Nikon Ambassador B. Moose Peterson‘s Magic Lantern guide book to Nikon Lenses, firmly in the “Oldies but Goodies” category.

Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5 (side)

This is the post-1977 version of the lens with 12 elements (in 9 groups) and NIC multi-coating, giving better image quality than earlier models, it’s also 80g lighter, weighing in at ‘only’ 750g!

Bidding began (and ended) at £30 and yes, I was the only bidder… the lens needs a good clean but I think it’s time to dig out my Nikon F3 to mount it on, don’t you?