I knew I should not have Pressed F2

Mr Bump

Mr Bump

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Sophia aka Paul
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Well been looking for something vintage and lovely for a while now and I liked the look of an FTN but then this just popped into view.

A super mint FT2 with the lovely F1.4 lens, it realy is in superb condition.

The photomic metre seems to work pretty close but its a bit jumpy but when I shoot this I will have my Sekonic 308 just to check the settings.

I plan on gently replacing the seals over the next week or two and giving it a nice clean up.

Not cheap so I cannot in fairness pop this in the bargains thread :-)




 
Tis a thing of beauty and engineering wonderfulness.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Tis a thing of beauty and engineering wonderfulness.
Click to expand...

You are right there super solid and a right heft to it :-)

I just need to understand it now :-)
 
Love my F2's. You could fight your way out of a bar with them..takes good pictures too..
 
Trevor maybe you could advise, on loading the lens the little window at the front of the photomic head shows F5.6 which I have read correlates to the lens centre position.
When I move the apature ring up some stops to F1.4 it shows the F number going down but when I then turn the lens up towards F16 it doesnt it stays stuck at F1.4?

Do I have a sticky head?
 
It sounds likely. Have you done the Nikon twist and rotated the aperture ring all the way to the limits of its rotation both ways?
 
I also found via Your-a-Tube how to test the battery condition and mine in the camera look flat that might be why I am getting a whiggly needle.
Are they normal LR44's as per most Nikons, mine are Vinnic L1154's
 
H'mm someone was complaining about the F2 in a thread......so it didn't put you off getting one then ;)

On another forum they were saying how cheap the F5 was selling.....what a brute of camera.
 
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Well the thing is I have me FE2 which is really good as such a usable daily item it has aperture priority and a superb metre. I also purchased from Nikon a brand new focus screen for it and its fantastic to use so I decided I wanted to step back in time a bit and try something out before they all become collectors only pieces. The thing about the F2 i so liked was how modular it was so if you have a faulty light metre its all in the head which can be easilly serviced or even replaced. Also the focus screens are very easy to remove and made of glass so easy to keep clean.

On top of that 1/2000 of a sec shutter and the viewfinder is huge you get the full 35mm frame, its als I think an absolute design classic. !
 
Oh I also found a great You Tube vid which explained a few things which has helped me no end :-)
 
f5.6 was the original 'pronged' lens reference aperture (that being the smallest, maximum aperture lens in production at that time, which is why it defaults to this). You need to do the "Nikon trick" - full max, full min to index your lens (f1.4) into the meter/camera... this then permits full aperture metering as the head now knows the indexed value relative to the f5.6 datum.

(without the "Nikon trick" the camera can still meter but you should be aware that any exposure setting will always be relative to f5.6 - this would allow you to use non-indexing lenses)

Good bit of kit - I inherited my father's F Photomic FTN and it's a thing of sheer class (so glad I talked him into buying it!). Let us know how you get on with replacing the light traps.

Incidentally, a 'wavering' needle is also indicative of a dirty potentiometer in the head - a common problem which also seems to be difficult to source a replacement :(
 
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Thanks @chuckles I only found from the internet how to do a battery test and mine show well flat so first I will replace them and test. I think I will be lucky if the light metre is fully functional nice but not a deal breaker for me, the light traps look very easy so far, I have done quite a few on other nikons and these are very easy to get to on the F2
 
I guess the traps are easy as the back is completely removable.... tempted to get it out of the drawer ;)
 
I have also found out the little windows at the front of the head is designed to show the maximum aparture of the lens once it is indexed.
 
Mr Bump said:
Trevor maybe you could advise, on loading the lens the little window at the front of the photomic head shows F5.6 which I have read correlates to the lens centre position.
When I move the apature ring up some stops to F1.4 it shows the F number going down but when I then turn the lens up towards F16 it doesnt it stays stuck at F1.4?

Do I have a sticky head?
Click to expand...

Sorry Paul. I've been gardening in order to complete my quest for a whole Brownie point..not quite there yet..
Seems you're sorted now anyways..
 
chuckles said:
I guess the traps are easy as the back is completely removable.... tempted to get it out of the drawer ;)
Click to expand...

yep there is the mirror foam which is easy then on the back of the door there is one also quite easy, the others are in the reveals where the head slots in and out also look easy to get to.

I will just use a small toothpick to get the bulk off and then gently with some earbuds and alcahol to clean before refitting, I have some 1mm sticky backed foam that I can cut to size with a surgical scalpel :-)
 
You might be able to find a guide for it.... there used to be a company called "Focal Press" that did all sorts of useful books.

I also managed to persuade my father (RIP) to purchase a 85mm f1.8 at the same time :sneaky: I feel a family group photo coming on!
 
Oddly enough it was my birthday a few days ago and my sis sent me £25 Amazon voucher maybe I could look for a nice book with pretty pictures :-)
 
Very nice. I picked up a similar F2 last year & quite like it. Sover Wong is legendary for repairing F2's. He sorted out the helicoid on one of my Nikkor's last year & did a great job for a third the price I had been quoted elsewhere.

This is the book that I got to go with mine: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Complete-...hotography_Manuals_Guides&hash=item3f1cc6dbf1

A period book that might be worth a look is Herbert Keppler's "The Nikon & Nikkormat way". It was published in a few editions. I think mine is one of the later ones as it covers the F3 as well. Long out of print but they come up on ebay from time to time.

If you are after a copy of the Nikon manual for it, you can download a .pdf here http://www.cameramanuals.org/nikon_pdf/nikon_f2_photomic.pdf

Hope you enjoy the camera.
 
That looks a corker Paul, very jealous. The early 50mm f1.4 looks good too, looking forward to some shots from it
 
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Well amazing, got up today, had an early night as was on a 12 hour day shift at work yesterday and popped two fresh LR44 batts in and voila, the light metre test goes to the correct position and a quick test against my FE2 is almost spot on.

Did two tests pointing at a wel lit window at F1.4 and F5.6 and both machines said 500/1 and 30/1 on the tests so it looks like its a full worker :-)

the needle is a bit bouncy when moving the dial but thats probably just tired contact surfaces.
 
:agree: And his servicing is even better. Looks expensive on the face of it, but he doesn't just service F2s, he restores them.

Lovely camera by the way, matey!
 
Got a test role back from Jessops today will post scans up later but looks bliiming good !!!!
 
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