2023 ROLL#07 – Here comes the Nikon F3

Buckingham

After a three years hiatus I have resolved to pull the Nikon F3 out of the box. The F3 is amazing, a couple of fresh batteries (LR44 I am not fussy), turn the switch ON … et voila! its working.

Smelling something fishy

You can find a few posts on this blog my F3 :

• Another old fellow back from the magic cupboad – Nikon F3
• The Nikon F3 gets out the closet
• THE NIKON F3 : DOES IT FOCUS OR NOT
• Time travel with the Nikon F3

hurry up Alice

But for a quick summary, when my SRT101 broke in 1992 I bought a second hand beaten Nikon F3. Yes that was 30 years ago! I have carried it in a lot of places other this time, it gathered dust in the 2000’s when digital was the rage and did not get much more use when I went back to film and discovered the rangefinders.

I am a rockstar

But I love the F3. It is a camera I was really longing for, and since I bought the 50mm1.4 AIS for a travel in Nepal, I really have a nice combo there.

So, as I now belong a Nikon F facebook group I decided to ditch the L—- for a while and pick up the F3. That was week end before King Charles coronation so a bit of action was to be expected, or at least a few people wondering around.

What is the experience of shooting with the F3? Well last time I used it was in 2020 so I cannot say I am an expert, it is pretty simple. But alas I always compare to the M6, I think the rings turn i opposite direction, so focusing and adjusting aperture takes time.

reluctant models – I was only interested in the back light

I have a problem of focusing it seems. It may be me or the camera (I never had it serviced) ? Some shots are in focus, some slightly off, some were way off. I really got accustomed to the rangefinder patch.

Gillie and Marc sculpture at the back of Saint Paul

Gillie and Marc sculpture at the back of Saint Paul

It is not so critical, but I would have no confidence taking the portrait of someone and propose to print it for him. I would rate my chances at 30%, I think it would go up to 70 with the M6.

Nice legs

All in all a nice and pleasant experience ( nobody go hurt), it is a good camera to handle. A pleasant roll of my favourite film, the TMAX 100.

What’s on the menu?

So ? Back to the box? For the moment yes. But as I have paid for a full package of batteries, I will have to shoot more rolls to recover my investment. And yes I saw some mint F3s and they are still a pure object of lust, even if I am not 100% satisfied.

A final note, the Leica III is back from ApertureUK, and is loaded with a test roll of FP4. To be continued

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Roll 2021#12 Tekka Market

The man who took me out of bed on that rainy day

Rainy day Saturday, when I left home to meet my fried Ez at Tekka Market, in Little India. The weather was quite bad so I left the Hassie home (Ez is the man behind HUGS the Hasselblad User Group Singapore) and only put the Nikon F3 loaded with a hand rolled roll of HP5+ (and a spare roll of TriX).

C est le pied.

I was soaked when getting to the MRT. I have not seen my friend for a while so we spent a certain time in front of a coffee and shot randomly what happened within range.

Grosse fatigue / tiredness

I set the F3 to ISO 320, to overexpose my film a little bit as recommended for Caffenol for medium speed film. My best lens for the F3 is the 50mmF1.4AIS so the combo enabled to shoot decently in the dimmed lighted market (also given the very gloomy external light).

Curry Puff stall

I came quite a few times in Tekka market but that’s not my favorite : I find it a bit too dark, and alleys are on the narrow side so you often find yourself in the middle of somebody else’s path. I generally feel a bit more at ease in Tiong Bahru or Chinatown Complex, but that Saturday was very nice and friendly.

The art of choosing the crab

Once home I quickly processed the film with the Caffenol Delta Recipe, adjusted for 500ml of water. At current temperature ( more or less 30 degrees), processing time is 4’40”. I use the Ilford rinsing method and Ilford fixer after that.

The smile of the butcher

Scanning was a breeze, the film is quite flat and after processing shows very little dust. The roll only had 20 full shoots and 2 half shots at start and end. 22 frames rolls are nice because I can hand them to dry in the shower without having to cut it in two.

Balance is everything

Loosing half a frame at the start is a bit obvious but why at the end? I remember now that when loading from a bulk roll the first part of the roll, which will be the last frame is partially exposed, only enabling for half a shot. It is very difficult to know when you last shot will be, maybe I should try to quickly load a new roll and retake the last shot?

Self Service

I still struggle focusing with the F3, but I think this roll is ok from that point of view. I have included a few more pictures below, I hope you enjoyed the reading

A really wet day

Ultrafine Xtreme 400 in Caffenol Delta

Passer by with phone (Roll 43)

Brace yourself for a long post today, with many pics selected form two rolls of Ultrafine Xtreme 400. If you look through this blog, you will find out that in 2018, I shot an entire 30m roll of Ultrafine Xtreme 400. I quite like this film and my usual lab was doing a good job processing it.

The ubiquitous delivery man (Roll 43)

This year is another game as my friend Ray Toei, the serial shooter who introduced me to this film, offered me two of his hand rolled film, with 24 shots each, and this year as you may know is the year of Caffenol.

Teo Hin Tyres (Roll 43)

The are not many resources on the web about processing this film in Caffenol, or maybe I was not able to find hem, so I decided to start with the Delta Recipe which is now my go to recipe for Ilford Delta and HP5+.

Hang them high (Roll 43)

The first film (Roll 43) was processed for 4’40” at 28 Celsius, time from pouring in the mix, to pouring it out (I start pouring out at 4’35” ). The resulting negative is quite thick, meaning over processed. I cut the time down to 4’15” for the second film (Roll 44) and the result is much much better, maybe I can try to cut down few more seconds.

Wrap me some of those, uncle (Roll 43)

I had another problem with the first film : I did somehow manage to not load it properly on the spool, so some areas were not properly processed, giving some vast white areas in the pictures (black on the negs). Ths is very clear on the first shot of this post. That’s a lesson learned : when the spooling does not sound right it is not right.

Deepavali shopping (Roll 43)

To make this a bit more difficult I have shoot these two rolls with my antique Nikon F3 and 50mmF1.4 AIS. I have dug the F3 out of the dry box for my last travel in February where I shot a quite nice roll of HP5, and I though he deserved a second round this year.

Framed (Roll 44)

I bought the F3 in 1992 already pretty battered, and I was never totally satisfied with it. But I long so much for this little fellow that I cannot drop it totally.

Catwoman (Roll 44)

I never have so many out of focus focus pictures with any of the Leica’s. I have changed the micro prism focusing screen for a vertical split screen in 2008 but it did not bring much improvements. I am happy to blame my eyesight of my technique.

A fish stall at Whampoa market (Roll 44)

This said, the pictures that are technically ok have a different quality to them than those taken wit the Leica. Not better (impossible 🙂 ) , just different, and its quite appreciable.

Saving the planet one tree at a time Whampoa (Roll 44)

For those interested, I carried last week both the F3 combo and the Leica M6 with the 35 Cron Asph v2, and the Leica is about 200 grams lighter, the F3 being just short of 1 KG. Still it is not big camera and discounting the fact I miss-focused 6 images at least on these rolls, it is a pleasure to use.

The newspapers stand – Whampoa market (Roll 44)

I went to Whampoa to bring a roll of color film to the lab there, not remembering that Saturday was a public holiday (Deepavali), so being confronted with the closed shop I walked to Whampoa market.

Family visit to the temple (Roll 44)

A few kilometers away, on Serangoon road, Hindu’s were visiting the temple, like this young family with a baby. I walk close the 11 km Saturday.

Chinatown Kueh Stoll (Roll 44)

Aperol Spritz (Roll 44)

My Delta recipe is as follows:

Caffenol C-M	Delta
Water	0.75
Washing Soda	18
vitamin-C	15
coffee	32

I kept last week Caffenol, but decide not to use it, let’s brew some fresh stuff for the moment. For those interested in stats I shot 44 rolls sofa this tear, and 24 processed in Caffenol (probably 4 can be considered as having been sacrificed on the path to knowledge).

I hope you enjoyed the reading.