Camera for the Rest of Us Review: Nikon F3

In a digital world, why would anyone still shoot film anymore? 

Film slows you down. Film may be cheep, but just knowing that you only only have 36 shots inside your camera at a time makes you think differently. You look at the image in your viewfinder the way a painter looks at his canvas, making sure that all the various pieces of the composition are just where you want them to be. You make sure that your exposure is correct, and then you take one shot and move on to another subject.

With manual cameras, the tactile feedback of handling something mechanical with knobs, levers and gears makes you feel like you are communicating with your machine at a personal level.

My F3 with one of my newest lens acquisitions, a used, but almost mint Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AIS.

I was snapping with 110 format instamatics until my first real camera a lovely little Minotla XG series manual SLR, which got me through an undergrad photography course and a trip out west. After college, I traded that in for a Nikon N6006. I thought that the Nikon was amazingly capable, but I also missed the old Minolta.
In the mid 1990s, One of the many things I considered in my lost years fresh out of college was to go pro with my photography, which I never did. I was looking into newspaper careers. I wanted to be Weegee. I was a gearhead, I bought everything, I thought that "real" photographers looked something like Dennis Hopper in "Apocalypse Now".

During this time, the professionals and the amateur gear freaks had been trading in their Nikon F3s for the new F4s for four or five years, so, a lot of used F3s were in the camera stores even while Nikon was still making new ones. They were everywhere, so, I bought one. I also got a motordrive, a lenses, a ridiculous telephoto zoom for taking pictures of birdies from a mile away, and a big press style camera bag to carry all that crap in. My whole kit sent me to the chiropractor on a regular basis. Also, I had a Banana Republic safari vest with a stupid number of pockets to complete the mister photographer guy look. I still have the bag, the vest, and the birdie lens.

The Banana Republic vest was made back in the 1980s when Banana Republic actually sold cool looking safari shit. Hell, they even had pith helmets. Then they were bought out by The Gap who turned the outfit into another mainstream preppy brand. Somebody needs to buck that trend, the world doesn't need more clones of J.Crew, the world needs more people wearing pith helmets.

The F3 was the Nikon flagship pro camera from 1980 to 1988, when it was superseded by the mighty F4. The F3 still remained in production until 2001 when the F5 was being sold. With a 21 year production run there are many, many out there on the used market today for really good prices. Even the ones that look beat up more than likely work just fine. I bought mine used sometime between 1993 and 1995. According to the serial number, it was already a 10 year old camera at the time I bought it and it has been my favorite camera for twenty years since. So, why am I still shooting a camera that is 30 years old?

It's gorgeous. The F3 is a masterpiece of industrial design. To create it, Nikon recruited designer Giorgetto Giugiaro who's portfolio includes a long list of automobiles including the  original Volkswagen Golf, the DeLorean DMC-12 , and the Lotus Eprit.

Nikon hasn't changed it's basic lens mount since 1959, so any Nikon lens between then and now except for (G) lenses will mostly work on the F3.

This is the camera photojournalists used to take into war zones. It was made for people who had to get the shot, get it fast, and then get out of the way of the flying bullets. The body is a hunk of solid metal. The design is modular; an insane number of interchangeable prisms, film doors, and focusing screens were made for it. The film advance lever has ball bearings and is smoother than any other I have ever tried. The electronic shutter is nothing short of reliable, just keep a pair of extra button batteries in your camera bag. You'll need them eventually, but they last a long time.

It has every feature you can imagine you might need in a manual film camera, and everything is done with nice big levers, switches and dials...like a real camera. It has 80 percent center-weighted metering as apposed to the 60 percent on most cameras which makes it easier to pick out what part of the scene you want to meter without having an actual spot meter. Both the DE-2 and DE-3 prisms allow you to see 100% of what ends up on the film, as opposed to the 80 or 90 percent in a typical SLR, and the viewfinder image is absolutely huge. With the depth of field preview, all of this makes the F3 a great tool for fine art photography.

The Camera is only close to perfect, though. The flash sync is only at 1/80, which might be a turn-off for some, but it doesn't bother me, I almost never use flash. The flash shoe is weird, but, more on that later. Your shutter speed and a (+-) exposure guide is read digitally in the viewfinder with a small LCD. In low light, you can press a small, hard to use button to light up the LCD enough to barely read it, or you can just keep it in aperture priority in low light like I do.

The most common prism, the DE-3, or high-eyepoint finder, which is labeled with the letters HP, allows you to see everything while wearing glasses. An F3 sold with the DE-3 was designated the F3HP. With it, you to stay in the middle of the action without having to press the camera into your face and squint hard into the viewfinder. Since I shoot without glasses, I don't find much difference with the older DE-2 prism which lowers the camera's profile slightly. 

When the F3 was designed, Nikon had not yet figured out how to put a regular hotshoe on interchangeable viewfinders, so the F3 has a freaky flash shoe over the rewind crank. TTL flash exposure is provided by the special Nikon SB-12 speedlight. It's a really nice lightweight flash that can be folded flat and put in a coat pocket.

In continuous mode, The MD-4 motordrive burns through a roll of film in the blink of an eye. It also takes 8 AA batteries and makes your camera feel like it weighs about fifty pounds. I don't use it anymore.

All photos: 

Camera: Nikon F3:

Lens: Nikkor 50mm f1.8

Kodak BW400CN 

This one I cropped slightly

This is a re-shoot of a photo I posted earlier

This one had a bright leaf in the top of the frame that I did not like, so I used the burn tool in Photoshop to remove it.

Game of Thrones 6-9 "The Battle of the Bastards".

I will not go into detail about the battle for Winterfell. I plan on doing that in a few weeks in the form of a correspondence written by a character I shall invent, a maester of The Citadel who was on on hand at the battle.

I dare say, giants, and possible historical anachronisms aside, this must have come pretty close to showing the horror of ancient warfare, especially when Jon nearly drowns in the crush of men when his small army was caught between the Bolton shield walls.

Our female protagonists who's slow ascension in a world of kings and warriors we have been watching for many seasons, indeed rise to prominence in this episode. Danerys, with all three of her dragons, makes the Master's war fleet feel the burn, and then makes a pact with Yara Greyjoy. Later, Sansa wins the war for the north by calling in her alliances while her kinsman, Jon, nearly gets himself and his Wildling army slaughtered by Ramsey's trained infantry.

There were three takeaway lessons in this episode.
1: Scoff not at the girl with dragons.
2: Believe your sister when she is telling you something important.
3: Remember to feed your dogs.

Game of Thrones 6-8 "No One"

Sandor catches up with the attackers form the Brotherhood. The first three, he cuts down with his axe. No sword, no armor, no shield, just the axe he was chopping wood with, and he brought down a gang of men-at-arms. He then finds the rest of the culprits with nooses around their necks and about to getting strung up by Beric Dondarion for their crimes. Sandor (who is not a man to let a dead man's boots go to waste), chit-chat's with Ser Beric and seems convinced to join up. It looks like The Brotherhood will be traveling north to join the fight against the army of the dead.

Brienne arrives at the siege of Riverrun and convinces Jamie to let her try to talk the Blackfish into giving up the castle to fight for Sansa. She fails, and Jamie sets Edmure, who is the rightful lord of Riverrrun free. Lord Edmure enters and takes command away from the Blackfish and then surrenders. In the books, this taking of Riverrun without fighting, signals the beginning of a new story arc for Jamie where he really starts to work on becoming a decent human being.

A girl, in Braavos, survives the waif and places the waif's face on the wall of faces in the Temple of Black and White, she walks away from Jagen and her life as no one. This completes the self-discovery part of her story. She had to become no one before finding out who Arya Stark of Winterfell really is. The Waif's makes a "and this is why I have to kill you" speech, which villains somehow can never resist. but in hearing it we finally get to know what she really was. The Waif wasn't a cold-hearted assassin, she was the one thing in the world more dangerous than that. She was a religious fanatic.

Camera For the Rest of Us Review: Nikon FE2

Publishing these camera reviews are my way of encouraging myself to get out there and shoot, and to use all of the cameras that have collected on my shelf.  If you have never used a camera with manual controls, I recommend getting one and taking a photography class at your local college just for the creative enjoyment.

I had been looking for something a little  smaller and lighter than my old trusty F3 for vacation and traveling which would also take my favorite Nikkor lenses, especially my 50mm 1.8 AIS. At a bargain price the Nikkor 50 1.8 AI and AIS are as just about as sharp as any lens out there. It has an all-business metal body. The focusing ring has a big rubbery grip and moves fantastically smooth as butter. If you are going to shoot Manual focus, a real MF made in the 1970s or 1980s will feel a lot smoother than any AF lens, which don't feel like they were made for manual focusing. Get one that matches the metering in your camera. When ordering online, make sure to use a reputable used camera dealer. I typically use B&H and Adorama, they are in New York, so they are close to me. They also list on Ebay and Amazon. I just ordered my first lens from KEH, which came to me in great condition for it's age.

Anyway, I wanted to buy a Nikon camera in the FM, FE, FA family as soon as I could afford to. A nice FE2 in silver goes for about $150 on Ebay these days. Black ones can be $200 or more. I was admiring this one at my favorite camera shop and asked the salesman what the price was and he told me $80. The low price took me aback. My first reaction was to ask him to recheck it. My second was to assume something that was wrong with the camera. Everything did check out, and knowing that I would never see an FE2 in this condition for $80 ever again, I bought it on the spot.  I love it already.

So, what is so great about the FE2? It's gorgeous, as you can see. It has very high quality metal construction. Nikon hasn't changed it's basic lens mount since 1959, so any Nikon lens between then and now except for (G) lenses will mostly work on the FE2. It's of a size that fits nicely in the hands. Mechanically, it feels more like a fine watch than a camera. Lastly nothing exists on this camera that does not help you improve your photographic art.  The veiwfinder image is big and bright. Not big like,say,  the F3's, but it still lets you focus and compose without squinting, which means, faster, easier, more enjoyably shooting. Every control is exactly where it should be. It is close to perfect.

There is one drawback. The film advance lever also serves as the camera's on-off switch. Pull the lever out, and the meter and electronic shutter are turned on. Fold it back in, and they are off and the  camera will not shoot. This is actually a good thing, because it keeps you from forgetting to turn your camera off when you put it away. However, if you are left-eyed, the film advance lever will poke you in the right eye. I've tried looking through the viewfinder with my left eye, it's true; if I was left-eyed, I would look for something else.

Will it supplant my F3 as my favorite camera? I don't know, but it's one of the best cameras I ever owned. There is a certain sensory pleasure in handling it, so it invites you to use it. Once you have manual camera basics down, it is intuitive, so it makes it easy for you to create photos you will love in the camera, well before you load up your editing software at home.

Photos taken with Nikon FE2

                              Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AIS

                              Kodak BW400CN

Kodak BW400CN is a black and white film that uses C-41 processing, which means any lab or pharmacy is able to machine develop it and get you a set of prints. Sadly BW400CN is discontinued, I just happened to have some laying around. Kodak and other film makers have been whittling down their film offering in recent years with the ubiquity of digital photography. Most infamous is the disappearance of the legendary Kodachrome. I've taken a liking to this BW400CN. I find that I get much better black and white images from shooting on real B&W film than I get from shooting on color and then removing the color information in Photoshop, which I have been doing. I'm going to go out and buy it until it's gone, if I can, and then look for other C-41 black and white films such as Ilford XP-2. I don't have a darkroom, so It's much easier for me to bring C-41 film to a lab and get prints and professional scans back. These photos were uploaded directly from the scans that I got back from the lab without cropping or Photoshop. I found a great camera store with a lab, called Unique Photo in Fairfield, NJ. It's worth the 30 minute drive from my house.

Game of Thrones 6-7 "The Broken Man"

We finally get to see Ian McShane for a single episode. McShane plays "Brother Ray", a character based on Septon Meribald in the books. Brother Ray is the leader of a small band of folk who worship the seven and are trying to build a peaceful religious community as war rages around them. Meribald/Ray finds the practically dead Sandor Clegane and nurses him back to health. In the beginning of the episode we find Clegane helping Brother Ray build a small wooden sept for the community. Ray is former warrior who turned away from violence and brutality. he was a short-lived character, but a perfect one for the guest actor, who gave a great "Deadwood"-like  performance. Alas, while Sandor was away chopping wood, all his new friends, including Brother Ray were slaughtered by armed worshipers of R'hollor, presumably the Brotherhood Without Banners.

Jon and Sansa are visiting the great houses of The North trying to recruit them to their cause. They managed to get the always loyal Mormonts and a few others, but, all in all, the Stark siblings are proving themselves to be unpracticed coalition builders. In desperation, Sansa sends a raven to Littlefinger.

Another sibling team, Yara, Theon, and their supporters have dropped anchor at a friendly port of call. Here we learn that Yara enjoys making love to wenches as well as any rogue, to the chagrin of Theon the Sullen. We also learn that she has plans to sail her own fleet to Meereen to find the Dragon Queen.

Jamie and Bronn arrive at Riverrun and are not impressed with the Frey brothers' siege. First the march the entire lannister army behind Frey lines, and the Freys don't notice. Then, the incompetent Frey brothers are threatening to cut unlucky Edmure Tully's throat. The grim Blackfish takes the measure of the brothers and sees they are not capable of doing it. And now we know why Walder Frey is a grouchy old bastard, his offspring are useless. Jamie parlays with the Blackfish who is not impressed with him, either.

At the Red Keep, Queen Margarey goes to her grandmother, the Queen of Thorns to convince her to get out of Kings Landing and flee for Highgarden. Margarey slips her grandmother a small piece of paper on which was a simple hand drawing of a rose. The symbol doesn't look like much, but it means that Margarey is only pretending to be drinking the High Sparrow's Cool-Aide.

In Bravvos, that old lady with the creepy smile was so obviously one of THEM, how did Arya not see? Arya still manages to escape after diving into a canal. She'll won't die today, and she might have to take down the waif, and maybe even Jaqen H'ghar, too, before she is free. Who will she find to help her with he knife wounds? I'm hoping it'll be her old dancing master. I like to think that Syrio Forrel escaped from Meryn Trant and his oafs and fled to Bravvos.

Ghostbusters Reboots and Remakes

The new Ghostbusters movie trailers have become a  study in gender politics. The heroes of the film will all be played by female cast members, so it has been suggested by many writers that the people who don't want to see this movie must therefore be all gamergate-types with male-chauvinist agendas. Sadly, it is well known that these morons exist in droves. If someone could explain to me what the fuck is wrong with the new generation and where their troglodyte attitudes towards female characters came from, I would love to hear it. My generation, especially those of us who considered ourselves as outsiders, had Buffy Summers, and we loved her. Things have moved backwards since the nineties and I don't like it.

But, I'm not interested in seeing the new Ghosbusters. So, what's my problem? Judd Apatow seems to think that if you want to take a pass on this movie then you probably like Donald Trump. Why do I run from the idea of a rehashed Ghostbusters like it's a reincarnation of Zul?
Ghostbusters wasn't exactly classic cinema, but it was charming, goofy fun and something we all loved...and highly quotable. I just don't see the use in doing it again. I'm open to being proved wrong. I'll pay attention to what people are saying, but I don't have a lot of hope.

In recent memory, George Lucas stripped all the charm out of his original trilogy through his constant re-edits to the point that I can't watch them anymore, J.J. Abrams created a new Star Trek universe that makes me dizzy, attempts have been made to remake Robocop,Total Recall, and Connan, and Tom Hardy grunted his way through a new Mad Max adventure that honestly didn't make much sense.

There is a new Point Break in the works that I have no plans to see unless I read some really good reviews of it. Speaking of which, the entire plot to the first Fast and the Furious movie was just Point Break with cars instead of surfing, which is fine, they did something different with it, and it was good, stupid fun.
There are rumors of a new Highlander floating around. The first movie was cool, but they really fucked up the sequels. I'm not over excited about the idea of a remake, but, what the hell, it's not like it could be any worse than Highlander 2.

Sometimes the time is ripe for a remake. This year there will be a new Magnificent Seven with Denzel Washington apparently playing the Yul Brynner character. The original Magnificent Seven came out in 1960 and was an adaptation of the 1954's The Seven Samurai with the wonderful Toshiro Mifune. There has to be at leas one generation or more that has never seen either classic.

The one franchise that always carries a license to reboot is James Bond. There have been six canon 007's so far. Daniel Craig hates the sexist spy so much he just refused a mind-boggling offer to play him again. So, Gillian Anderson is campaigning for the role. The Bond franchise is the dinosaur in the room; maybe a gender switch might freshen things up a bit. It's no stretch at all to imagine Gillian Anderson as an asskicker on H.M.'s Secret Service and being sexy as hell doing it. I want to see this, but we will probably have another James and not a Jane. Maybe Barbara Broccoli and company might take a look at Gillian Anderson and think "spinoff". They could even do a crossover allowing her to say "I don't take orders from you, Mister Bond, I'm a double-0". That would be excellent.