Re: [Leica] Cameras FS New Store -- Speaking of Nikons

[Henry Ting <henryting@riteful.com>]

Mark, we're always on a trip. My trip started with
OMs, Nikons, then Hasselblads, then Leicas, but back
to getting some Nikon gears again. 

- --- Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com> wrote:
> Afterswift@aol.com wrote:
> > 
> > In a message dated 9/25/03 6:28:11 PM,
> kenf@speakeasy.net writes:
> > 
> > << So you paid $77 for a perfect Nikon F? Pretty
> damn unusual. >>
> > 
> > Maybe my arithmetic may be off. I think I paid
> about $300+ for the Nikon F
> > new with a standard pentaprism and f2 50mm lens,
> which I had converted by Nikon
> > to AE for $30 when they offered that deal. The
> store in question was charging
> > $600 for the pentaprism and $800 for the
> pentaprism and lens combined. I don't
> > know what they wanted for an F body. But it seems
> the F is constantly rising
> > in the market. Ever try to sell a used Olympus
> 4040 digital after the Oly 5050
> > came out? Want a real bargain in a new Nikon? Take
> a look at the latest Nikon
> > FM family. I recall this baby will provide a full
> range of mechanical as well
> > as electronic shutter speeds. I have no idea how
> Nikon did that. Leica Solms
> > should have done it in the M7. I think the M7
> furnishes two mechanical speeds.
> > 
> > br
> 
> I still have my FM from '77 when it first came out
> and it's just like a
> Leica. (nod nod wink wink)
> It has a battery which runs the meter. That's it.
> The similarities go on
> and to be eerie it also only goes to 1000th of a
> second. Also it used
> LED's to center the meter with just like an M6
> vanilla classic or close.
> It does sync at 125th though instead of our 50th so
> you can go outside
> with a small flash and shoot something more than 5
> feet away.
> 
> The FE came out the next year with an automatic
> setting and silicon
> cells - same sync. I didnt like the looks of it. I
> like the M7 though!
> Wrong millennium!
> The FM2 didn't come out until '82 and the FE2 '83.
> These had a stop faster synced titanium shutters and
> faster shutter
> speeds by a couple of stops! The shutters were
> changed to good old
> aluminum at the very end of the decade. I shot my
> FM2 in the studio at
> the mechanical 250th of a second sync speed not
> draining batteries. Lots
> of film went through those camreas with those cheap
> MD 11 and 12 moter drives.
> 
> The Titan FM2 was mainly made of aluminum but had
> titanium top plate,
> upper cover, bottom plate, rear cover. No empty
> Krylon titanium spray
> paint cans were evident.
> 
> The High tech FA came out in 83 with microprocessor
> and a year before
> the Mac and the M6 and the Death of Ansel. When did
> that Canon A1 come out?
> The FG was an EM not made for the mass market and
> with better bells and whistles.
> I recall the FM ad campain used womens hands as if
> it were designed as a
> "womens camera" or for people with small hands.
> Every photogapher I knew
> had at least one. Few had small hands. Few were
> women. One was a women
> with big hands. I think they owed thier existence
> not to a new womens or
> small handed market but to the sudden existence of
> the revolutionary Oly
> OM1 which made everyone realize it didnt take a
> camera the size of a
> typewriter to expose a 24x36mm chip of film. And
> "it's the water".
>  
> ANd that they could be more Like a Lieca. SLR
> Leica's. 
> And a lot lite-a and cheep a.
> We tried to be HCB with them but our wide angles got
> in the way-  24's
> or 28's most of us. A 35 was considered a tele to
> this group of people
> here in 70's Portland.
> As we know on the LUG HCB used 50's.
> And Rangefinders.
> I'd never sell my FM's so what its worth does not
> interest me that much.
> I replaced the shutter at least once for more money
> then I could buy a
> whole camera used I'm sure. But it wouldnt be MY
> camera. It was worth
> it. The bulk of my body of work was shot with Fm's.
> I found Leica in
> 1990 and lost interst in the FM wavelenth. 
> Now listening to the groovy LM electro-magnetic
> spectrum. 
> LSMFT. 
> Lucky strike means fine tobac-a.
> 
> Mark Rabiner
> 
> Portland, Oregon USA
> http://www.rabinergroup.com
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