Nikon owners are like latent viral diseases. They are everywhere, futile to try and confront. You will get overtaken by numbers alone, consumed in the miasma becoming another vector of disease, an element of the Nikon R₀. And so I have to sing praise like a North Korean news anchor on any camera that isn't an FM10 otherwise I'll get lynched on the streets by paramilitary Nikon shooters. And they'll dangle their Dfs that can use lenses from 60 years ago in front of me while taunting the OM-10 around my neck that they plan to string me up with. They'll humiliate me by asking whether my lenses can be used on modern cameras without an adapter. They'll show me pictures of OM707s while threatening to cough directly into my mouth. So I have to say the 105/2.5 is sharp at all apertures and the F is legendary and the 50/1.2 has dreamy rendering. And so today I have uncertain voices resonating in my head as this silver FM2 is diabetically trembling in my hands. Thank god it has a 1/4000 top speed. I like this camera. I should like this camera.

Today I'm reviewing the F2. The Nikon F couldn't shake off its unwieldy handling but unmetered eye-level prisms solves all. No more shutter speed coupling, no more 2lb hump on the top of your camera.

I get it now. It's the little things that cost lots of money in film photography. It's why people pay $6000 for meterless camera bodies with 1/1000 top speeds. The advance lever on the F2 impregnated with ball bearings is pornographic. The film door lock instills you with confidence. The rounded edges make a big difference. These things make me want to bring it with me more than any technical spec sheet can.

History/Features

Apollo-era NASA FTN

The reviewer moves on to say oh it's a million pounds and oh the finders come off isn't that just neat and it has a removable back isn't that charingly old-fashioned. The Nikon F, as expected of a late 50's SLR, was mind-manglingly new in the age of painted Zengakuren helmets but seems a touch anachronistic now. 5 years before the Nikon F went on sale the UK was still rationing food. In 1959 American jets were still routinely crashing in Japanese neighborhoods. The MOSFET was just invented. De Gaulle's reanimated corpse was brought to give France a paternalistic spanking.

Dana Stone

It was a different period, and that reflects upon the F's final form. Removable backs was one of the first changes to the F, evolving into a hinged door. The awkward shutter release was moved forward with the F2. In-prism metering was omitted completely with the F4. And these evolutionary dead ends have a residual impact when using the F, an experience that doesn't quite land within the forgiving "anything goes" mindset that comes with uncoupled rangefinders and no automatic mirror return. Of course grandpa is outwardly racist during thanksgiving, he grew up getting blasted with atmospheric nuke tests and leaded gas fumes. Neither does the Nikon F find itself in the "surprisingly modern" category of timeless minimalist designs that modern digital cameras like the Xpro and DF sought to emulate.

Within that I expected to grimace my way through using the F. As an OM cultist I didn't see the point. Why not get a FM or FE that's lighter and lacks the horrible shutter speed coupling. Why not an F2 that has a 1/2000 top speed and modern ergonomics?

Legitimacy is king in a hobby haunted by the spectres of working professionals, of distant anecdotes about backup bodies and Kodachrome. And even past the obligations of knowing about the Nikon F, reading about the Nikon F, using the Nikon F, it still remains a compelling camera.

Taizo Ichinose's bullet-riddled F at the Nikon Museum

Film is obselete. To try and extract pragmatic meaning from using archaic mechanical contraptions older than African sovereignty is silly, and this camera helped me realize that. I am irrationally infatuated with the Nikon F whether or not I want to LARP as Dennis Hopper.

Handling

All that said it's certainly not unpleasant. Removable backs are somewhat of a film camera rarity and is a breath of fresh air. The rewind button is a collar around the shutter release like the Canon P, eliminating an intrusive button on the bottom plate. The finder is still brighter and clearer than modern DSLRs. With the addition of an expensive non-metered prism I could see myself use this camera regularly.

Performance

For F mount glass the most prominent difference I've seen is the sharpness at wider apertures. Maybe I can become one of those photographers who never shoot below f/2, so much bokeh you feel like you've suddenly dveloped cataracts.

Conclusion

Carrying it around destroys my spine but I like it.

9/2/2021 Looks like there's some minor shuttercapping hoo hoo hee hee