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.

Awesome and Affordable: The Nikon N8008S

For those of us who enjoy photography, we’re living in fortunate times. In the digital world, there is a wide variety of choices; DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and even super high quality cameras in our smartphones. For analog photography, we’re lucky to have a good selection of interesting film stocks to choose from and amazing old film cameras for sale, albeit at higher prices than a few years ago.

On a recent quest to find an autofocus camera or two to add to my arsenal, I picked up a bargain—a very lightly used Nikon N8008S 35mm SLR with a Nikkor AF-D 28-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens for $95. The Nikon N8008S was the successor to the N8008 which was introduced in 1988. The N8008 was Nikon’s top advanced amateur camera at the time, positioned right below the flagship professional F4. The camera was priced just under $900 at introduction. That’s over $2300 in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation! The N8008S debuted in 1991 and added spot metering to its list of features. I say all this because it’s quite amazing that one can buy such a very capable and at one time, a very expensive camera, for under a hundred bucks today. The lens was basically free.

My Nikon N8008S with 50mm F/1.8 AF-D lens

I call cameras of this era “technoblobs”—big bulky heavy hunks of plastic covered metal. Nikon, Canon and Minolta all had similar looking cameras and they certainly don’t fit the mold of what we consider a retro camera today. The Canon AE-1, Nikon F3 or Pentax K1000 might better represent what today’s retro camera enthusiast is seeking and that’s why prices on those cameras have soared making technoblob cameras a relative bargain.

The N8008S is a very capable, feature packed camera. It offers several shooting modes—full program, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual. Its early generation autofocus offers two modes—continuous servo and single servo. The autofocus is noisy by today’s standards, but fast and precise. The camera’s meter offers up matrix, center-weighted and spot. You can shoot at shutter speeds from 30 seconds up to 1/8000th of a second.

You control all of the camera’s functions with a thumbwheel and most photographers can figure out how to drive the N8008S pretty quickly without looking at the owner’s manual. Film loading is easy, just drop in a film cartridge, pull the leader over the red line, close the back and tap the shutter release once. The Nikon advances the film to the first frame. Depending on the mode you choose, the N8008S can burn through a roll of film in as fast as 3.3 frames per second.

The N8008S is not a camera for someone who wants to fully immerse themselves in full manual control of their photography. Rather, this is a camera that you relax and just have fun with. Put it in program mode and let the camera do all of the heavy lifting for you and just click away. By the time this camera came out, Nikon had really nailed TTL metering and I had a hard time coming up with a situation where the N8008S didn’t deliver near perfect exposure. Over a couple of weeks, I shot two expired rolls of film—some Fuji 400 and Kodak T-Max 100. I used the Nikkor zoom and my 50mm f/1.8 AF-D lens. Here’s puppy day at our local park.

My roll of Kodak expired in 2021 but it’s been kept in the fridge. I was shooting some portraits with my Fujifilm X-T1 and brought along the N8008S as well. Between set ups, I just clicked away.

The shot below was made with the N8008S and an off-camera Vivitar 283 flash for fill.

It’s crazy to think about the fact that you can buy what was at the time, one of the most advanced cameras in the world for nearly nothing today. As I write this, there are N8008S bodies on eBay for as little as $20. While it may not have the charm of shooting a Nikon F2, Pentax Spotmatic or Olympus OM-1, this era of camera represents a truly remarkable value in analog photography.

My Minolta, Some P33 & The Beach

My wife and I took our dog Jazz on a mini-vacation earlier this month. We headed about an hour and half west to the small town of Dillon Beach, CA and spent a few nights at a little resort made up of tiny houses near the beach. Jazz loves the water and I will use any excuse to get back to the Pacific which I miss so much since moving inland five years ago.

I brought two cameras with me, my Fujifim X-T1 digital and my Minolta X-700 film SLR. Since I could shoot color in the digital camera, I brought some Ferrania P33 black and white film along for the Minolta. I reviewed the X-700 in depth back in 2018 here, so I won’t go into a detailed review again, but I really had forgotten how much fun the Minolta is to use and what good results it delivers.

This is only my second or third roll of P33, but I will say that I am slowly falling in love with this creamy, dreamy film that has such a unique cinematic look to it. P33 has an ISO of 160, but I set my camera to ISO 125.

Dillon Beach sits right at the mouth of Tomales Bay. The Pacific Ocean is to the right in the photo below. The tip of Point Reyes is to the left. Point Reyes is protected as a National Seashore.

Dillon Beach, CA

Sleepy Jazz after a day in the surf and sand…and after a bath.

I have to admit that when I travel, I am often reluctant to bring along one of my more expensive film cameras, but I never worry about throwing the X-700 in my overnight bag. Even with its plastic exterior, the X-700 continues to look good and operate as-designed in spite of its mileage.

I like this Italian film so much, I just ordered some more and want to continue to explore its possibilities. As for the weekend in the tiny house, it was quite lovely. We walked the beach by day, watched the sun set sipping Sonoma County wine and Point Reyes Pierce Point cheese and drifted off to sleep to the sounds of the surf.

Jazz liked it too.

Fujifim X-T1, XF 18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS Zoom

The Minolta SR-T 202

Over the past 15 years of serious film photography, there have been several cameras that I initially dismissed because the ones I tried were not functioning as they were designed. My first Pentax Spotmatic was a corroded mess. My first Olympus OM-1 had a gummed up film advance due to years of neglect. And my first Minolta SR-T, a 101 model if I recall, had a dead meter, lots of debris in the viewfinder and a gritty feeling film advance. When you’re buying decades old film cameras online and learning as you go, you’re going to buy a few duds. It’s part of the game. And sometimes, those bad experiences color your opinion about a camera. Luckily, I bought another Spotmatic and had Eric Hendrickson service it. A lovely camera. Same with the OM-1. Found another and sent it off to John Hermanson. A CLA’d OM-1 is a joy to shoot.

And now for Minolta. Recently, a stunning black body SR-T 202 showed up for sale from one of my trusted eBay sellers, freshly CLA’d for a good price. I’m a sucker for black body SLRs and this one, with a six-month warranty, seemed like a good investment.

The Minolta SRT series ran from 1966 to 1981. There are many different models with confusing numbers. My camera, the SR-T 202 was also called the SR-T 303b and SR505, depending on what country you purchased the camera in. All of these cameras are manual focus, manual exposure cameras with TTL metering. Some featured Minolta’s exclusive CLC metering system. CLC stood for Contrast Light Compensator, sort of an early version of matrix metering. The camera had two metering cells rather than just one giving the photographer more precise control over exposure. Or so the manual says.

While I was waiting for my SR-T 202 to arrive, I did some research on early Minolta manual focus lenses and found that the MC-Rokkor-PF 58mm f/1.4 had great reviews. Not only was the lens a stellar performer optically, many photographers raved about how nice this lens was to use. I found a seller online who specializes in this particular lens, services and sells them. My new lens and camera arrived within days of each other.

The SR-T 202 is a big, heavy brick of a camera. There a no contours or curves, little in the way of ergonomics. By comparison, while my Minolta X-700 which came out in 1981 fits my hand like a glove, this camera felt a bit awkward. I also found the strap lugs to be in a weird place, poking my fingers as I shot. As I worked my way through my test roll of Kodak Tri-X, the camera and I made friends and I found some hand and finger positions that felt comfortable.

I had no issues however falling immediately and madly in love with the 58mm f/1.4 lens however. This lens reminds me of the early Pentax Takumars…smooth silky focus and a satisfying aperture ring. This lens is from an era where quality and craftsmanship were top priorities. I am going to buy an adapter and try this lens on my Fujifilm X-T1 digital.

All of the controls on the SR-T 202 are straightforward and similar to most SLRs of this era. The only strange thing is the ON/OFF/BC switch on the bottom of the camera that you need to use your thumb to turn. The viewfinder on most every Minolta I have shot is big and bright and beautiful. This camera is no exception. Shutter speed and lens aperture are displayed along the bottom of the finder with the meter readout on the right side.

Unlike my earlier SR-T camera, this freshly serviced 202 is very pleasant to shoot. Film advance felt smooth, viewfinder was crystal clear, meter responsive and it has a nice, satisfying shutter sound. I took the camera with me on a picnic on Mother’s Day and on a walk downtown. Here are some shots from that weekend.

Some Pinot Noir at our picnic…

I liked this shadow of the basketball hoop on the crumbling court…

Of course, the required mirror selfie which I flipped in post. (I was having a bad hair day.)

I really warmed to the SR-T 202 as I worked my way through the 24 exposure roll of Tri-X. I do wish the strap lugs were a little farther up the body and that ON/OFF switch is a bit of a pain. But all in all, this is nice camera and an awesome lens. Like any old film camera, I really recommend that you either buy one that has been serviced or budget for a service when you plan your camera purchase. In the case of this Minolta, service made all of the difference.

The Contax N1

I recall having a conversation with a professional event photographer friend of mine in the mid-1990s. He was probably in his mid-60s at the time and had just traded in his Nikon F3 bodies for a pair of Nikon N8008s auto-focus cameras. I remember him saying that he would have probably shot those F3s forever if his eyesight wasn’t beginning to fail him. Retirement wasn’t an option, he told me, so auto-focus allowed him to continue earning a living. Luckily, I don’t earn my living with my photography and my +1.50 readers are fine for computer work, reading and other close-up tasks. But I have been struggling a bit with my manual focus cameras lately making me regret selling my last two auto-focus cameras late last year. I have a Fujifilm X-T1 for digital photography, but I started yearning for another auto-focus film body.

I considered all of the usual suspects…Nikon F4, F5, N90s…or perhaps I might even begin a journey into Canon auto-focus film bodies. I browsed eBay and also kept my eye on the used gear case at my local camera store. Over the course of a couple of weeks, two cameras appeared there; a Nikon N8008s, which I felt was a nod to my aforementioned photographer friend and a Contax N1. I was very familiar with the Nikon but knew nothing about the N1. The N8008s was a steal for under a hundred bucks complete with a Nikkor 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-D zoom. The Contax body, which was new old stock, in its original box and with the “remove before shooting” insert still in the film chamber. The N1 cost me $200.

The Contax N1 was one of the last film cameras manufactured by Kyocera who, throughout the 1990s, built some brilliant Contax 35mm SLRs. I had a Contax RX for several years and loved that camera along with its amazing Carl Zeiss lenses. You can read my review of the RX here.

The N1 was introduced in 2000, aimed at professional photographers. A pro-sumer model, the NX came out about the same time. In 2002, Contax released the N Digital, the first professional digital SLR with a full frame sensor. Kyocera would halt all camera production a few years later in 2005. Unlike earlier Contax cameras which used the Contax/Yashica (C/Y) mount lenses, the N1, NX and N Digital used the new N mount glass. In cooperation with Carl Zeiss, Contax released a few prime lenses for the N cameras and several zooms:

• Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 17-35mm F/2.8

• Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-85mm F/3.5-4.5

• Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 28-80mm F/3.5-5.6

• Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm F/1.4 

• Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 70-200mm F/3.5-4.5

• Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 70-300mm F/4.0-5.6

• Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F/1.4

• Carl Zeiss Makro-Sonnar T* 100mm F/2.8

• Carl Zeiss Tele-Apotessar T* 400mm F/4

While I easily stumbled across the N1 body at a good price, finding an affordable lens, I would soon discover, would be much more difficult. I have always been a prime lens guy and really like 50mm. With that in mind, I started my N mount search looking for a 50mm Carl Zeiss Planar, which I had owned before in C/Y mount with my Contax RX. All of the N mount Planars I found were between $700 and $1000…way out of my budget. After some research, I found that the two Vario-Sonnar mid-range zooms were closer to my price range and would give me the 50mm focal length as well as wide-angle and medium telephoto. The 28-80 was the most affordable and also offered me macro capability. Interestingly, the only Contax N mount lenses I could find for sale in any focal length were from Japanese sellers. I’ve purchased several cameras and a few lenses from Japan and have always had good luck, so after finding a 28-80 from a seller with lots of good reviews and a 100% rating, I pulled the trigger. One of the things I find very cool about buying from Japanese sellers on eBay is that shipping is usually free and the items arrive here in California in 2-3 days via FedEx, as was the case with my lens.

With all of the anticipation of a kid at Christmas, I eagerly unwrapped my lens and mounted it to my N1 body, inserted the big 6v Lithium 2CR5 battery and turned on the camera. Everything came to life except…the auto-focus lens wouldn’t auto-focus. I fiddled with switches and knobs and poured over the owner’s manual. In manual focus mode, everything worked fine. The lens focused manually and the focus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder worked as designed. I was stumped. Was it the lens or was it the camera? While you can find oodles of information about Nikon or Canon camera issues online, there’s not much out there on the Contax N1 or these lenses. I called the camera shop I bought it from and they just shrugged…”Can’t say what the problem might be. Maybe the camera body, maybe the lens. That’s the first Contax camera we’ve ever had in the store. You’re a great customer. You can return it for a full refund if you want.” I really liked the N1 and because it was hardly used, if at all, my hunch told me the fault was in the lens, not the camera body. I contacted the seller in Japan and told him that the lens would not auto-focus. The seller was responsive and kind, suggesting I try this and try that before initiating a return. The one forum I found on these lenses mentioned that it could possibly be a stripped focus gear. After a few days of back and forth messages, I mentioned the stripped gear idea to the seller and he authorized the return for a full refund. Back online, I found another 28-80 from a different Japanese seller and three days later, I was once again unwrapping and eagerly mounting a lens to my N1. This time…bingo! The lens auto-focused like a dream!

The N1 is a feature-packed camera. Multiple shooting modes including manual, aperture and shutter priority and a fully automatic program mode. Multiple metering patterns too. Shutter speeds from 4 seconds up to `1/8000th of second. Exposure compensation, multiple drive and auto-focus modes, selectable auto-focus points, manual focus assist and probably more things once I read the entire owners’s manual.

The N1 has a big and bright viewfinder with adjustable diopter that displays all of the information a photographer needs to know about what the camera is doing along the bottom of the screen. There are five auto-focus points in the center of the finder that illuminate to indicate which one you have selected or all, if you use five-point AF. The N1 focuses quickly and quietly, relatively speaking. One cool feature is that if you are shooting in manual focus, there’s a button on the back of the camera that gives you one quick burst of auto-focus just to for peace of mind. Even though the camera is large with the zoom mounted, like all of the other Contax cameras I have tried, it fits your hand like a glove and is well balanced. Ergonomically, I think Contax really nailed it with the N1.

By the time I got the lens quest figured out, life got busy and I didn’t have much time to get out and do any real shooting with my N1. My test roll was Kodak Pro Image 100 documenting the flowers in my backyard.

And, the wheel on my car…

The N1 would be a perfect auto-focus companion for me if I could find the 50mm Zeiss Planar lens at an affordable price. And I am not sure why these N lenses are so expensive. I mean there aren’t a lot of Contax N users out there I imagine. I need to get out of my backyard with this camera and really put it through its paces, but after this brief test drive, the N1 is definitely two thumbs up.

Etc.

Friday ramblings….

I have some cameras in the review queue right now. I have Kodak Tri-X in a newly acquired Minolta SRT-202 sporting a nifty early generation Minolta MC Rokkor-PF 58mm f/1.4. I had one of these Minolta SLRs some years ago that didn’t work right, so it never got a proper test drive. This one is freshly CLAd and the attached Rokkor prime lens is quite special.

Minolta SRT202 with early Rokkor 58/1.4

I also have some Tri-X in the Nikon F2A that I picked up a few months ago at my local camera shop. I sold my last F2 body several years and ever since, I’ve had the itch to own another. This one is very nice and everything seems right on it. I will see how the shots come out and then send it off to Sover Wong for a CLA. I’ve gushed over the F2 many times in the past. After shooting so many different film cameras since reviewing my first F2, I wonder how it’ll stack up this time around?

I think this maroon Nikon strap looks nice on my chrome body F2A

Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.) is real and I sometimes succumb to a version of it I call Boomerang GAS. With Boomerang GAS, you find yourself longing for and then re-acquiring a camera that you sold. In my case, it’s the Minolta X-700. I have had two, sold both and due to Boomerang GAS, just picked up my third. I honestly had forgotten how much fun these cameras are to shoot. I have some Kodak ProImage 100 in my latest X-700. An updated review on and some images from this great SLR are coming soon.

I tried using “portrait” mode on my iPhone for this image of my latest Minolta X-700

My eyes are getting old and using manual focus cameras is getting to be a bit more of a chore. Cameras with viewfinder diopter adjustment help, but I do see a day coming when I’ll be using auto-focus cameras almost exclusively. I sold my last two auto-focus film cameras; a Nikon F4 and a F100 to friends of the blog some months ago. I probably should have kept one of those but hindsight is 20/20. Since my eyesight isn’t, I’ve begun a quest to find a new auto-focus friend. I owned a Contax RX once that had focus assist. The RX was a sweet camera and the Contax/Yashica Carl Zeiss lenses for it were extraordinary. I did not realize that Contax ever made an auto-focus 35mm film camera until I saw a Contax N1 at my local camera shop. The N1 was the last film camera Contax made. Remembering my RX fondly, I made a sweet deal on the N1 which appeared unused and still its original box with a “remove before shooting” insert in the film chamber. Finding the N1 body was one thing. Finding a lens for it was another. Hoo-boy. That story and a complete review is coming but I will say one thing…the Contax N1 is an amazing camera!

Contax N1 with Carl Zeiss 28-80mm Vario-Sonnar zoom

In other camera news, my Nikkormat EL is in the shop getting new light seals and whatever else it might need. My Nikkormat FTn is also in the shop getting modified with a split-image focus screen (my old eyes again), retrofit for 1.5v batteries and general CLA.

I’m shooting some color film again because Freestyle Photo has a sale on Kodak ProImage 100 film. I like this film and $36.49 is a great price for a 5-pack. As of this writng, it’s still available here.

To filter, or not to filter, that is the question.

I am a member of several vintage camera and general photography groups on Facebook and there are two “conversations” that always amuse me.

The first is around the subject of mechanical cameras that require no batteries and those that do. I am fascinated by the numbers of photographers who go on and on about how mechanical cameras that do not require batteries are so much better than those that require batteries for their shutters or metering. The standard line is that if you are out in the field shooting with a purely mechanical camera, you’ll never have to be concerned about not being able to take a photograph because your battery died. Honestly, I’ve been taking pictures with film cameras since 1975 and I have never had a battery give up on me while out shooting. And even if that happened, I always have a spare in my camera bag. I mean, how hard is it to carry around a little button cell battery? I pay far more attention to the battery level in my Fujifilm X-T1 or even in my iPhone than I ever have with any old film camera. But I digress.

The other Facebook interaction, which happens often whenever I post a picture of one of my cameras with a UV filter on the lens, are comments around my use of protective filters. “Please take that filter off of that lens!” Or, “Beautiful lens ruined by that filter—take it off now!” If I engage in any of these conversations, most of these people tell me how clear protective filters degrade the image quality or cause reflections. It is possible that adding another piece of glass in front of a lens might degrade the image quality in some barely perceptible way, but in all my years of photography, I’ve never noticed it or had any problems with reflections.

I take a great deal of care in finding nice examples of lenses for my cameras and feel that a clear protective filter is cheap protection for my investment. If I get dust on my filter, it’s easy to clean and I don’t worry about leaving cleaning marks on the front element of an expensive lens. I see so many otherwise fine old lenses for sale on eBay that have cleaning marks and scratches on them.

So, I use protective filters on my lenses. Do you?

Looking for Light: Little River Inn

I first read the phrase “looking for light” on the blog of my photography friend, Amanda Creamer. Amanda creates some stunning, dreamy images with her film and digital cameras. I loved “looking for light” so much, I wrote and asked her if I could borrow it and use it here from time to time. Photography is, at its very basic level, the art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light. As a photographer, I find myself looking at the world around me in terms of light and shadows.

Right now, I am focusing my efforts and honing my skills in black and white photography, but not too long ago, my wife and I spent a lovely weekend up the California coast near Mendocino. I brought my Nikkormat FT3 and Pentax Spotmatic with me, both loaded with black and white film. We stayed at the Little River Inn just south of Mendicino and on our first night, we had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. Our host seated us at a table with a view of the Pacific. It was the magic hour and as I looked out the window, I was awed by the palette of colors. After many years of living at the coast, my experience is that my iPhone rarely gets it right, but this night it sure did. The sky, the ocean and the artificial light from the porch of the Inn all worked together, perfectly. Even the reflection of the restaurant’s chandelier in the upper left is a nice touch I think. I make it a practice not to bring my phone with me for relaxing dinners out, but on this night, I am glad I broke my rule.

The Nikkormat EL

I consider the 1970s the golden age of 35mm SLRs. Canon, Minolta, Pentax, Olympus and Nikon were all in fierce competition to create the very best machines possible. Photographers benefited from this competition with a wide choice of great cameras and amazing lenses. This was still the era of mostly metal and glass and a testament to the quality of camera manufacturing from this time is the fact that many of these machines remain viable, functioning and serviceable today.

I stumbled across this nice example of a Nikkormat EL in my local camera shop. I went to browse on my lunch hour and walked out with a new camera and a thinner wallet. The Nikkormat EL was introduced in 1972 and was one of Nikon’s first attempts at a camera with an electronically controlled shutter and aperture-priority auto exposure. Around the same time, an all-black body ELW was available which is the same camera with the exception of its ability to add an AW-1 auto winder. The EL is a pre-AI body which means that Nikkor lenses need to be manually indexed to the body using the Nikon twist; move the body indexing pin all the way over to the right (looking at the camera body), set the aperture on the lens to f/5.6, mate the lens to the body and then twist the lens to its smallest aperture and then to its widest. This sounds way more complicated than it is but necessary so the camera “knows” which lens you have on. Everything after that is typical 1970s SLR.

The EL is basically a large Nikon FE. The viewfinder read out is the same as the FE and FE2 with a big analog needle. This display is my favorite of all of the Nikon SLRs of this era—it’s easy to read and makes total sense. Other than having to index the lens to the camera, the EL’s other quirk is the battery. The EL takes a type PX28/4LR44/544 battery which looks like a little AA battery. The battery chamber is behind the mirror so you need to take off the lens and lift the mirror to insert the battery.

My EL is almost pristine. I cannot see any scratches or scuffs anywhere. I wonder if it was ever used? As I inspected the body inside and out, I did notice the seals were original and deteriorating pretty badly which is pretty common for a 50+ year old camera. My plan was to put a test roll through the EL and see if everything else was working and if I enjoyed shooting it. If it passed those tests, I’d sent it out for new seals and a general look-over.

I found a roll of Kodak Portra 400 in the back of my fridge and shot it over a weekend in March. I rated the film at 200 ISO which I always do with Portra 400. On a walk around my neighborhood, I discovered some spring color.

I connected my Aodelan wireless flash trigger to the hot shoe of the EL. The receiver and my Vivitar 283 flash were mounted on a tripod. Orvie, our Golden Retriever, is always a willing subject. The EL’s shutter synchs at 1/125th of a second.

Willing, but quickly bored of Dad’s photography.

I follow a number of Facebook groups for vintage camera collectors and users and I find it amusing when someone buys a camera as old as this EL, especially one with electronics, and are surprised when the machine doesn’t perform as if it were brand new. How many 50 year old cars can chug along for decades without service? In the back of my mind, as I was shooting with this camera, I wondered how the auto exposure was working and whether or not those crusty old seals would give me any problems. My fears were confirmed when this roll came out of the lab. Some of the shots showed signs of a light leak but the meter did a fine job of handling most everything I threw at it.

Yes, someone had a bay cow on a leash.

I enjoyed shooting the EL and I am impressed enough with the results I got from this hobbled camera to send it off for new seals and meter calibration. The fit and finish of this camera is exceptional, as are the other Nikkormats I have tried; the FTn, FT2 and FT3.

The EL and ELW were the last cameras to carry the Nikkormat name. Nikon had wanted to differentiate between their advanced amateur and pro bodies; Nikkormat for the former and Nikon for the latter. In 1977, Nikon was proud enough of their Nikkormats to throw the Nikon nameplate on the final camera in this series, the EL2.

The price of film cameras has increased substantially over the past few years, but it seems that these Nikkormats have flown under everyone’s radar. I paid $75 for this one and with a basic CLA, I will be all in for under $200 making Nikkormat one of today’s best vintage camera investments.