View Full Version : almost bought an SLR, saved by fate
For give me father for I have sinned. I lusted after a Nikon f3 SLR and made an offer to buy one on Nelsonfoto for $100. In God's infinite wisdom, he prevented this travesty, and by fate I was number 2 in line. What is my penance?
I believe it may be a sign from Father Maitani, one of his OM's has your name on it.
F3 is nice, If was not not 100% against starting yet another lens series I would have found an FM3a by now.
Hmmm, penance..... this has to hurt.....
Two rolls of cheap C41 processed at your local hour photo spot, and don't stray from your RFs and silver halide for a month, or else!!!
The F3 is a nice camera. But for me, I always wanted an F2. A close friend bought one when we were fresh out of high school in the seventies. It was love at first sight for me. The sound of that shutter, the removable prism, my poor, beautiful, black, Pentax Spotmatic just could compete with that F2. A love never realized. :o
Stephanie Brim
05-15-2007, 16:16
When my child is about 1 I'll most likely (finally) consider an autofocus Nikon of some kind...
But that's a year and a half away or so. :D
sepiareverb
05-15-2007, 16:22
What were you thinking? Big, clunky, antiquated (wait, this sounds like me) Nevermind. Go have a beer.
F3HP -- somewhat large, somewhat heavy, but a great SLR. There'll be another chance, Frank. There always is ...
Gene
Steve Bellayr
05-15-2007, 17:53
The one nice thing about them...and there are plenty around...is that you can take the prism off. When you do this people around you...especially, where you are not to photograph...think you are repairing the camera when in, actuality, you are photographing.
emraphoto
05-15-2007, 18:27
The F3 is a nice camera. But for me, I always wanted an F2. A close friend bought one when we were fresh out of high school in the seventies. It was love at first sight for me. The sound of that shutter, the removable prism, my poor, beautiful, black, Pentax Spotmatic just could compete with that F2. A love never realized. :o
my friend paul guy... i know of an f2 photomic in beautiful shape with a nikon 28mm f2.8 and original full case sitting in a shop where i live for $275 canadian. if you want me to hook you up with the shop owner or take some snaps you just let me know! $275 to realize a dream? a small sum...
You did nothing...me however...I fell off the wagon Saturday and bought a Minolta X-700....OK!! I bought 2 of em...:eek: :eek:
Now I got to figure out how to turn them into rf's..
Frank: If you are interested in an OM I may have a deal for you ...
Thanks Earl, but I've got some Nikon cameras and lenses already on my shelf.
Frank wanted a F3hp because is the best SLR that Nikon ever made, 20 years production, and still today it can be serviced, titanium shutter @ 150,000 acutations, 80/20 center weight meter, and 'aperture priority'. There is a SLR in everyone, you can not deny it! :D
MArk
Quito, Ec
Plus I think Frank secretly has a Nikon SLR poster in his darkroom! :D
Creagerj
05-15-2007, 19:08
eh, don't be so dramatic, my primary shooter is an f3 and I love the thing.
Mark, it is a Nikon camera poster. (RF and SLR) I do want an F3, so I can set it on A and not have to think while taking pictures. ;)
eh, don't be so dramatic, my primary shooter is an f3 and I love the thing.
It's not jsut what you say, but how you say it. :)
Everyone wants a F3hp so they can secretly put it into 'A' and not tell anyone, while taking pictures! :D If you have some glass, and Nikon has great primes, then you will get a F3hp. Lots of them for sale.
Frank, what Nikon lenses do you have?
MArk
28f2.8, 35f2, and a few 50's. :) f1.4, f3.5M, f2's, f1.8's
The 28 is a performer! and the 50 is no slouch! So are you going too get a F3?
If I can find another for $100, sure.
$100 sounds like a great deal.
What happened to your F4, Frank?
Sell your three 50's, that will add some Ka Ching for fund. But a F3 for $100 that is a steal.....
John Camp
05-15-2007, 19:51
I wonder how often people get caught up in a particular machine (car, watch, camera) because of some impression that hit them at some special age? Pretty frequently, I think. I never had it with Nikons -- I had an F3 and traded it in (at a big loss) for an F4, and loved the F4 dearly, until I traded it for an F5, which I liked even more than the F4...I believe every iteration was better than the last.
However, when a lot of guys my age saw Blowup, in the late 60s, with David Hemmings, and saw all the lovely women and how cool photogaphy was, and got into picture-taking...I only had eyes for that Rolls Royce Silver Cloud convertible. Never owned one, but jeez, what a car -- would rather have one of those, now, than a new Ferrari; or a career in fashion photography, for that matter.
Wonder if they ever have them on o-boy?
JC
$100 is a really low price. I've watched the prices of SLR's here in Holland on a couple of local classifieds sites, and the F2's and F3's all seem to go for around €250 to €350 (including some glass) and sometimes even more.
Uncle Bill
05-16-2007, 03:02
Well, as an unrepentant Nikon SLR fan, it's ok to lust after a Nikon F3HP, I want one myself at some point. I have have two F's, one F2 and a Nikkormat FTn.
Bill
Well, as an unrepentant Nikon SLR fan, it's ok to lust after a Nikon F3HP
My old F3HP is the one camera I really regret having sold :-(
You have not sinned my son, it is but a different path to silver halide heaven
Frank was saved by fate; I was tempted and fate dragged me in. I have a Pentax LX on the way to me. :D
The universe is in balance; harmony has been maintained.
kshapero
05-16-2007, 04:02
I have owned an F3HP and you Frank S are no F3HP. Frank you are a little tiny RF guy who prowls the dark alleys of RFF. You will always be a little RF man. Sometimes known as an ARFMAN. Arfmen sneak around and take shots of intimate things and people without nothing more than a "peepclick". Frank, you will never be a true F3HP who stumbles into everyone sounding like "humpty dumpty clunk".
Anybody know some good sources for a mint F3HP? It's......for.....my....ah....grandson. Yeah thats it, my grandson.
my friend paul guy... i know of an f2 photomic in beautiful shape with a nikon 28mm f2.8 and original full case sitting in a shop where i live for $275 canadian. if you want me to hook you up with the shop owner or take some snaps you just let me know! $275 to realize a dream? a small sum...
I appreciate that, thank you for thinking of me. But I've just got so much stuff now I guess I'm just not ready to scratch that itch. Don't know if I ever will. But thanks.
Thank you Chris for balancing that out! (Pentax LX's are cool too.)
RAy, my F4 just sits on the shelf waiting for me to do another wedding or other heavy-duty event.
John, many years ago I did once hold an F3 and that feeling has stuck with me.
Here's the ad: http://nelsonfoto.com/v/showthread.php?t=10243
kshapero
This seller betteroffblu always has a line up of top quality of F3hp's, and currently has a 200xxxx serial numbered late model F3, on the bay.
Mark
Quito, EC
drewbarb
05-16-2007, 07:05
There always seems to be a Nikon FM2n in my bag, riding shotgun with an M3. I mostly use it for long lenses these days, but the Nikons work great in studio situations too.
If anyone is interested, I have a Nikon F3 HP which I've been meaning to sell. It shows some wear, but works like a champ. I never use it.
Igor.Burshteyn
05-16-2007, 07:29
oh I feel your pain Frank :) F3 for 100$ is a sin that everyone would be glad to commit. Nearly at the same time I was "the second one" to buy 3(!) pen f bodies (FV among them) with normals, 20-25-100-150 lenses & bellows - went away almost immediatelly for 100$, what a coincidence. The truth is I wouldn't know what to do even with 1 oly pen body&lenses - I have enough cameras to shoot with, and I am not camera dealer or reseller. This is what separates collector from user - I am kind of glad I didn't cross this line. Am I done? ;)
That's the thing: $100 for an F3, a camera I have an affinity for. Another great camera, like an Olympus OM4 say, even at a great price, would not attract me - I just don't have a "thing" for one.
Another camera that would be cool at a steal of a price is a Rollei MF SLR.
sepiareverb
05-16-2007, 08:05
Traded two Pentax LX's for a Nikon F4 way back. Loved the LX, but didn't love the glass as much as the NIkon offerings.
dazedgonebye
05-16-2007, 08:16
I just never feel this temptation.
For most every application where SLR is better than Rangefinder, I like digital better than film. I've got an old AE-1 that never calls my name.
There's something about the Rangefinder/film combination that I find more compelling.
shadowfox
05-16-2007, 08:19
That's the thing: $100 for an F3, a camera I have an affinity for. Another great camera, like an Olympus OM4 say, even at a great price, would not attract me - I just don't have a "thing" for one.
Maybe not the battery dependend OM-4, but how about OM-1 ;) ??
Nobody can resist an OM-1 :D
Seriously, though, a professional photographer friend of mine lent me one of his FM2 on the motor drive along with a Nikkor 85mm/1.8. I tell you guys! That thing rocks!! I feel like a real photojournalist just clicking away with it.
That's the thing: $100 for an F3, a camera I have an affinity for. Another great camera, like an Olympus OM4 say, even at a great price, would not attract me - I just don't have a "thing" for one.
SLR.
OM4?
Unfortunately, I do...
I could just slip it onto the shelf with the other OM gear..
my wife would never notice another one...(1)
Just need to stumble onto the great deal...
We all have a few "things".
(1) Murphy's law of stupid buying: Wife is standing in the door whenever UPS man arrives.
BillBingham2
05-16-2007, 09:59
Frank,
Worry not, buying an F3hp is a venial sin. It’s a classic camera, IMHO, second only to the F2. Easy to find motors, screens and finder for, has 100% viewing of the frame and it takes film. I’m not a “A” (read automatic) type of guy, otherwise I would have gone with one of them when I rebuilt my Nikon SLR system a few months back.
Let’s see, for a venial sin, if you recite the CV LTM lens chart (currently manufactured lenses only please) from longest to widest and all will be forgiven!!
B2 (;->
Thanks Bill, that's what I was looking for: absolution! (A very convenient concept!)
Hmmm -- i think that what is good about my Minolta SR 7v / Srs , 24 / 28 / 45 / 50 / 135 / 85 Rokkors is that they have no value - unlike Nikkon stuff - so no temptation to convert to ... probably Kievs ....
But I have a lot of stuff that has no value - most of it recently aquired USSR cameas !!
dee
kshapero
05-16-2007, 10:22
According to my wife, it ALL has no value until she wants pictures of the family.
mtbbrian
05-16-2007, 12:12
I had two F3HP's back college, it was by far my most memorable camera.
I say go for it!
Brian
darkkavenger
05-16-2007, 12:24
I would sin (and sacrifice) a lot for a Pentacon Super .... ;)
visiondr
05-16-2007, 12:29
The F3 is a nice camera. But for me, I always wanted an F2. A close friend bought one when we were fresh out of high school in the seventies. It was love at first sight for me. The sound of that shutter... A love never realized. :o
You're kidding, right?... the F2 shutter sounds like someone opening and then violently closing the front passenger door on an AMC Pacer! Crimeny, you could wake the dead with that thing!
PetarDima
05-16-2007, 12:47
As you allready said Frank, the final result - good or bad photography - is the thing that we count ... that Nikon is fine optical instrument with manual focus & total control of creative photo process ... RF photography is way of thinking ... sooner or later I will be happy to see some new stuff from your M4 Leica tool :D
You're kidding, right?... the F2 shutter sounds like someone opening and then violently closing the front passenger door on an AMC Pacer! Crimeny, you could wake the dead with that thing!
I most certainly am serious and what I liked about the sound had nothing to do with quietness. It had a quality about it which I can't explain and you may never have experienced. After all I'm talking about a brand new F2. You were around 10 years old when I played with that camera. (Even though you do remember the Pacer, boy what were they thinking?) :p I also happen to like the sound of the barn doors on a hasselblad. Not everything has to be stealthy.;)
OM4?
Unfortunately, I do...
I could just slip it onto the shelf with the other OM gear..
my wife would never notice another one...
(1) Murphy's law of stupid buying: Wife is standing in the door whenever UPS man arrives.
Lucky you! My lovely wife works at the post office. Even on those days that I make it home before her she'll come in the house asking "What was that package you got today?". I can't even have it sent to work, she delivers to my workplace!! That's how I met her!:bang:
That's not the half of it. When your wife works for the PO, there is a network of spies all over the town you live in. Think about it, where can you go without running into a letter carrier? I can't make a trip to Home Depot without my where abouts being reported by one of those white postal trucks that roam all over town.
:eek:
ChrisPlatt
05-17-2007, 15:48
My lovely wife works at the post office. Even on those days that I make it home before her she'll come in the house asking "What was that package you got today?". I can't even have it sent to work, she delivers to my workplace!! That's how I met her!:bang:
That's not the half of it. When your wife works for the PO, there is a network of spies all over the town you live in. Think about it, where can you go without running into a letter carrier? I can't make a trip to Home Depot without my where abouts being reported by one of those white postal trucks that roam all over town.
Use FedEx hold for pickup, or get a PO box in the next town. ;)
Chris
Berliner
05-17-2007, 15:58
I saw an FM3a today for the first time--love at first sight. It had a really nice 45mm P on it--simply beautiful. I know this feeling, I won't rest till I have it--I'm doomed...But hey it's mechanical...
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/images/f3dlogo.jpg
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/motordrive/f3md4faceup.jpghttp://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/images/topviewf3lens.jpghttp://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf3ver2/variations/f3t/wornf3t.jpg
The F3HP, and the F3/T :D
Ain't she Sweet Frank! !
Cheers
Mark
Quito, EC
Hey Mark, you're fishing in the wrong pond too! :)
Would someone please send Mark at least a broken Fed to make him legit?
Well this pond has life, which has diverse characters, and way better than the others.
sepiareverb
05-17-2007, 18:06
That other pond is closed- too much venom in those watersnakes?
Stephanie Brim
05-17-2007, 18:08
Hell, I have a body, but I didn't think that 28/2.8 AI was going to be THIS hard to find.
back alley
05-17-2007, 18:20
Frank: If you are interested in an OM I may have a deal for you ...
earl,
are you selling om gear?
really?
joe
I dunno what your penance is, but when I sold my 8008 (had not used it in 5 years) I used the $$ to buy an F3HP with motor drive. I bet I've shot all of two rolls with it in the past 2 years. I don't like the "+-" exposure indicator all that much. I prefer the match-needles on my FE2's, and the diodes on my R6, and M6. I feel that exposure is an analog phenomenon best represented by an analog display. That remeinds me, I should get rid of my F3, along with my OM-2n, my Visoflex, Rolleiflex T, and other stuff I don't use, and get a digital body: maybe an R-D1. Or a D-200.
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