The Nikon F was introduced in 1959. Integrating a newly designed mirror box, pentaprism, and bayonet lens mount with existing components from Nikon’s popular SP rangefinder camera, Nikon’s engineers were able to design a pro-quality 35mm camera that could be used with lenses longer than 135mm without having to resort to a reflex housing, which has its own limitations. Nikon’s management and engineering team wanted a professional-quality reflex camera system that would surpass the limitations of rangefinder cameras and, hopefully, expand the company’s footprint within the growing post-war photo industry.
Why the letter “F”? According to legend, the letter “F” was the only prominent letter in the word “reflex” that was easy to pronounce in any language. “R” didn’t work, and “X” didn’t cut it for unknown reasons, leaving “F” as the model name for Nikon’s breakthrough camera system.
The Nikon F wasn’t the first reflex camera (SLR) to come to market—that title belongs to the Kine-Exacta, a German-made camera produced in 1936 that featured waist-level, inverted-image viewing, a viewfinder that would get progressively darker as you stopped the lens down, and a mirror that remained in the up position until you re-cocked the shutter. These issues were slowly resolved as prism finders, fully-automatic aperture control, and quick-return mirrors became the norm.
What made the Nikon F so special is that it was the first SLR that addressed all the drawbacks of SLR camera technologies of the day, and did so in the form of an SLR that thoroughly outperformed the competition. Equally significant was that the camera was designed to be part of what would quickly become a wide-ranging system of lenses and accessories designed to capture photographs under the toughest, most challenging working conditions.
The F was available with a choice of interchangeable prism finders, each of which provided 100% image viewing. In addition to the standard prism finder, Nikon offered a folding waist-level finder, a rigid, chimney-style waist level finder, a larger Sports Finder that enabled you to view the entire viewing field without having to press your eye up to the finder (a boon for eyeglass wearers), and a meter prism.
Photographs © Allan Weitz, 2018
The original Photomic meter prism was basically a prism finder with a built-in selenium meter that coupled to the camera’s shutter-speed dial. The original meter wasn’t TTL. It did, however, offer the user the choice of taking incident or reflected light readings. The Photomic T, which was introduced in 1965, was the first to offer TTL metering. The Photomic T was followed by the Photomic FTn, which introduced center-weighted metering to the world.
Nikon also offered a range of accessories for coupling Nikon F bodies with microscopes and telescopes for medical and astronomical imaging.
Photographs taken with Nikon F with 2.1cm Nikkor-O
Mounting lenses on a Nikon F is not always straightforward. If your camera has a Photomic metering prism, you must make sure the meter’s linkage pin is pressed to your right, and the lens must be set at f/5.6 to engage the pin linkage. In the case of the 2.1cm Nikkor-O, you must set the focus to infinity and the aperture to f/8 to mount it on the camera.
Photographs taken with Nikon F with 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor
Why are 64xxx-series Nikon Fs different from all other Nikon Fs?
When Nikon released the first Fs to the public, the camera wasn’t quite finalized. The first production run had serial numbers beginning with “64,” two of which are featured in this review. The first 100 units (#6400001 – #6400100) are of interest to collectors because, rarity aside, they had small, quirky details that differed from later production cameras, including cloth shutter curtains rather than the Titanium-foil shutter curtains found in model Fs with higher serial numbers.
The word “Japan,” which typically appears in the middle of the bottom plate, is instead engraved on the camera back lock latch on the first few thousand production Fs.
Other traits unique to the first production run of Nikon Fs include film advance levers with hollow undersides and “Nippon Kogaku”—the name of Nikon’s parent optical company—engraved on the camera’s top plate instead of “Nikon,” which began appearing around 1965.
If you remove the camera back of a 64xxx-series camera, you’ll also note six pending Patent numbers engraved to the left of the film pressure plate. The edges of the camera’s aluminum self-timer lever were notably sharper on early production cameras.
The Nikon F remained in production for 14 years, with a total output of 862,600 units, and proved to be a success in terms of performance and acceptance among pros and enthusiasts alike. Nikon’s follow-up camera—the Nikon F2, began production in 1971, overlapping the final F production runs, and ended in 1980. That same year, the Nikon F3 was introduced—the first F with an electronic shutter, which remained in production for the next 21 years.
The F3 was followed by the F4 (1988 – 1996), Nikon’s first autofocus flagship camera, which was followed by the F5 (1996 – 2004), and the Nikon F6, which was introduced in 2004 and remains the last professional 35mm film camera made today.
Photographs taken with Nikon F with a 200mm Micro-Nikkor AI-S
The photographs taken to illustrate this story were captured using a trio of Nikon Fs, manufactured in 1959, 1965, and 1969. The lenses included a 2.1cm f/4 Nikkor-O ultra-wide, a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor, and a 200mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor. Films used included Rollei IR, Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Portra 400, and Fujicolor PRO 400H. The film was metered using a Sekonic L-308 light meter and processed and scanned by LTI-Lightside, located on East 30 Street, in Manhattan.
Have you ever owned a Nikon F? Better yet, do you currently own a Nikon F? If so, please share your thoughts on this iconic camera system.