My (ongoing) love affair with the Nikon...

 

Taken with a Yashica Minister D camera

My beautiful boy Murray taken with Nikon D80

I love my cameras! All of them! I could no more sell one of my cameras than I could sell off an ear! I'm not sure why I have to hold onto the older ones...I guess because they still bring back the memories of places I was when I used them. I have had two stolen over the years but never parted with any truly on purpose. 

One Zeiss Ikon which was returned shortly after purchasing it due to malfunction of mirrors inside, but other than that, none.   

It was returned and I came home with a Yashica minister-D instead. More on that in a moment.

Taken with Nikon D80 

Brownie Starflex by Kodak

As a kid I had a little Brownie Starflex which initially belonged to my grandmother and I inherited when I showed an interest (obsession) in taking photos. That camera, along with my second, a Yashica minister-D were the two that were stolen. But I'm sure if they had not, I would still be in possession of them today too.  The Brownie provided me with so many pictures of my school friends, as well as pets and family holiday pictures at home as I became junior photographer in the family. Flash bulbs became harder and harder to find, however. Time to move on.

The Yashica minister-D was probably the best camera for anyone who wasn't familiar with the workings of a 'better' camera. It could be used manually but had a feature that set your depth of field for you and the iso ring also, so you learned where they needed to be just by looking and watching where the camera set them. Manufactured around 1963, it was a 35mm rangefinder camera, fitted with a Yashica Yashinon 4.5cm f/2.8 lens in a Copal-SVL shutter (speeds 1 to 1/500 sec, B,M,X , delay action).

Yashica Minister - D

I loved this little camera! It wasn't overly expensive but took amazing pictures and quite easily. Photo at the top of this post was taken with this camera and you can see how well it was able to stop action. Another of it's fun features was 'double exposure photography'...you could move a frame on the film backwards and take another shot on top of it. Another learning feature...

Thrilling to me was that it did away with flash bulbs and moved to a flash attachment. 

But none of these cameras were Nikons. I had a dream of always owning a Nikon. I had been allowed to use a photographer friend of mines camera and knew I just had to have one!!

Nikon FE   

My first Nikon was the FE. What a beautiful little camera that was!!! While I no longer use this camera, I still have it today.  I don't use any of the film cameras any longer.  I bought the Nikon FE while in Aspen Colorado because I had my Yashica stolen and I needed a camera stat! I think it was providence that it all happened. The FE was also on sale...that didn't hurt this (at the time) poor girl. I sometimes think about buying a roll of film and going on a picture taking tour just to let this little beauty know I still love it. It was so well received by people because of it's diminutive size.

Top view of Nikon FE

The FE has a "full information" viewfinder very similar to the Nikkormat EL (more on that one later) and the photos this camera produced were amazing! A number of pictures I took were chosen for calendars and appeared in photography books. Considering I am not a professional photographer, this is truly a testament to this camera.

Nikon N2020 AF

 Then, as a Christmas present from my husband I received the Nikon N2020 AF. As appreciative as I was to my husband for buying me this camera, I did not like it. Oh yes, the pictures was beautiful...if someone else took them. I did not like using the camera at all. Why? Because it was computerized and I hated the lack of control I had for what I wanted. I gave this camera back to my husband and he still has it too. This being my very first digital SLR meant learning to take photos all over again. I wasn't sure I wanted to go through that but since I've never shied away from learning new things, I stuck with it. However, I just couldn't get over that hurdle of not having control of my camera. I didn't want to be stopped from taking a photo because of lack of light...sometimes I wanted lack of light. I don't take easy to being bossed around. The N2020 was not for me!


My next Nikon...and to date, the love of my digital camera life is my Nikon D80. Is it as sophisticated or offer as much as it's more recent siblings? No...but I am so comfortable with this camera that it's my go-to camera. I grab it first without thinking about it even though there are two others sitting nearby...

Nikon D80

I also have the D90 but no pictures of that at the moment. The D90 has a few more features than the D80...very nice features. But the D80 has been what I use and I can almost operate it with my eyes closed. I think we're talking a comfortable camera here. Back to the comfort of the smaller size I enjoyed with my old FE.
If I have any gripe with the D80 it's the automatic focus. Both slow and very annoying at times as when you think you're ready to press the shutter and it jumps out of focus giving you a blurry picture. It forces you to always use it manually...not that there's anything wrong with that, but a sort of a wasted feature having auto focus.

As mentioned in the above D80 remarks I have the D90. What it has over the d80 is the capability to shut the flash off (a GREAT feature) as well as does video. The movie capture at up to 1280 x 720 (720p) 24 fps with mono sound comes with a few limitations but otherwise will do as much as any small handheld recorder.

Nikon N75 (F75 in Japan)

Somewhere in between the D80 and the D90, while we were living in Las Vegas, I found a Nikon N75 in a pawn shop there.
The price tag was $100. and I got him down to $75.00.  There's nothing impressive about this little camera.  I suppose it'd make a good entry camera  for people just learning how to use the digital SLR.


 Lastly, talking new cameras is my D5100. It too, is a smallish camera...funny I don't set out to buy a camera for that purpose but end up with one anyway. The D5100 is slightly smaller than Canon's Rebel T3i/EOS 600D which is the comparison camera when people talk about either/or. But this camera is so loaded with features I can't list them all. Check them out for yourself HERE. If this camera doesn't have what you want, I'm not sure you'll find it anywhere.

Now, the very coolest thing that just happened this weekend is that a friend of mine, a shhhh, Canon person got his hands on a circa 1972 Nikon Nikkormat EL with lenses and he shas no use for it at all. The camera once belonged to a photojournalist working at The Philadelphia Inquirer and now, because I have such nice friends, it was given to me.  I'm not sure yet if it's working but I'm not sure that really matters yet anyway. Suffice to say I got a very nice somewhat battered up vintage Nikon camera....for nothing!
Let me introduce you to my newest-oldest Nikon, the Nikkormat EL. It came with a bunch of nice lenses too which I believe I can use with my digitals. It came with a bunch of nice lenses too which I believe I can use with my digitals. 
It came with a bunch of nice lenses too, which I believe I can use with my digitals. 

Telephoto for Nik

Top of Nikkormat EL

Nikkormat EL - circa 1972