To Service or Not To Service. My Continuing Rant.

I just bought a Canon F-1n from a friend of this blog. It arrived on Saturday and it’s in very nice condition cosmetically. Mechanically, everything seems right on. The shutter sounds healthy and all of the speeds sound good to my ear. Since the original F-1 and the F-1n use 1.35v Mercury batteries, I popped a 386 1.5v battery into an MR-9 battery adapter, inserted it into the camera and the meter came to life, responsive and happy. Checking the meter against my handheld Sekonic, it was darn close. I am going to take the camera out for a test drive with a roll of Kodak Tri-X. After the test roll, no matter the results, I’ll pack it up and send it off for a CLA—Clean, Lubricate and Adjust.

I get grief from some of the people on social media about methodically sending every old camera I buy out for service even when it’s functioning as designed. From the looks of this camera, previous owners have taken good care of it. And based on the condition of the film pressure plate and film guide rails, I don’t think many rolls of film have been wound through it. But…this Canon is nearly 50 years old. And any mechanical device that survives intact that long deserves a little spa time.

For those of us who shoot film in 2025, we’re very fortunate that so many old cameras are still around for us to try and enjoy. And they’re still around because someone took care of them. Cameras have always been expensive, cherished possessions. And today, when you buy an old camera, no matter if you paid $20, $200 or $2,000, you should consider having a qualified camera technician give it a good and thorough service.

While I am on my soapbox, over the last few years, quite a few very good camera repair technicians have retired and closed their businesses. This puts more pressure on the ones that remain. Service queues are getting longer and longer and I’ve seen some online discussions where people are complaining about the wait times. These camera techs are critical to keeping analog photography healthy and vibrant so plan ahead when sending your camera in for service.

The Nikon F5. I can stop buying cameras now.

I have just finished shooting two rolls of film in what is probably the best and most capable camera I have ever used. Since starting this blog over a decade ago, I’ve gushed praise on lots of cameras. That’s because there are oodles of amazing camera from the film era to buy and try. In the end, they are really all just light-tight boxes that you affix a lens to and load film inside. But some of them, for reasons that are hardly rational and deeply personal, inspire us. For me, the Nikon F5 is that camera.

Nikon F5 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 G AF-S

The F5 was Nikon’s last professional film camera. During the period in which the F5 was in production (1996 to 2004), photographers began the transition to digital capture. For many Nikon pros, the F5 would be the last film camera they would ever use. Yes, there was a Nikon F6 introduced in 2004, but the F6 was aimed more at the advanced amateur market. Pros had moved on.

I had a F5 many years ago that was included in a lot of cameras I bought at an estate sale. The battery chamber was corroded and that camera was not functional. I tried to clean the contacts and even purchased a new battery holder, but that F5 was dead. I sold it for parts but remember holding it my hands then and thinking what a big, heavy hulk it was compare to the Nikon FE2 I was shooting at the time. I never considered buying another one until recently. As I have noted in some earlier posts here, my aging eyes are starting to make manual focusing a chore, so I’ve been picking up a few auto focus bodies. I have a nice N8008s and N90s. Those cameras impressed me and that got me to thinking again about the F5. I bought my latest example from one of my trusted sellers. It’s in very nice condition and came with its original box and paperwork.

Nikon introduced the F5 with the tagline: Imported from the future. In 1996, this was a very complex camera. Today, with so many of us used to shooting DSLRs, the F5 is simple, fun and fast. It’s so fast, it was used to shoot movies.

Here are some specs:

• Five zone autofocus that’s quiet and ultra-fast

• 3D Color (1,005 segment RGB) Matrix metering with all AF-D, AF-I and AF-S lenses

• Manual, shutter-priority, aperture-priority and programmed auto exposure modes

• Shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/8000th

• 100% coverage in the viewfinder with diopter adjustment

• Removable prisms and different focusing screens

• Two shutter-release buttons, one for vertical shots

• 8 frames per second film advance

• Compatible with VR lenses

• Powered by eight…yes, EIGHT AA batteries

While I was waiting for my F5 to arrive, I picked up a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-S Special Edition standard prime lens. This was the lens that came out with the Nikon Df. It has a retro look to mimic the old AI-s lenses.

The 50mm f/.18 G Nikkor AF-S SE lens

I was anxious to try some color film with the F5’s Color Matrix metering system, but the only roll I had was some expired Fujicolor 400. Here are some shots from that roll taken during a holiday wine tasting.

Wine tasting in Sonoma Valley

The wine cave tasting room

Oak barrels in the cave

As you can see, the light was not great in the wine cave. As I made the pictures above, I noted the shutter speed and aperture the F5 was selecting for me: 1/20th at F/1.8. I was almost certain these would be a blurry mess, but because the F5 fires with very little recoil, owing to its internally isolated transport and exceptional mirror dampening, my results were much better than expected.

Sonoma Valley in fog

Crates for moving grapes from vineyard to wine production

Winter vineyard

Napa Valley’s welcome sign

For my second roll, I had replenished my supply of Kodak Portra 400 and shot these on a bright and sunny day. These were all shot at box speed.

I did very little post processing of any of these images. They are pretty much straight from the camera which I kept set in program mode for both rolls. The F5’s 25-year old 3D Matrix metering did a very decent job of grabbing the right exposures for me. At just over three pounds without lens, the F5 is no lightweight, but my 50mm lens is light and I carried the F5 on my trusty, old, wide Domke Gripper camera strap, so honestly, the size and weight of this camera really never bothered me on either of these shoots. The F5 feels solid and precise and the rubber coating feels great. I found myself carrying the camera by its grip rather than on the strap, it just feels that good in your hand.

I just absolutely love taking pictures with the Nikon F5! It makes me want to get out and shoot. I have my third roll of film in this camera now, some Fujifilm Neopan 400 that fellow blogger Jim Grey was kind enough to send me to try. Love this camera and absolutely could stop buying any more film cameras. I could. I probably won’t. But I could.

The Domke F2: Ok, now I get it!

Back in 2010 when I started buying old film cameras, I purchased a couple of Nikon bodies and some other photographic odds and ends from an estate sale near where I lived at the time. The seller’s husband had passed and she was clearing out his camera collection. I paid her and she began placing the items I had purchased into an old brown camera bag. I told her that I had plenty of camera bags, but she said that it would be easier to carry everything out to my car in the bag and she would throw it in for free.

The Domke F2 Shooter’s Bag

The bag she gave me that day was a Domke F2 shooter’s bag. This one is vintage 1977 or so based on the labels and the tattered original inserts inside. Since the day I brought this bag home, it has stayed in my closet. I pulled out the old protective inserts and have used it to store this camera or that. Any time I needed a camera bag, I have used one of my Think Tank or ONA bags. The Domke was alway left behind, forgotten and sad.

For the past few weeks, I have been shooting a Nikon F5 that I will review here. This past weekend, I wanted to take the F5 and make some photos of our Golden Retriever as he took his test to become a therapy dog. Not sure what made me grab it, but I pulled the old, faded Domke from the closet, put a hand towel in the bottom for extra protection, stashed my F5 inside it and headed out. Being a bit rushed, I did not put a strap on the F5, something I hardly ever neglect doing.

My F5 in the Domke

When I arrived at the dog training center, I grabbed the camera bag from the car and slung it over my right shoulder. The strap was adjusted so the bag sat right at my hip. The first thing I noticed was how very comfortable the bag was to wear, even with the big and heavy F5 inside. While walking across the parking lot, I saw an interesting shot of a water tower. The Domke bag was sitting at just the right position for me to lift the flap, grab the F5, get the shot and put it back into the bag quickly and easily. Hmmm.

I spent the next hour putting the F5 through its paces with a roll of Kodak Portra 400. I never took the camera bag off of my shoulder the entire time, it’s that comfortable to wear! When there was a lull in the action, I slipped the camera back into the bag easily while it was still on my hip. I have never left a camera bag on my shoulder for this long. Ever. The soft canvas sides of the Domke just meld with the contour of your body making it seem like a part of you. Hmmm.

Jim Domke was a staff photographer at the Philadelphia Inquirer back in the mid 1970s. In those days, most of the camera cases were big, heavy and made of metal. The cases had foam inside that you cut to fit the shape of a camera, lenses, etc. To shoot, you had to set it down, open it up and pull out your camera. Not very efficient for a fast-moving press photographer. Jim felt he could come up with a better bag for the Inquirer staff photogs and convinced the paper to pay for 20 if he designed them himself and could deliver them at a reasonable cost. He took his inspiration from heavy canvas tackle bags for fishing. Above all, he wanted a bag that would be comfortable for the photographer and give quick access to gear. Jim designed his bag and had prototypes made which he had tested by photographers in the press pool of the 1976 Republican National Convention. With their feedback, the original Domke F2 shooter’s bag was born. Within months, Jim had sold 800 bags. He expanded the line with different size bags and his company grew and grew. He sold the company to Saunders in 1990. Saunders was acquired by Tiffen (the lens filter people) in 1999.

I’ve known about Domke bags for years but have always opted for something newer, sleeker, sexier. I have a Domke Gripper camera strap that I love, especially on heavier cameras like the Nikon F4 or F5. For the life of me, I have no idea why I let my Domke bag sit in the corner of my closet for so many years. This is the best camera bag I have ever used!

I know my bag was one of the early ones because it had canvas insert dividers. I removed those long ago. On my shoot, I stuffed a hand towel in the bag for extra protection for the camera. When I got home, I noticed that Domke sells padded inserts with velcro dividers that fit the F2 for $40. Amazon delivered them the next day. The insert will provide the protection I need for whatever camera I am carrying and the dividers allow customization. The bag also features side pockets for film, light meters, etc. There are also two additional pockets on the front as well as safety straps with clips to secure the flap if necessary. The adjustable strap, which is very wide, is one reason I think this bag sits so comfortable on my shoulder.

My F2 with new Domke dividers

I totally get now why so many hard working photographers used this bag—it’s just that good. And considering mine is nearly 50 years old, it’s a testament to the quality of manufacturing. It’s safe to say that my Domke won’t be in the dark corner of my closet anymore.

Get your own Domke bag here.

Lunch on The Plaza in Santa Fe

Had lunch in a delightful little restaurant in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico last November called The Plaza Cafe. Had to wait for a table, but it was worth it. My burger was delicious. While I waiting for my lunch to arrive, two seats opened up at the nearby counter. I grabbed this shot with my iPhone.

I liked the tile floor, the chrome and the red vinyl seats. Those stools were not empty for long.

So long 2024

As we head towards the final sunset of 2024, I wanted to say how much I value the amazing community of analog photography enthusiasts who have become a part of my life through this blog. I have not been as active here this year as I would have liked to have been. I am hoping to have more time to photograph and write in 2025. Happy New Year everyone!

The Nikon F2: Will your iPhone still be working 46 years from now?

Back in February I wrote about my acquisition of a very minty Nikon F2A from one of my trusted sellers. Unlike most of the other old cameras I have written about on my blog, this camera came with a solid clue as to its original retail home—the Shutan Camera Company in Chicago.

Finding that sticker inside my F2 ultimately led to me having a delightful conversation with the son of the store’s owner, Bob Shutan. The Shutan family opened their original retail store in 1918 and closed it in 2008. 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. You can read that whole story here.

This camera literally looks unused and even though the shutter speeds sounded good and the meter read accurately compared to one of my hand-held light meters, it’s still a 46 year old camera. I intended to send it off to Sover Wong for a CLA right after I bought it, but time got away from me. A few weeks ago, I decided to shoot a roll of 24-exposure Tri-X and see just how well the old F2 worked. Just some shots around the house and yard.

Sun on a backyard plant

Shadows on my fence

Patterns and light

Sunlight through the blinds

Sunlight on a wall

Kimmie was mildy irritated that I woke her from a nap to take her photo

My Nikkormat FTn with Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 lens

It’s my standard practice to finish a roll by taking a mirror selfie. It’s not because I love taking pictures of myself, it’s to remind me of what camera and lens I used. I do this whether I process the film myself or send it out to the lab.

I have no idea what the life of my F2A has been like since it left the shelf at Shutan Camera a few years after I graduated from high school. I don’t know how many owners it has had or how it found its way from Chicago to San Francisco. There are no scratches, bright marks or blemishes of any kind on the camera body. The battery compartment looks like new. There isn’t even any dust or specks in the viewfinder. You could put its box on a shelf in a camera store today and it would look pretty much at home. With mechanical cameras, lack of use can be almost as bad as misuse because without regular exercise, camera lubricants dry out and things get crunchy and seize up. Light seals deteriorate, mirror bumper foam flakes off. And the CdS cells used in the F2’s DP-11 metering prism become less accurate and even die over time. Which makes it all the more remarkable that I took a 46-year old film camera out of the box, shot a roll of film and get some very decent pictures out of it. Good exposures. No light leaks. Everything on the old Nikon just worked as designed. I wonder if my iPhone would still be working nearly five decades from now?

Nikkormat FTn: Looking for Light

I finally had some time to take my recently CLAd Nikkormat FTn out to look for some light. Jim Holman at International Camera Technicians did some mods for me and a full service. I loaded up a roll of Eastman 5222 Double-X and made some photographs around the house and yard to see if everything was working, especially the on-board meter which was now calibrated back to factory specs. An unremarkable set of pictures, but the results confirm that the old NIkkormat is performing as designed. These also remind me how much I love that 5222 film.

A vase and some flowers on the dining room table

Shadows on my fence

I like my chrome FTn so much, I bought a black one!

Sun through some leaves in the backyard

Shapes and tones

Sunlight through one of my dining room chairs

My Nikon N8008s

Backyard string light

30 Years Later: The Nikon N90s

In 1994, I remember feeling on top of the world. A few years earlier, our family had just settled into a big suburban tract home in Phoenix, Arizona. I had a good job and several big raises had found their way into my bank account. I finally had some time and the money to pick up on a photography hobby that I had set aside to concentrate on career and family. I started buying copies of Popular Photography and Shutterbug magazines at the local bookstore and spending some lunch hours at a great little camera store in Tempe called Lewis Camera Exchange. I had drooled over Nikon cameras since I was a teenager but was never able to afford one. In 1994, Nikon’s pro camera was the F4, but its retail price was over $2500 at the time and well out of my budget. One day while I was at Lewis admiring the F4, the shop’s owner suggested the new N90s. Autofocus was still a technical marvel at the time and I remember being amazed at how quickly the N90s automatically focused on various subjects in the store. The camera only has one autofocus sensor, but it’s a very good one. Nikon’s sales brochure at the time called the N90s “Fast and Accurate.”

The N90s sales brochure

The price of the N90s as I recall was around $1100 with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D kit lens. Even at less than half the cost of the F4, that amount was still a big stretch for a young father. I brought home the sales brochure and read it so many times the pages became dog eared. After much careful thought and so many repeated trips to Lewis Camera Exchange that I feared I was becoming a pest, I bought my first ever Nikon.

The N90s inspired me to fully embrace photography. Over the next few years, I converted a third stall in my garage into my dream darkroom with a proper darkroom sink, an Omega Pro-Lab enlarger and even a sound system for late night printing sessions. Film was cheap in those days and the N90s went everywhere with me.

My photographic bliss and any sort of bliss at all for that matter would soon end. At the end of the decade, my marriage would fall terribly to pieces and the N90s and the rest of my gear would be casualties of divorce. I wouldn’t pick up a camera again until 2010.

I hadn’t really given the N90s much thought over the years until one morning, I got one of those emails from eBay that lets you know that one of the sellers you follow has some cool stuff and you should go spend some money with them. I have done business many times with Joshua Cohen at Victory Camera in Colorado. He’s an honest seller with great gear. Joshua’s feed that day contained a very nice, hardly used Nikon N90s with its original box and manuals. Seeing that box brought me back to Lewis Camera Exchange and nostalgia got the best of me. For around a hundred bucks, I bought the N90s.

My second N90s after its arrival

It’s strange holding a camera in your hands again for the first time in 30 years. In 1994, the N90s was Nikon’s newest, best , fastest and most expensive advanced amateur camera of all time. It was a marvel. In 2024, it felt like many cameras I have tried from the 1990s; big, plastic-covered techno-blobs.

Nikon N90s with Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF-D

The N90s and some of the same era Canon and Minolta cameras have flown well under the radar of film photography buffs because they don’t look retro enough. But under all of that plastic is a very powerful photographic tool. The N90s offers three metering modes; spot, center-weighted and 3D Matrix Metering with Nikkor AF-D lenses. I recall at the time that 3D metering gave the N90s awesome fill flash capability with Nikon Speedlights. The camera also offers a variety of exposure control methods including manual, shutter-priority auto, aperture-priority auto and fully automatic Program mode. In Program mode, there are seven different pre-programmed operations for different picture-taking situations; Program-Portrait, Program-Portrait with Red Eye Reduction, Program-Hyperfocal, Program-Landscape, Program-Silhouette, Program-Sport and Program-Close Up. If you read reviews about the N90s, almost everyone agrees that the metering system inside the N90s will take everything most photographers can throw at it. The camera has shutter speeds up to 1/8000th of a second and the motor drive will advance the film at just over 4 frames per second.

A strange thing about cameras from this era is that Nikon and other manufacturers used some sort of grippy rubber coating that, over time, begins to get sticky. The N90s has this coating on the back film door and mine was just beginning to have that gooey feeling. There are a number of different methods to get rid of the goo but I used 70% isopropyl alcohol, a micro-fiber cloth and some elbow grease. It tool about an hour to remove the sticky and expose the nice smooth plastic underneath.

Back of the N90s after sticky goo removal

I took the N90s for a test drive during a recent trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I mounted my 85mm F/1.8 Nikkor AF-D lens (a decision I would later regret) and brought along a few rolls of Fuji Acros II film. Here are some pictures I made.

After spending a day shooting the N90s, I remember all of the reasons it inspired me so much when I owned my first one. Film loading is a snap. Open the door, insert the cartridge, pull the leader over to the red stripe, close the back, press the shutter. The film automatically winds itself on and advances to the first frame. In Program mode, this camera does all of the heavy lifting allowing you to concentrate on subject matter rather than fiddling with exposure. The viewfinder is big and bright and everything you need to know about what the camera is doing is displayed in a bright green LCD along the bottom of the frame. The autofocus isn’t fast by today’s standards, but for me it was just fine. A good comfortable strap is a necessity with the N90s as it’s a heavy camera. The fact that it is powered by AA batteries means you can easily find batteries if you need them out in the field. I am not sure what possessed me to bring just the 85mm lens with me. With Santa Fe’s narrow streets, a wider lens would have opened up so many more picture opportunities for me, but I had fun.

As I write this post, there are Nikon N90s cameras on eBay for as little as $25. Pristine ones for $75. Under a hundred bucks for what once was Nikon’s most advanced and most expensive advanced amateur cameras! I think it is one of analog photography’s best kept secrets.

Photography has been part of my life, with starts and stops, for over 50 years. It is difficult for me to be totally clinical about this camera because it helped rekindle my passion for photography at a certain part of my life but also reminds me of one of my darkest periods. Indeed…the best of times and the worst of times.

More to come

Life has been busy this fall and I haven’t had much time for photography or to tend to my blog. I am hoping things quiet down a bit in the months ahead leaving me more time to exercise my creativity. In the meantime, I am editing some photographs I made during a recent business trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico and writing a review about the camera I took along with me; the Nikon N90s. I owned one new in the 1990s and it was fun to use this camera again some 30 years later. I also have reviews in the queue for a couple of lenses; the 85mm f/1.8 AF-D Nikkor and the legendary Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 Ai.

Here’s a shot I made on the plaza in Santa Fe. More to come.

Santa Fe Shadows, Nikon N90s, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF-D, Fuji Acros II

Misinformation

Over coffee this morning, I clicked through the various photography Facebook groups that I belong to and came across a fellow, obviously brand new to analog photography, posting a picture of his recently acquired Nikon F3 with a pre-AI Nikkor lens attached. He wondered why the camera wasn’t metering correctly and why he couldn’t see the aperture readout in the little window of his viewfinder. A number of people responded. Some were helpful, some were condescending, some with absolute misinformation. I responded with a brief explanation of pre-AI and AI Nikkor lenses and a recommendation that he search online for the owner’s manual for his F3 and study it so he could fully enjoy his Nikon.

We have access to so much information these days from a wide variety of sources. Much of it is good, but some of it is just plain misinformation. With a few exceptions, those of us who enjoy analog photography are using equipment that is long out of production, decades old and no longer OEM supported. The only sources of information are the original owner’s manuals and the community of film photographers who write blogs, produce You Tube videos or contribute to social media forums. Most of the information out there is pretty good. Film photographers are thoughtful and helpful people. However, like all of the stuff we read online or see on You Tube or Instagram, due diligence is the order of the day. Misinformation, when it comes to old camera gear and lenses, can damage your equipment or even render it useless. At the very least, it can result in disappointing results in your photography.

This blog is a journal of my user experiences with old cameras, lenses and film. It’s full of my opinions. When I quote facts, I try my best to be accurate, checking as many trusted sources as I can before I publish. Social media forums can be lively and fun, but before you make any big decisions about your photography gear or anything else in life for that matter, check your sources. And check them again.

Another Nikkormat

I really like these old Nikkormats. So much so that I now own five. I have a chrome FTn, a black FT2 and FT3, an EL and most recently, this black FTn. I really didn’t need another Nikkormat or even another old camera for that matter. But this one popped up for sale on one my photography Facebook groups. The seller seemed like a nice guy and a passionate film photographer. And, like my other Nikkormats, the price was right. I have not paid more than $100 for any of them.

After years of shooting Leica and Canon, Minolta, Pentax, Contax and Hasselblad, it might sound odd that I’ve taken such a shine to these simple old Nikon SLRs, but I just love their minimalist, purposeful, elegance. Each one I have bought works. The shutters sound reasonable at every speed. And when I check the built-in meters against one of my hand held meters or my iPhone, they’re all nearly dead on. Nikon overbuilt these cameras and built them to last.

The body of this FTn is developing a nice brass patina near the strap lugs and on the top of the pentaprism, but otherwise it’s in good shape. The light seals need replacing so I will send it off for an overhaul after I run a test roll through it.

Prices on film cameras have gone up quite a bit in recent years but these old Nikkormats fly under the radar of most people. Given that, they’re a real bargain if you are looking for a depenable platform for the wide variety of available Nikkor lenses.

One Photograph: Seattle Public Market

I did not have high expectations for how my shots would come out as I strolled inside the Seattle Public Market during a visit there in the late summer of 2018. Not to worry—my Nikon F100’s matrix metering and Kodak’s amazing Portra 400 film did not let me down.

One Photograph: Inspiration at the Boho Cottage

In 2014, l lived for a very short while in a little cottage just off of the Bohemian Highway in Freestone, California. The owners called it the Boho Cottage and it sat on perhaps a half acre lot right along side Salmon Creek. There were redwoods, fruit trees, and all sorts of flowers and vines and such…endless photographic inspiration. I made this image with my Nikon in early April.

Nikon F2AS, 85mm Nikkor f/2 on Kodak Ektar 100

It's Black and White

As a teenager back in the 1970s, I pretty much taught myself photography. I devoured every book I could get my hands on from the school and public libraries and with that information along with the little instruction slips packed with every roll of Kodak film, I got pretty good at shooting Sunny 16 with my Kodak Retina rangefinder using mostly Kodak Plus-X Pan 125 film and developing it myself in Kodak’s D-76 developer. One camera, one film, one developer. I kept it simple and I think that really helped me learn.

I have more than one camera now but I really would like to get back to using one black and white film for most of my photography and see if I can become a better photographer. I’ve said I was going to do this multiple times here on the blog but the lure of this film or that has always led me astray. So lately, I’ve been working my way through the available black and white film stocks to see if I can find the one that really sings for me and use it consistently for a while.

I bought a few rolls of Film Ferrania P33 160 ISO film some months back and shot my first roll here. I liked the results and took it to the beach. I liked those results too. I just finished my third roll and I continue to be pleased with this film. I shot these using my Minolta X-700 with the 50mm f/1.7 MD lens. This first one really put the Minolta’ s TTL meter to the test. I should have metered specifically for the white wash mitt under such sunny conditions, but at least all of the detail didn’t totally blow out. I took this as I was washing my old BMW 435i the weekend before I sold it.

Final wash day

Later that same day, a quick snap inside of my dinner table and plate of tortellini.

Pasta and some good Napa Cab

I took the X-700 on a weekend getaway up the California coast to charming Mendocino. Hollywood used Mendocino as a substitute for a New England coastal town in the 1971 film The Summer of ‘42.

Mendocino

Sidewalk cafe

Great ending to a day on the coast

I like Ferrania P33 a lot. Maybe because it reminds me a little of my beloved Plus-X. Availability is hit or miss. I bought four rolls from Freestyle Photo and the next time I checked, it was out of stock. I am just finishing a roll of Tri-X in my Nikon N90S and there’s some Eastman 5222 Double-X in the Nikkormat FTn. More black and white fun to come.

One Photograph: The Arizona/Mexico Border

I don’t discuss politics much here and I won’t today either, but there has been a lot of talk lately about the US/Mexico border. I lived in Arizona for over three decades and visited the border quite a few times. Most of my trips were to the busy crossing at Nogales. Whenever friends or family would visit, we’d drive down from Phoenix, park in the Safeway parking lot near the border and cross into Mexico for some shopping. Mostly, we’d buy colorful blankets that were nice to look at but kinda scratchy to cuddle up with. Visitors also wanted to try a bottle of Coca-Cola in Mexico, which tastes sweeter than what we buy in the US. More syrup, I suppose.

In 2008, I spent a few days in Bisbee which is a quirky little southern Arizona town worth checking out, especially for photographers. One afternoon, I drove a few miles to the border near Naco, Sonora where I saw this border patrol agent sitting in his truck enjoying his lunch and watching the wall. We chatted a bit and I asked if I could snap this picture. I shot this with my Nikon D70s and a AF Zoom-Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6D IF—a lens that gets mostly terrible reviews but served me well for years.

Unit 129

I read a statistic that said 1 in 5 Americans pays for a self storage unit. I am one of them. Or at least I was until this past weekend. I’ve moved a couple of times in the last 14 years and during one of those moves, I rented a small storage unit for some of my stuff. It was only supposed to be short term. I remember thinking at the time that my stuff would be in there for six months or maybe a year until I could sort through it and figure out what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to throw away. Each month, when I wrote the check for the rent on Unit 129, I said to myself that I need to get over there and sort through that stuff. But my storage unit was 60 miles away and it just seemed easier to write the check and put it off for another day.

This past weekend, I finally confronted my procrastination. I rented a truck from U-Haul and to save my back, hired a young friend to help me load. It had been some time since I had been to my storage unit…years actually…and when I opened the door, I was overwhelmed by stacks of deteriorating cardboard boxes, cobwebs, mouse poop and dust covered artifacts. Stuff. Stuff that at one point I purchased with real money. Stuff that had meaning enough for me to keep and store and pay rent on. There were some things that were of real value. I had a large chest of tools. Good tools, tools I could use. There were some old pictures. An old Lionel train set that might be worth something. An orange Home Depot bucket. An extension cord on a retractable reel. Everything else in there had no real value, no use any more. It was trash. All trash.

I walked around the heap of stuff, poking into dusty boxes, picking up this and that. I recognized everything around me and wanted to find some reason why I had saved this stuff, but I couldn’t. I was deeply disappointed in myself for neglecting this chore for so long and felt an intense and painful sadness as I looked over the relics of my life. I negotiated with my helper to load and haul everything to the landfill for me. Three full pickup truck loads. 80% of what I was paying to store went straight into the trash.

I called the rental office at the storage facility yesterday and told them that I had vacated Unit 129. The woman thanked me for my business “all these years.” Just out of curiosity, I asked her how long I had rented there? “Since 2013”, she said.

11 years…my God.

1967 & 1994

I am currently shooting two cameras from the Nikon film era; the Nikkormat FTN from 1967 and the Nikon N90s from 1994. And while they are so very different from a technology standpoint—the Nikkormat is an all mechanical, manual focus, manual exposure camera while the N90s offers multiple exposure modes with matrix metering, motorized film advance and auto focus…they filled exactly the same niche nearly three decades apart—as back-up cameras for professional photographers.

The Nikon F was the preferred choice of photographers who made their living with their cameras in 1967. Nikon pro bodies have always been wildly expensive and while a well-heeled pro might have a second pro body as a back up, many used less expensive but still very capable bodies. The Nikkormat FTN was such a camera in the late 1960s. In the 70s, pros might have had a Nikon FM in their camera bag along side their F2.

By the 1990s, professional photographers were making the transition to auto focus cameras and Canon would soon capture the professional market with their EOS line. But for those who stuck with Nikon and Nikon’s first auto focus pro body—the F4, “pro-sumer” cameras like the N8008s and N90s became less expensive choices for a back-up. I purchased a N90s brand new in 1997 and I recall paying around $1000 for the camera and a 50mm f/1.8 kit lens. The F4 body alone was north of $2500.

I purchased my Nikkormat at a local camera shop and after I got it home, I posted an image of my new acquisition on the Nikkormat/Nikomat Facebook group I belong to. Over the next few weeks, quite a few photographers gushed over the FTN and several pros told stories about using the sturdy, dependable Nikkormat as a back up to their F or F2. I had my FTN serviced and modified. You can read about that here.

The N90s is my latest camera purchase. Mine is nearly mint with its original box and paperwork. I joined the N90s/F90x Facebook group and as with the Nikkormat, several pros commented about using the N90s as a back up camera for weddings and sporting events. A few even said that the N90s was their main body— a bridge camera as they waited for Nikon to release the F5 in 1996.

I will post complete reviews of both cameras here soon, but I will say that I am truly enjoying both of these Nikons. The FTN is pure, simple analog joy while the N90s feels a bit like coming home to a period in my life when I was shooting a lot of film and developing and printing in my home darkroom.

One Photograph: Sonoma Coast

It was such a luxury living so close to the ocean. I miss it. I am looking forward to getting out to the coast for a few days later this month. I am thinking now about which camera and film to take. I took this picture in 2019 with my Leica R5 and 60mm/2.8 Macro-Elmarit-R lens. I was using up some expired Kodak Portra 400 film.

News Break

This is mostly a blog about photography. I write about old film cameras and having fun with them. Once in a while I stray and talk about the days when I used to work in radio and television, my experiences selling on eBay or even how rude people can be on social media. But mostly, it’s a blog about photography—my opinions and thoughts. I don’t always get it right but I try and do the best job I can with the information I present here.

I never talk about my politics or even politics in general because I think your beliefs are your own personal thing. And whatever you believe, as long as it’s not hurting another person, is your own business.

I start each workday the same way. I make myself a cup of coffee, open my laptop and catch up on the news. I used to get a morning paper and flip through that, but a good newspaper is hardly that anymore, so I click around two or three news websites, hit the shower and head to the office.

Lately, I find catching up on the news unsettling. It gives me a mild level of anxiety. I’m old enough to know that there’s always been bad news and conflict in the world, but it seems we’ve reached a point where the lines between fact and fiction, news and opinions, have become so blurred, it’s driving a level of discord I have never experienced in the six decades of my life. Back when I worked in broadcasting, anytime we put an opinion on air, we had to disclose it as “commentary.” That’s not the case anymore and lots of good people I know are digesting opinions as fact and that can be very dangerous in so many ways. What’s more troubling is when people in power believe in and make decisions based on the same misinformation.

I am not going to stick my head in the sand, but I do need to modify my consumption of news for my own mental health. I am still figuring out what that’s going to look like. Many years ago, I was an avid watcher of the CBS News program Sunday Morning. Charles Kuralt or Charles Osgood would always close out the show by saying “Today, we leave you with….” followed by a few minutes of fields full of wildflowers with birds chirping or waves crashing on a beach. It was a way to say that even in this noisy world full of bad news, there are amazing and beautiful things, if we just take a few minutes each day to notice them.

Contax RX with 50mm f/1.7 Zeiss Planar on Velvia 100

Reunited: Nikkormat FTn

I just received my Nikkormat FTn back from a CLA and modification by my friend Jim Holman at International Camera Technicians in San Diego. I found this camera in my local camera shop and it was in lovely condition. Hardly a scratch anywhere with a very nice optics.

I really like these Nikkormats. I own four now—this FTn, an EL, FT2 and FT3. Nikkormats were built during a time when a camera was designed to last. And you can really feel that, especially after a thorough service.

In addition to the CLA, I had Jim do some modifications on my FTn. My FTn is an early model which came with a matte fresnel focus screen with a central disc of of micro-prsims. My aging eye prefers a split-image screen. Nikon calls this a “K” screen. The focus screens were not interchangeable on the Nikkormats, but a skilled technician can swap them out during a CLA. However, I had to find a donor camera. The Nikkormat FT2 and FT3 came standard with a split-image screen, but I really wasn’t keen on spending the money that these models were fetching just to harvest a focus screen. As I was doing my research, I discovered that later in the production run of the FTn, Nikon offered a K screen option—buyers could order their camera with either a matte fresnel screen or the split-image one. These later cameras also had a plastic tipped film advance and self-timer levers (just like the Nikon F Apollo and F2 cameras). Since “parts only” FTn bodies were selling on eBay for $20-$40, my mission became finding one of these later cameras that had been ordered with the K screen.

This kind of stuff takes patience, but it’s fun. Each day, I scoured the eBay listings for parts only FTn bodies with the plastic tipped levers. Sellers rarely take photos of their viewfinder, so I had to contact the sellers and ask. Finally one day, a listing popped up for a camera in pretty sad shape—missing the film rewind crank among other things. What caught my eye was that this camera came in its original box.

FTn original box

When I saw the K screen indication on the box, I didn’t hesitate. I just pulled the trigger and paid the seller $20. I had a good feeling about this. When the camera arrived, it was a mess…but it had a K screen! And for a pretty sad looking camera, the viewfinder and screen looked really good.

I packaged up my FTn and the donor camera with a note to Jim to CLA my camera top to bottom. In addition, swap out the existing screen for the K screen from the donor camera. Because I prefer the plastic tipped film advance, I also asked him to swamp out the advance lever as well. I never use the self-timer, I left that as-is. Lastly, I asked him to modify my camera to work with a 1.5v 625 alkaline battery rather than the original 1.35v mercury battery.

Film advance lever before modification

Completed, serviced and modified FTn

There’s something special about finding a 57-year old camera in this condition. It’s even more special having it returned to factory specs. Everything is so smooth now and that shutter sounds sublime. I am looking forward to a weekend photo walk with my “new” Nikkormat FTn.