Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! I am recently eating sushi sold at the convenience stores more often. These are not as good as what you will find in restaurants, even the ones from a sushi-go-around tastes much better. Their price and convenience are the main factors why I kept eating them, specially for breakfast. It hits the spot, even just barely and that’s good enough. It always leaves me craving for better quality sushi but when I’m hungry and lazy anything will do I suppose. Today, I’m going to show you something that satisfied a need back-in-day. Just like cheap sushi this was better than nothing at all specially at a time when people were demanding for a cheap-but-acceptable solution for a wide-lens that’s capable of being mounted to early SLR’s. Read the whole article to find out more about this.

Introduction:

The Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f/4.5 we see here is the later version of the Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f/4.5 with the smaller barrel. It’s not clear when this was made and for how long but I suspect that it was made from around 1951 and it stayed for a few years until the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f/2.8 was introduced. It’s merely a stop-gap and this was soon phased-out when the more practical Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f/2.8 was unveiled. Needless to say, this is kind of rare but not valuable at all because the demand for it is low owing to its odd choice of focal length.

It has an all-metal barrel that resembles its peers from the same era but unlike them this does not have a preset-ring so you will have to precisely stop the iris down yourself. This is a bit of an annoyance because you’ll have to tale your eyes off the viewfinder just to confirm that you’ve go the right aperture value set before you make an exposure.

Hello, everybody! Do you know the “Tokyo Shock Boys” or “電撃ネットワーク”? They’re a comedy act back in the early 1990s. They did many stupid and dangerous stunts and their catchphrase is “it’s very dangerous!“, which I think is very catchy. The stunts that they did are only for our entertainment and should never be copied at home, children shouldn’t watch their shows because they’ll probably imitate them. Today, I’ll show you something stupid and dangerous. I spent a long time thinking about whether I should publish this. Read this whole article to find out more about this.

Introduction:

The Nikkor-O 2.1cm f/4 was launched in 1959 and was sold until 1967. This used to be the widest Japanese lens for SLR photography at the time it debuted, it helped push the Nikon F into dominance of the professional market. It was such a landmark lens that it soon gained legendary status because it opened new avenues for creative photography. There’s another version of this made for the S-mount because rangefinders still dominated 35mm photography at that time, its production was quite limited because the Nikon F would soon bring an end to that era. This lens has a lot of dedicated fans and they swear by its reputation but is this lens really what it’s made out to be or are people merely ruminating on the mythology surrounding it? We’ll find that out for sure in this article.

It’s all-metal which makes it tough but its characteristic stalk at the rear makes it look delicate. It’s actually quite rigid, I was surprised at how well-made it is. The rear is exposed but there’s a guard which helps prevent damage. The scale is very useful, it’s the only way you’ll be able to focus with it without viewing thought-the-lens. This isn’t a problem at all, the depth-of-field is very wide so you just guess the approximate distance of your subject or just use the scale to focus using hyperfocal distance, a technique that’s forgotten by many people apart from landscape photographers and those who shoot street photography.

Hello, everybody! There’s currently an exhibit going on at the Nikon Museum about Cine-Nikkors! I am currently doing my best to give you all the information I have about this obscure part of Nikon’s history so I was very happy when the Father of Kit-lenses messaged me about this exhibit. I was so happy at that moment but I was also sad because there’s lots of Nikon historians who couldn’t come to the exhibit due to the pandemic. I dedicate this article to all of you who are unable to look at these with your own eyes and breath the same moldy air that these relics are exposed to.

The exhibit is rather small, befitting the tiny nature of many Cine-Nikkors. Despite being merely 2 tables the specimens shown here are very important.

Hello, everybody! Many people are excited about the Nikon Z fc, Nikon’s latest hit. It’s an amazing camera that conjures the feeling of using a classic film camera and it’s not expensive, too. I recalled buying a Nikon D90 when it came out, it costs about $950.00 at that time so if you put things into perspective the new Nikon Z fc is actually quite reasonable. At the moment many people do not even have the money to buy one due to the current economy or some people aren’t interested with shooting with the smaller DX format like me. To scratch the itch it’s probably a good idea to shoot with an actual film camera and I will show you one today that will certainly bring you lots of fun while you decide if buying a Nikon Z fc is going to be the right decision for you.

Introduction:

The Nikon FM10 was sold from 1995 and production ended recently along with the venerable Nikon F6. It wasn’t made by Nikon at all, it was Cosina who made these for Nikon. The Cosina CT-1 is the basis of this camera and that was sold under different brands and names such as the Canon T60 and the Olympus OM2000 to name a few. Its sister camera is the Nikon FE10, it’s basically shares the same chassis but the internals are electronic. You may wonder why Nikon made the decision to go with this when they had the legendary Nikon FM2n and the groundbreaking Nikon FM3A being sold at same time as this plastic camera. Well, not everybody could afford the expensive Nikons so people with less money bought these instead if they wanted a new camera that comes with a warranty. It was also said that these were initially targeted for the overseas market specially to developing nations where money isn’t as disposable compared to wealthy nations, there may be some truth to that because these were sold at the same time Nikon began its Thai factory.

The chassis is certainly made from metal but the exterior is covered with plastic. The finish is kind of ugly, the plating is easily-scratched and it frankly looks cheap, like the shiny parts of a toy. The dials were all made from plastics, too. I do not think this will survive a hard-knock or being dropped. The plastic exterior will definitely crack. You should never use this with large lenses, a Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 Ai-S and similar-sized lenses will be the best ones to use with it. These were also sold with the Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 Ai-S as a kit, this setup will certainly satisfy any amateur, they’re not going to disappoint even the advanced amateur when there’s nothing left to choose.