But the best of all, the FE accepts almost all Nikkor lenses and the vast majority of the Nikon accessory lineup (The FM and FE are the only two mid compact Nikon (The Pro F series models and the slightly bulkier Nikkormat as well) that has a adjustable meter coupling lever to take past and present (Non-AI, AI, AI-Modified, AI-S, Series E and AF) Nikkor lenses (Except some older or specialize lenses because. How can you find the date of production from the serial number of a Nikon D800 camera? Update Cancel. Rodell Basalo, Business Analyst at ON Semiconductor. How do I find the date of production from the serial number of a Nikon D90?
I have most often used my Zorki 2-C with the collapsible Industar 22; it is nicely sharp, and when pushed in to the resting position the whole thing will slip easily into a jacket pocket. The rigid Industar 50 makes a bulkier outfit, but it is just as sharp and likely has the same lens design as the collapsible I-22. Zorki 2-C, Industar 50, silver and black One nice thing about the Industar 50 is that it is extremely easy to service. The focusing movement of the black one was very rough, so I recently re-lubed it.
There are some useful links available to help getting that job done. The tomtiger site features very good of the lens disassembly, though it shows much more than is needed for just a lube job.
The text-only Nickfed article at rangefinderforum says to get the job done. I will only add that it is a very good idea when unscrewing the front element to mark the release point on the lens as the multiple start points on the thread can make reassembly quite challenging. I started a roll of Kentmere 100 in the 2-C with the silver Industar 50 on a walk to Old Town, and finished it the next day at the Botanic Garden. Trash Day Panorama Backstreet Grill Farolitos Extinguidos FARMALL Meditation.
I'm getting interesting results with Kentmere 100 in PMK Pyro, though not yet exactly what I am looking for. This last batch was processed for eight minutes at 20C, and I omitted the pre-soak and post-fix immersion in the exhausted developer.
I got some spotting on the negatives that makes me think I should go back to a minute or two of pre-soaking. The highlights were easier to control with eight minutes, but I seemed to be losing a bit of shadow detail. I did come across some suggested processing times for 100-speed film in the form of a photo class based on the book by the PMK originator, Gordon Hutchings. The suggested 10.5 minutes at 70F(21C) is pretty close to my first trial at 12 minutes and 20C. So, I'll probably go for eleven minutes at 20C in the next round.
I started off shooting this last roll of Kentmere 100 on a neighborhood walk with my Kiev IIa with the Sonnar-copy Jupiter 8. The next day I shot mostly with the 35mm Biogon-copy Jupiter 12 in the course of a short road trip up State Highway 14, known as the Turquoise Trail, which goes from east of Albuquerque up to Santa Fe. It is a great two-lane, winding through some of New Mexico's nicest hill country. Makes me wish I still had a motorcycle. I went as far as Cerrillos where I stopped to photograph the church and then the old cemetery just outside of town.
Joseph Parish Church, Cerrillos Campo Santo, Cerrillos. I have been a long-time admirer of the work of the New Zealander, Rick Drawbridge, in part because of his consistently excellent black and white work which features a large variety of films which are all processed in PMK Pyro. Most interesting for me are which is one of the cheapest available black and white films.
So, I got a bottle of PMK Pyro from Freestyle along with some TF-4 fixer. I shot a roll of Kentmere in the Nikon FE and got ready to process it as directed by the included instruction sheet. This Nikon FE showed up at my door recently looking for a new home.
I'm not exactly short of old film cameras, but who could turn away a perfectly preserved and working classic Nikon slr? This one came with a Nikkor f1.8 50mm. It has some sophisticated electronics including aperture-priority auto-exposure, but also allows full manual control of f-stops and shutter speeds. Judging by the serial number this FE seems likely to have been manufactured mid-way through the camera's 1978-1983 production run. So, this is one of the newest cameras in my collection.
I could tell from the smooth movements and sounds that there was likely nothing amiss with the camera, but of course I had to pop in a roll of Tri-X to give it a quick trial run. To say that I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with Nikons is something of an understatement.
My first was a Nikon S rangefinder which I picked up around 1963; it had a fabulous lens, but that didn't stop me from selling it for a song in a fit of stupidity after shooting it a couple years. I then skipped over Nikon development for the next couple decades before buying one of the company's early CoolPix digitals. I kept that one just a couple years too; it wasn't a bad camera, but it became quickly obsolete and I gave it away to a neighbor. A Nikon EM that I found a couple years ago at a yard sale performed erratically and likely won't see much use. Now, I'm really pleased to have another shot at getting familiar with one of Nikon's great cameras from the film era. The standard K-mount SMC 1.7 50mm lens is unbeatable.
The viewfinder is exceptionally bright and easy to focus. Accurate exposures are ensured by the electronic auto-exposure feature; you pick the f-stop and the camera adjusts the speed and shows it to you with an led display in the viewfinder. Aperture-priority exposure automation has always seemed a great enhancement to the picture making experience to me. I have appreciated it in the past with a couple of my rangefinder cameras such as the XA. Aside from the convenience, automating that one aspect of the process also seems to encourage a more adventurous approach to photography, and I find myself more ready to attempt pictures in challenging lighting than I might with fully manual film cameras.
On my first outing with the camera I did not even get out the door before I started snapping pictures. This camera came to me with a few small issues. I put a roll of Fuji 200 film into the ME to try it out and the back popped open on about the third exposure. I thought I had likely not securely closed the camera after loading it, but half-way through the roll it happened again. The latching mechanism has a couple little hooks that are supposed to mesh together; one shows some wear and may just need a little discreet bending to work properly. Until I get that figured out I decided to just apply a couple of strips of black tape to secure the back and that worked fine for a second go with a roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200. Before I had loaded any film in the camera, I attempted to adjust the ASA dial to the 200 value and found that it would not budge.
I removed the rewind assembly from the camera, but could not see a way to fully disassemble the ASA dial. I tried wiggling the adjusting lever, but felt some metal fatigue threatening to break the tab, so I just put the whole thing together again and replaced it in the camera. Luckily, the ME features a two-stop under and over exposure compensation on the ASA dial, so having the setting stuck at 100 ASA actually permits using any film in the 25 to 400 ASA range. Somehow, I neglected to take the lens off the camera before shooting the first roll. When I did that I was shocked to see that the mirror was speckled with black dust and there was also some on the rear lens element. The source of the dust was easy to identify; the narrow black foam mirror bumper just above the ground-glass screen was very deteriorated.
I brushed off the loose pieces and that left enough in place to do the dampening job for the mirror, but replacement of the foam is clearly in order. It turns out that one can easily find spare parts for the ME on ebay.
Eight or ten dollars will get about any part needed, and whole parts cameras are even available at the same price. With a bit of luck, working examples of the ME can be found for not much more. While browsing the group at Flickr I came across a reference to the use of the Minolta SRT 101 by W. Eugene Smith. It turns out that Smith's Minamata photo essay was done with the Minolta. Smith's assistant, Takeshi Ishikawa, wrote a book many years later about Smith's making of the great story and the Minamata survivors which was reviewed in the feature.
The slide show includes a couple shots made by Ishikawa of Smith using the SRT 101; in one he has two of the big cameras on straps around his neck.