NIKON F2 PHOTOMIC

THE CAMERA:

This is the Iconic Nikon F2 from 1974 with the Photomic DP-1 finder, mounted with my 1967 Nikkor-S Auto 50mm 1:1.4 lens. I, like every other teenager in the 70's who was interested in photography, wanted one of these so bad but alas, they were a "Professional" camera and fetched an astronomical price making it impossible to even comprehend owning one. $700 in 1974 was like over $3500 today!

It has the Photomic DP-1 finder with center weighted CDS metering. I've had the finder opened up for cleaning and it is more complex inside than most cameras alone. The meter is in the finder, if you get a Prism finder there is no meter. The power for the meter however, is in the camera and is made to the finder via two contacts.

It has a simple meter with the needle that you center between a +/-. It is center weighted with the reading heavily (60%) in the center circle of the viewfinder. In most cases, center the most important subject in the viewfinder and take the reading, then recompose the shot.

FIXES:

The camera body has had new light seals installed and the foam on the mirror box. The contacts on the camera body for the meter were dead so I took the bottom plate off and un-stuck the 'plunge rod' that activates the meter switch when you put the film advance lever in the meter-on position. See the repair here.

I completely dismantled the Photomic finder as it had some sort of crystallized infection I called the 'Andromeda Strain'. A fellow camera buff said it was probably chemicals from a dark room "condensation", I said it looked more like it was dropped in or spilled on the chemicals. see the repair here

UPDATE: I recently bought a working DP-1 finder and parted out the original.

Here is a photo taken with this camera.

MANUAL:

Here is an online owners manual

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