It is difficult for me to think of the Nikon F as a vintage camera; but as discussed on a subsequent page, I don't want labels to bar discussions of important machines.  And "important" is a weak adjective for the F; it was a turning point in photography and for the Japanese camera industry.

I bought my F as a second body to an FM2.  Of course, it turned out that I use the F as the first body and the FM2 as the also-ran.  The guy who sold me the F had bought it new in 1965; he had taken family pictures with it and even carried it on safaris to photograph lions and tigers.  It was not a cosmetic gem, but you could tell that not much film had been through it.  I have used this camera more than any other for twenty years, and it has never broken down or even needed routine maintenance.  It works super smoothly, and the shutter speeds are on the dot. 

The camera came with a Photomic head:  that’s the one that doesn’t read through the lens and takes incident as well as reflective readings.  This electronics in it died last year,  and I can’t say I miss its awful weight.  I now use a plain prism finder and a separate meter.  I bought the plain finder just before the price of those things went through the roof; otherwise, I’d use the dead Photomic and damn the weight.

The original owner had bought this F with the 50mm 1.4 Nikkor that was available at the time, but he hadn’t used it much.  He was more of a telephoto shooter, as people who photograph lions tend to be.  He threw the 50mm into the deal for free, and also a soft ER case.  I took the lens over to Marty Forscher's shop, and those guys installed an AI ridge so I could use it on my FM2.  The lens is just okay wide open; but stopped down, even to f2, it is first-class.  Here's a shot taken with it wide open and hand-held at 1/15 sec.  The weight of the F and that big 1.4 steadies my hands, so I don't fear going below 1/60.  This is daylight film used in the very mixed light of a bookstore.   

During the years when I worked as a model—a character model, not one of the 40-regular boys--I was booked by a Japanese photographer whose strength was special effects.  He made speeches in praise of the F, on which he had built his reputation.  He said the F is clumsy for double exposures—and it certainly is—but that its precision yields perfect frame registration.  In his opinion, Nikon made only a modest profit from the F.  Instead, they used it to establish the reputation that they cashed in with the F2, F3, etc.

You will be fascinated to know that the picture I posed for that day eventually graced the poster for the first Halloween movie.  That's me peering from the blooded mask. 

The F, as you other vintage people will recall, was the camera that made photographers cool.  It did so through the 1960s movie Blow-Up.   I remember seeing this Antonioni creation in a theatre on Snyder Plaza, in Dallas, Texas.  This is around the corner from Southern Methodist University, so the place was packed with students.  They went nuts over this flick, and gave it a long round of applause at the end.  Pretty soon, you saw horny-looking guys prowling the campus with Nikons.  I was surprised that all the Nikons had a big F on front, just like the one in the movie.  I had assumed the F was put there by Antonioni, as part of the symbolism.   Don't laugh at me!

The F is old enough now to attract attention.  A nice lawyer (no, that's not a conflict in terms) stopped me on the street once to comment on the one I carried.  He said he had an old Nikon also:  an original rangefinder S.  I offered to swap with him even-Steven, but he didn't seem too interested.  You collectors will understand.   

This camera, like the Voigtlander Prominent, excites me.  It makes me want to head out the door and start shooting.  No, it's not a hangover from seeing Blow-Up.  It's something about the camera itself.  It balances best with a 105mm aboard, and that happens to be one of my favorite focal lengths.  This is not a lightweight setup—the F is a solid hunk of metal and the 105 AI is not made of flypaper.  But once you see the pictures this combo delivers, you forget all about the weight. 

Here are four pictures taken with my F--all with the 105mm lens.  My 105 is not vintage or classic--it's from 1981--but, given what it's done for me, I can't pass up a chance to honor it.  Do click to enlarge.