Masterpiece of camera engineering.
It is probably fair to say that Nikon still maintains the top notch in the world media equipment stakes. One of the reasons for this is that the larger news agencies and many provincial and national newspaper groups have invested huge sums of money into Nikon equipment over the years.
Many freelances are committed for similar reasons. Switching allegiance would cost most an arm and a leg. Consequently, there are hundreds of middle aged paunchy hacks who still carry an F2 as backup and thousands more for whom it is the corepiece of an impressive armoury of lenses.
The F2 was not the last of Nikon's all metal cameras - the compact FM2 continues to carry the flame for the company - nor, contrary to legend, was it the most produced slr from Nikon; the F still holds that distinction. The F2 does however, have a certain timeless aesthetic appeal which its predecessor and the later F3 lack, and of course, it was the last purely mechanical camera having the option of removeable metering and non metering heads.
The standard pentaprism bodied F2 was first introduced in 1971.
Horror of horrors! Those hard nosed corners of the trusty F had disappeared, bits of black plastic tipped the wind-on lever, the mechanism of which had also changed, adorned the delayed action lever, the depth of field preview button and the lens release lock. But nostalgia sometimes has a short life.
The F2 was about as ergonomically perfect as one could get in those days and once the sophisticated MD1 motor drive became available there was no turning back. The F2 reigned supreme. It became the stuff of which great picture legends are made.
The body of the camera is deceiving in many ways. It is the same size as the old F but the rounded ends give it a compact feel which is further enhanced by the offset axis of the lens mount, allowing a firm but relaxed grip of the right hand side of the body. The offset is a distinctive throwback to the very first Nikon rangefinder cameras and which has been carried through to the latest AF integral handgrip Nikons with less success.
Compared with the F4, the F2 is almost 200 grams lighter, though both bulk and weight change dramatically when the motor drive/battery unit combination is attached.
The F2's solid die cast zinc alloy body has brass top, bottom and back plates, the top and bottom plates being finished in either silver chrome or black enamel. The removeable pentaprism was available in a matching finish but the metering photomic heads of which there were a variety from the DP1 through DP3 and DP11 12 introduced as new innovations were made, were all black enamel and leatherette over the brass housing.
Black titanium top, bottom and back plate F2's were also produced and even a few rare Champagne chrome 'Titan' models exist.
The whole basis of Nikon design philosophy at this time (as now to a large extent) was aimed squarely at updating their top of the line cameras by incorporating new features into accessories. Of these, the metering heads were the most important and was one reason why both the original F and the F2 lasted for as long as they did.
Initially, Cds cells were used in a slightly improved orginal FTn (model F) Photomic head with basic +/- match needle. This was changed later in the DP3 head (F2SB camera model) to incorporate the much faster acting silicon photo diodes and red LEDs in the +/- configuration with a central circle to indicate correct exposure. The last DP12 (F2AS) version was identical except that like the DP11 (F2A) it allowed AI'd lenses to be used on the camera.
The body, with minor cosmetic modifications, remained essentially the same from day one. Various schools of thought exist regarding the year of build. It was once commonly believed the first two numbers of the body serial number (on all Nikons) designated the year of manufacture.
Subsequently, collecting sleuths discovered that while these numbers did generally apply to chrome bodied models, the same could not be said for all black enamel versions. The change in metering and lens indexing from the old pronged coupling method to a less vulnerable design incorporated in the rear barrel of the lens eventually produced the F2AS model in late 1977.
As with the earlier F and Nikkormat models the F2 metering system was 'centre-weighted', that is, it measured approximately 60% of the subject area around the centre of the screen.
It was already a well proven method and could be extremely accurate in use measuring from as low as EV 2 to 17. Other marque cameras needed a meter booster to get that low! Most current AF slr's cannot AF successfully at the same low level.
The other great Nikon turn-on at this time, was the fact that the viewfinder screen (interchangeable with F type screens) gave the photographer 100% picture coverage. The nearest other marque screens gave 97%, or 95% or worse 92%; and many still do.
The F2 is a precision tool, engineered to the highest standards equipment of the time would allow.
Despite the advent of CNC (computer numerically controlled) milling towards the end of its nine year life, the quality of workmanship was close to the standards achieved by Leitz or Hasselblad and it was certainly way ahead of most other oriental manufacturers.
The shutter blinds are made of quilted ultra thin titanium foil and many of the shutter mechanism parts are, like the lens bayonet mount, constructed from chrome-nickel-steel. The quilting of the foil shutter curtains helps to prevent kinking, adds strength while reducing weight and permitted the design of a unique shutter braking system which increases curtain life.
Additionally, strategically placed ball bearings within the mechanism ensure timing accuracy and smoothness.
Several improvements over the older F model included modifications to the mirror lock-up system operated by a lever placed around the depth of field preview button. The delayed action mechanism incorporates a 'T' position which in conjunction with the timer delay permits accurate time exposures of from 2-10 seconds.
Instead of the 'Advance' and 'Rewind' tasks allocated to the F shutter release collar, the F2 collar permits locking and time exposures. The wind-on lever has a 12deg stand-off position which turns on battery power to the meter.
The F2A configuration was probably the most popular in its heyday, allowing the user to fit AI'd and non-AI'd lenses with ease and retain all the metering facilities in both.
The DP11 head is identified by a tiny letter 'A' on the front face of the head at lower right. A small lever here locks and unlocks the coupling prong for the older type lenses and can be deactivated in a second or two. The standard viewing screen is as bright as that in the FM2 screen and incorporates a horizontal split image rangefinder within a central microprism collar.
As already stated, the user sees the whole of the frame area; the silver coated mirror is also large enough to accomodate very long telephoto lenses without image cut-off or vignetting.
Other useful gadgets include mirror lock up which I have always found useful when the camera is mounted for copying or duplicating. Suddenly, any vibration caused by mirror flop vanishes and one is left with the near silent whistle of titanium.
But the real joy of this camera, like all professional Nikon's, is the removeable viewing head.
Many sports and press photographers claim they never have a use for this facility. As one who is frequently working in both areas, (granted that yachting might be considered a little on the fringes of the former activity), I can only say that removeable heads are a must.
I have tried working with right angle finders but they are restrictive. Take the head off and the screen image is still visible from more than a meter. I can get the camera into corners and align it accurately for shots that others cannot reach.
When you're up the top of a 100 foot mast, there isn't much room for the human frame to manoeuvre, so the camera has to do most of the work. In this respect, Nikon has always kept the faith, but it is only a matter of time before the new generation of pro cameras come along lacking this feature.
The top shutter speed of 1/2000 sec gave a slight edge over the Nikon F, but it took a while for the competition to catch up and even Leica have only added this speed to their slr's since the advent of the R6.
2. A marginal imrovement in the running time of the F2 shutter blinds provided an increased electronic flash synch speed of 1/80th sec, which is painfully slow compared with the FM2. But then the F2 does not have a vertical run shutter.
Where it does score is in motor drive mode.
Several motors were introduced during the production life of the camera. All are of electro mechanical type enclosed in solid heavy metal housings with bolt on or separate power packs.
The camera, unlike its predecessor, needed no service dept modification.
The first version designated MD1 with battery pack MB1 could fire at a rate of up to 5 fps, depending on the shutter speed set. his rate betters that of some current AF cameras.
It is still 1.5 frames faster than the current MD12 motor (for FM2). A modified MD2 had an improved release button and a set of rear mounted contacts which slotted into the stop-back MF3 used to halt wind on when the film end was reached.
A slower MD3 motor drive was also available and could be used with either MB1 or 2. If you really wanted to show off, there was always the option of the Nikon F2H fitted with the MD100 and two standard battery packs. This beast frequently appeared at the motor racing trackside and was capable of eating a normal 36 exposure cassette in 3.
6 seconds! No wonder some 'Sports Illustrated' snappers claimed records for the highest number of frames exposed in an hour.
It is now 14 years since the last of approximately 900,000 F2's rolled off the production line.
Gray Levitt at Gray's of Westminster who are the specialist Nikon dealers in London told me recently he wished he could find more F2's.
"It's something of a Cindarella. It appeals almost equally to middle aged professionals for purely nostalgic reasons as well as to photographers in their early twenties who are looking for a reliable and beautifully made camera.
You could say, the F2 is a camera which doesn't know a problem."
Gray's cosmetic ratings lean toward the conservative rather than the optimistic mint minus many dealers label bent and brassy bodied examples. This is one model of a legendary marque where it really will pay to search for the best.
Many exist, having been purchased originally by amateurs who used them sparingly. Once in a while, truly mint examples turn up in the classified columns complete with legendary 50mm Nikkor f1.4 or better, the original 55mm Nikkor f1.
2 if you're a low light freak like me.
News RSS