grandpaw

My dad had given me other cameras but my first purchase on my own was a Nikon "F" with a FTN meter and F2 50mm lens fifty years ago and I still have it and it looks like new.

I have owned a D80 and D90 for my first digital cameras. I have also owned a D600 and currently own a D7000, D810 and D500 with a Z6ii on order.

Needless to say I am a Nikon fan.

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rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

December 24 will me together 50 years. Still works, still used, and has seen quite a few adventures. Mine was a Christmas present from my mom and dad.

Likewise on the Nikon fan statement.
--Bob

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Gourmand Loc: Dallas

Got my first one about the same time. It’s not that I’m a hoarder, but I do still have the box it came in from Altmans in Chicago (as well as the camera and lens). Some irreplaceable plastic part in the meter eventually gave out, so I bought another used FTN just for the meter. Everything still works, except for me on occasion.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Somewhere around 1960-61 my first SLR an Exacta. Christmas 1967 I was working at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. I bought my Nikon FTn for my Christmas present.

BebuLamar

Does the meter still work? I think most FTN meters went bad.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Couldn't afford that beast so I bought a Nikkomat while on an Asian deployment.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

I still have the Nikon F2 that I acquired 50 years ago. When I die, I am sure it will be tossed in the trash without much thought.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

Your picture brings back fond memories. My first SLR in 1972 was a Pentax Spotmatic, but that one got stolen. A couple of weeks later I was at the local saloon and a guy I knew said he heard my camera was stolen and asked if I'd be interested in a camera his "friend" was selling. He said it was a "Nick-on" with some lenses. It turned out to be a mint condition Nikon F exactly like yours with a 50mm f/1.4, a 55mm f/2.8 macro and a 135mm f/2.8. The asking price...$125.00.

I had my suspicions that the camera might have been stolen, but couldn't prove it so I snapped it up. A week later he said he had a Pentax 6X7 for $75.00. I regrettably had to pass as I wasn't working at the time and buying the Nikon had left me a bit short.

About five years later I was going to Berlin, Germany for two weeks for work and needed a bit of cash so I sold the camera and lenses to a local dealer. He gave me 3 times the price I paid, but still felt I was being cheated a bit. I also wished that I had the camera with me in Berlin.

fjdarling Loc: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Congratulations on your "golden anniversary". From the others' comments it sounds like many of us cherished the Nikon F's unique charms. Although I no longer have the F (upgraded to FTn finder) that I bought in 1970, every time I pick up my Nikkormat FTn it reminds of that Nikon F. What a smooth, sweet machine.

grandpaw

Yes it does work.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Kudos - you took great care of it. I have one and an F3 - both nice, but not as nice as yours!

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

I don’t have my first Nikon body F2phontonic I still have my first nikkor 50f1.2 and my second lens 43-86 and I still have my second body F3HP still works and looks good

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I bought my first Nikon Ftn 72 years ago. Followed by the F2, F3hp, F4s, F5, and most of the F2 models, F2SB, F2S, and F2AS. I used the F2's when I was a UPI photographer, they literally went through war with me in many situations around the globe. You could not kill an F2, no mater how hard I tried. However, I almost lost everything when we covered the Democratic Convention in Chicago. That was a time of my life that was really on the edge. Looking back on that event changed my photographic career. I dropped out of UPI and went into photographic service and never looked back. I witnessed some really ugly stuff there and the fact I was about to get married and also start on my education career put a final nail in my photojournalism career.
OH well, I am better off now retired and happily doing what I have always loved to do, wildlife photography.
But I still have wonderful memories of my F2 days.
I no longer own any of those film camera's, they are all gone, I am now firmly entrenched in Sony Mirrorless and Nikon DSLR, enjoying the best of both systems. Oh yes, mirrorless is not an end all, for me, it is only another step toward the evolution of the IMAGE.
Good luck to everyone and keep on shooting until the end.

WJB Loc: Salisbury, MD

I hope not.

Although my kids use their iPhones for photos, I'm trying to get the idea of photographs as art across to them, with marginal success. They both have "real" camera equipment-we'll see?

(I have an F2 also, as well as a ton of other Nikon "stuff"...)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I bought the same camera a few years before you. After it sat in a closet for a few years, I put it on eBay in 2005. It went to a man in Dublin, Ireland ($300). I've often been tempted to buy another one on eBay, just to have.