Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

If it is a Tamron lens, it could de-value the camera body.

D50 Loc: Brooklyn, NY

It should have read ChrisRL, damn spell check
with the photo of the top

Bill P

Heavy? you bet! I remember stories of Nikon sales reps (remember them) who would visit local stores and use a Nikon F as a HAMMER and pound a nail into a board. Another was a guy who would demo it be putting it on the floor right side up and put one foot on the top and balance himself on it.

No one, including Nikon would do that today.

ELNikkor

That is an awesome example of the early pro Nikons! I can't help wondering what you could get for that in Japan. Great as that line was (and still is!), all I can think about when I see one, is: a loud swish-clunk when a photo is taken, and, built like a tank, and almost as heavy. My Nikon experience began when they introduced the FMs, as they were more suited to my style of photography, and the FM2 is still my go-to film camera.

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`



Reeeeealy ? Just take it off ! Eazy Peazy !

OTOH it appears to be a close focusing
35-70/3.5 .... which would be a vastly
better lens than Nikon's 43-86 doggy.

But as you seem to point out, this is not
a "matched pair", so it's likely each item
could bring a better price sold separately
than offering it as a mongrel. There are
those who are purist Nikon lovers, and
others who seek out various cool lenses
mainly for actually use.

.

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Where ever did you get THAT idea ?

From your days of using one ? If you
ever actually USED a selenium Nikon
meter, I must offer my sympathies.
The "Thing" really once existed, but
NO WAY can you confuse it with the
OP photo of the '62 Nikon:

(Download)

AntonioReyna Loc: Los Angeles, California

I would guess around 1964 with that prism. I have the exact camera with the silver body, same prism, with the 50/1.4 Nikkor lens which I got for $125.00. It works great. I am a Canon guy and have all the Canon bodies in black, except for the Pellix, but I always admired the Nikon F so I added that to my collection. Also trying to get a Canon VIT rangefinder body, which I used back in the day. What is somewhat unusual about your kit is that it is a black body with the silver prism. Usually, they are black/black or silver/silver. So many of the Vietnam photos were taken with that body.

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

YES ...

... But, not the type pictured in your post.

I still have MY first-generation Photomic finder ...

... BUT, I happened to disassemble MINE several years ago when I was going to paint the chrome faceplate (the OTHER reason is below) ...

... I ended up completely disassembling it & removing the light meter ...

... I can assure that there is NO battery compartment in THAT iteration of the Photomic head!

... Essentially, the early Photomic meter is not that dissimilar to the early Leica meters which coupled to one of their M series rangefinder camera bodies EXCEPT it was affixed to the Prism finder AND engaged to the F camera body's shutter speed dial when the Photomic finder was attached and the pin engaged with the auxiliary shutter speed dial integrated on the Photomic finder.

BTW. I was going to re-shroud my meterless Photomic with the modified cover from a donor Nikkormat top; but, just never got around to it (yet!?! SOME modification will be necessary ...) and I simply ended up using THAT head as an indoor viewfinder.

... I do NOT recall why I originally took the particular Photomic finder apart -- I think that there MUST HAVE BEEN a problem with the silvering on THAT particular finder's prism because I replaced it with a prism from a Nikkormat ...

... The Nikon & Nikkormat prisms are NOT identical with the Nikkormat's image when-viewed-through-the-eyepiece being slightly LARGER & slightly less contrasty.

One of these days I'll get around to finishing THAT project.

BTW2. This should be common knowledge about the F Photomic heads; but, probably isn't ... OR, has been forgotten by most ...

... You should be able to mount any F prism finder on an F2 camera body ...

... You only lose access to 1/2000th of a second because the F Photomic head's dial isn't set up for that speed.

In other words, the OP's Photomic head will fit on an F2 body to give a vintage camera an even more vintage appearance -- THAT's info for street photographers who may still shoot with film.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

When I sold all my film equipment in 2002, I got a lot more for one of those plain prisms than I did for the bare F body (which I sold separately.)

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The type of head pictured by the OP
ALWAYS uses a battery for the meter.
IIRC the cover is on the underside so
you hadda remove the head to swap
the battery. The F2 moved the battery
to the camera baseplate, so you can't
use an F2 meter head on an F even if
you hack it into place. Oneway street.

Yes indeed, there was limited, kinda
klunky, prism interchange between F
and F2. It was a oneway street becuz
the F nameplate is on the body while
the F2 plate is on the finder. Klunky,
cuz your COULD remove the plate to
beat the system.

Your Frankenstein projects do sound
interesting but I can see how they'd
sit around unfinished for years. You
can buy all that stuff intact, ready to
use, for pocket lint.

.

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

YOU are confusing subsequent Photomic heads which used batteries to power the meter with the type which the OP has & included in his initial post.

BTW. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter; but, YOU apparently (¿obviously?) did not have one-or-possibly-other Photomic finders, so I do not know why you are pretending that you did.

FWIW. While replacing the prism housing MAY be a "Frankenstein project" it was NOT the original reason for disassembling the finder; and as I recall, the main reason was to make the actual finder MORE usable because (as I indicated; but, cannot be certain due to the fog of time) there MUST have been something wrong with the actual pentaprism. Since the particular finder was "extra" there was/is not initially a need to make it cosmetically nice ... initially, with the thought of painting the faceplate so that it would match an existing "black" body; later, it was a matter of why-not simply cap the prism with that portion of a Nikkormat top plate ... finally, "Why bother?"

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

The first Photomic finder has a non-TTL CdS cell powered by 2 PX625 batteries. See D50’s first picture.

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The head in the initial post is reposted showing
the top view on page two. You can clearly see
the battery power on-off buttons, at right angle
to each other, just forward of the shutter dial.

The buttons are not labeled. Only way to know
what they do is to have USED THEM. You seem
to know something about these. Look at the pic
on page two to jog your memory. Perhaps you
recall, you push in the "on" and the "off" pops
out, and vice-versa, back and forth.

.

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

HMmmm ...

I will presume that my memory has failed me AND accept the consensus observation that the particular Photomic finder used batteries.

My apologies.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

All the Photomics have battery powered meter cells incorporated into the finder. The selenium cell units are not called Photomics, they are accessory light meters separate from the finder.