Provenance — Blog

Over the years, I have built up a sizable network of photographic friends. My network consists of fellow bloggers, professional and amateur photographers, camera repair technicians, suppliers of accessories, current and former camera shop owners and people who buy and sell cameras online. I say “friends” because truly, these are all wonderful people who are enthusiastic about keeping analog photography alive. I feel very fortunate to call them my friends.

Recently, one of them—a trusted seller, offered up a very nice, boxed Nikon F2 Photomic A. I’ve really been trying to thin down my collection of cameras so I spent a good weekend mulling over whether or not to purchase this Nikon. My friend and fellow blogger, Jim Grey recently did a podcast about buying old cameras on eBay. You can listen to it here. Jim offers up some solid tips on buying old cameras online. I will offer one more—the crazy inner voice, the gut feeling that tells you that this is a good camera and that it should be yours.

Besides my inner voice, two other factors influenced my decision. First, the camera was really in lovely condition with a working and accurate meter and second, it came with its original numbers-matching box and paperwork. I’ve never had a vintage camera with its packaging this complete and original. Even the serial number on the Photomic finder is matching to the serial number on the box which is rare because many F2s had them changed out over the years as the finders evolved. It’s cool to have a camera and finder that left the factory together. The serial number on this F2 dates the body to the latter half of 1979, just a year before Nikon stopped building the F2.

I am always fascinated with the provenance of old cameras I buy and for the most part their history and their previous owners are mostly a mystery to me. But the romantic in me always wonders. I tend to buy cameras that are nice condition, so I can only assume that the ones I have purchased either saw very light use or were well cared for…or both.

When this F2 arrived, it was as the seller described. Only very faint signs of use, a very clean and clear finder, a good, strong shutter with speeds that sound pretty reasonable and a meter that matches the readings from my hand-held Sekonic. I opened up the back and the film chamber looked as clean as the outside of the camera—almost like new. And there was a surprise inside. A sales sticker from Shutan Camera Company in Chicago.

Shutan Camera Company was a legendary camera store that closed in 2008 after 90 years in business. I can only assume that 45 years ago, my F2 was on the shelf at Shutan. While the retail store is no longer around Shutan still offers some photographic services and their website includes catalogs and commercials from days gone by. I found their 1979 catalog with prices on the F2 with a 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor-E lens…$599.95. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $2,700 today.

It was great paging through the old Shutan Camera Company catalogs and watching some of their television commercials featuring many of the vintage film cameras I have owned over the years. As a photographer, I always appreciate it when someone asks permission to use one of my images, so before using their catalog images on this post, I called the number on the website and left a message asking for their ok.

I was delighted to receive a call back from Bob Shutan whose father owned the camera store. Bob told me that it was part of the store’s marketing to put the little sticker inside the camera so that every time you popped a new roll of film in your camera, you thought of Shutan Camera. We had a nice chat about old cameras, film photography and my blog. He also sent me a very nice note after looking at some of my past posts.

I will never know who bought this Nikon at Shutan Camera forty some years ago or how it made its way from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area, but the good feeling I got in my gut when I decided to buy it that day was confirmed when I opened the back and saw that little sticker and made a new friend.