Right when I started trying/collecting/hoarding film cameras, I read a post by Jim Grey about this camera. I especially liked the look of his with the pancake lens attached. Even after all this time, I remembered it. So when I stumbled on one for sale on the bay, I put on the minimum bid of £10. Luckily for me nobody else placed a bid. Double luckily, the for-parts camera body seemed to work perfectly. I didn’t have a pancake lens (yet) so attached a Tamron Adaptall 2 one (for now). That made this relatively small camera a fair bit heavier.

As you can see, it has speeds from B to 1/2000th. It was the first Nikon SLR with a motor drive to advance the film, but the rewind is still done manually. This camera was also the first one to make use of DX coding which I missed for a while as I had set it manually. If you turn the dial all the way clockwise, a red DX will appear in the window. So the DX coding can be overridden. It can be set with ISO between 12 and 3200. Lifting the power button, you can select single shooting mode or continuous, there is no scope for multiple exposures. Even without the ME feature, this ‘entry level’ camera was quite impressive.

The viewfinder has a split screen with a matrix to ease the manual focusing. On the right, it lets you know the speed selected but not the aperture.

I had planned to use it on a day out with a friend, but when I turned up he had another for me to try. So, I put this one on hold for a while. I eventually took it on a trip to Norfolk loaded with Ilford Pan 400. The camera advanced the film a few times until it was set at frame one, no half exposed shots at the beginning here.

This season, I have come to realise how much I hate the early arrive of darkness. I leave for work in the morning dullness and get home at dusk. It is tricky to go for walks after school for a photo-play. So that leaves the weekends, but the weather often spoils that too. Suffice to say, I am really looking forward to the Xmas two week break.

Anyway, back to this camera…it was a bit dull during my visit to Norfolk, but I stayed in an amazing little hobbit of a guesthouse. Plus when I went on a walk around Norwich with some new and old friends, one of them lent me a Tamron 17mm lens.

It was amazing, with built in filters too. I thought I might get one for myself, then I saw the price. After that I was extremely grateful for my generous friend and gave it back very carefully.

I really liked using the camera. I liked the size and weight of it, even with my heavy Tamron lens, (wait till I get that pancake). I liked the little dial on the back to show the film is advancing, superfluous but fun to watch.

Unfortunately, due to the dullness some of the shots are a little flat and underexposed. I put the 17mm shots at the end, you can see I took a photo of a church door with my lens and then with the wider Tamron of my friend.

Not my greatest set of photos, but I do really like the one with the sheepskin chair, that was inside my AirBnB Hobbit hole.

As for the camera, what a bargain of Nikon. If you are looking for a cheap Nikon, this can still be found for a low price.