Repair: Nikon FG

05 Apr 2020 9 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! With the coronavirus lockdown being loosely enforced, I cannot go out from my house to enjoy my usual weekend routines. Staying home gives me chance to enjoy some simple things that I took for granted. Things like eating a simple meal and enjoying a smoke afterwards or taking a nice, long siesta surely feels refreshing. It’s sometimes nice to get out from our usual routine and enjoy the simpler luxuries of living. It’s like riding an old car around town in a lazy weekend. Speaking about simple things, we’re going to talk about a simple Nikon that touches on the basics. It’s something so simple that it takes us back to the roots of photography, all that without having to spend a lot of money. It’s cheap yet it’s feature-packed, something that will benefit students and the casual photographers alike.

Introduction:

The Nikon FG is an advanced version of the Nikon EM, it debuted in 1982. It was only made for 4 years and was replaced with the Nikon FG-20, a cheap, dumbed-down version of this capable camera. This camera is an improved Nikon EM with manual shutter speeds, programmed (P) mode and the usual aperture priority (A) mode amongst other things. Despite being a cheap and somewhat flimsy Nikon it has everything an advanced photographer needs. It can even mount to the Nikon MD-14, a more advanced motor-drive that’s also compatible with the Nikon FG’s siblings. It’s able to use the Nikon MF-15 data-back which makes it even more useful for documenting.

Despite all the advanced features the Nikon FG is still an amateur camera, it is most-apparent in its build quality where you get a sense of flimsiness and it doesn’t have the reliability of its more expensive cousins like the Nikon FE and specially the flagship models. The shutter mechanism for example isn’t as tough as the ones found on the more expensive models but it’s not so bad either and it will last you hundreds of rolls before it taps-out. A nice touch is the little screw-on hand grip, it makes the camera easier to hold but I find it annoying as it gets in-the-way, you’ll have to remove it in order to mount its motor-drive. Needless to say, these are easily-lost.

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Repair: Nikon S3/S4 part 3

04 Apr 2020 4 Comments

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized

Hello, everybody! I’ve been granted permission to work-from-home due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is essential that every member of the team is synced to the main workflow seamlessly from home. This requires plenty of effort in the engineering side as data and communication needs to flow well despite people being scattered in multiple locations. This reminds me of the rangefinder cameras of old, it’s amazing how the rangefinder couple to the lens and how it can still accurately depict what’s going to be in-focus. That’s very clever considering that it was pioneered nearly a century ago. This is a complicated mechanism that links 3 things and that’s the topic of our article today.

Introduction:

The shutter-speed selector of the Nikon SP chassis is robust, the same goes for the Nikon S3 / Nikon S4 and the Nikon F, too. All of these share the same chassis except for the Nikon F which uses a modified one that will accept a mirror-box so it’s made wider. The shutter-speed selector mechanism is not a new design entirely, it inherits a lot from the older Nikon S2 as the basis. It is not identical yet not too-different either in principle and you can see their similarities once you get to know how they both work. Despite that, this is a big leap for the Japanese camera industry, the shutter-speed mechanism is a modern one wherein you can change every speed of the camera using one convenient dial. I am not aware of any Japanese camera that can do this at the time the Nikon SP debuted since most, if not all Japanese cameras used the Leica-type shutter (as far as 35mm goes).

The W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/3.5 is a good partner for the Nikon S3, it balances very well with the camera and the 35mm frame-lines help you frame with it. You won’t need a separate accessory just to frame your shot.

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