Nikon F Sold

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Today I've shipped off my 1967 chrome Nikon F Photomic FTN to a buyer in St John's. The photo album tells a little about the story of how I came to this camera. This is to fill in a bit more of the story. For those not familiar with the Canadian dollar $1US is $1.35CA at this writing.

The camera was purchased off Ebay from a US seller in an auction back in July of 2023 for $127US + $62.42US (shipping) + duties on arrival. You can do the math there ... that's about $250CA. When it arrived it was clear that it would require a Clean, Lube and Adjust (CLA) service — the foam bumpers for the mirror had head rotted and were crumbling. I thought about replaceing the foam myself but ended up sending the camera to a repair service through the local camera shop (Carman's in Stratford). It's difficult to find anyone locally who can service these old cameras. That CLA was an additional $130 + $60 (shipping again) so, all in, I'm at well over $400 invested. I've sold the camera for $300 + $30 shipping so this hasn't been an exercise to make money. ... lol!

From the serial number I understand this camera was made sometime in 1967. It is quite serviceable and I have run through a couple of rolls of film. See this example of local scenes shot with this camera. The CLA technician reported, via Carman's, that:

I just got an email this morning with your estimate! The price will be $130.50 plus taxes. That will be for replacing the mirror foam, Replace prism head resting foam pad, clean mirror, clean focusing screen, complete internal/external cleaning, lubrication and minor adjustments. Prism meter when working is accurate, however sometimes meter needle fails to move and unrepairable.

So why have I sold the camera? It works well and is a treat to use if only a little awkward. However, I have a Nikon F2 Photomic in black and several lenses purchased after the Nikon F. In November I found a deal I could not refuse (in Canada with the Camera Trading Company) and bought a second Nikon F Photomic FTN, an Apollo version from 1969 in black, for just over $300. Clearly, I don't need both. Actually I don't need any of these film cameras. Here's a post about my "Senseless Collection".

The 1967 Nikon F I've sold came to me with a 50mm/F1.4 lens, the second came with a 50mm/F2. I much prefer the faster lens and have swapped the two. Both are Nikkor non-AI lenses of the era and both seem to be working well. My Nikon lens collection now includes a 28mm/F3.5, 135mm/F2.8, 80-200mm/F4.5, and a 35-105/F3.5-4.5 zoom. Again, that's all part of the senseless collecting of old Nikon gear. Sometimes, I think I've become a lot like the old man in this Fred Eaglesmith song, "Small Motors"; the fellow who treasures puttering around with this old gear.

Finally, a comment on film and shooting. Film is hard to find and expensive, it's hard to find a processor for the film and that again is expensive, and it takes a while for the processing so you have to wait, and, at the end of the day, what you have are digital scans. Oh yeah, and sometimes they screw up and your film jams their machine or is terribly scratched or you've screwed up otherwise! Nevertheless, here we are playing with old technologies and reliving an experience we could ill afford back in the day. In the next few days I'm buying a new cell phone which will probably take better pictures that far exceed any from the cameras I've had to date. Such is progress.

See also Nikon F only film group on Facebook for like minded folk.