Nikon F Photomic question

Hello all:
I've owned this F Photomic since 1969 (!) and it's held up very well
until recently. My son used the camera and since then this situation
has arised:
Viewing through the finder is normal, but when you wind the film, the
mirror flips into the "up" position. Upon releasing the shutter, the
mirror returns down. I'll admit that I haven't used this camera in
several years....have I forgotton something or did something just go
south? Everything seems clean, smooth, etc.
TIA
Bill.

Bill wrote:
Hello all:
I've owned this F Photomic since 1969 (!) and it's held up very well
until recently. My son used the camera and since then this situation
has arised:
Viewing through the finder is normal, but when you wind the film, the
mirror flips into the "up" position. Upon releasing the shutter, the
mirror returns down. I'll admit that I haven't used this camera in
several years....have I forgotton something or did something just go
south? Everything seems clean, smooth, etc.

Mirror lock up on?

Geoff.


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Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

"Bill" wrote

I've owned this F Photomic since 1969 ...
but when you wind the film, the
mirror flips into the "up" position.
Upon releasing the shutter, the
mirror returns down.

What a great feature -- don't tell marketing.

None of my Nikons has ever done this so it's
all supposition.

I would look at the mirror lock up control and
fiddle with it. It seems the mirror wants
to be in the up position because of the mirror
lock but it has skipped a cam and the mirror
goes down when the shutter is released, like
it normally does -- except that it should
be staying up because the MLU is engaged.
If you are lucky you have a half-engaged MLU
and with some futzing you may be able to get
it fully engaged.

Bill wrote:

Hello all:
I've owned this F Photomic since 1969 (!) and it's held up very well
until recently. My son used the camera and since then this situation
has arised:
Viewing through the finder is normal, but when you wind the film, the
mirror flips into the "up" position. Upon releasing the shutter, the
mirror returns down. I'll admit that I haven't used this camera in
several years....have I forgotton something or did something just go
south? Everything seems clean, smooth, etc.
TIA
Bill.


Sounds like something is backwards. Winding the film should bring the
mirror down so you can frame and focus, releasing the shutter should
cause the mirror to flip up out of the way so the image can reach the film.

"Bill" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all:
I've owned this F Photomic since 1969 (!) and it's held up very well
until recently. My son used the camera and since then this situation
has arised:
Viewing through the finder is normal, but when you wind the film, the
mirror flips into the "up" position. Upon releasing the shutter, the
mirror returns down. I'll admit that I haven't used this camera in
several years....have I forgotton something or did something just go
south? Everything seems clean, smooth, etc.
TIA
Bill.

If this is really how it works, you have a unique Nikon F.

In all of the rest of them, the mirror only comes up when the shutter
release is pressed. As soon as the shutter finishes, the mirror comes back
down. Winding the film has no effect on this behavior.

Jim

Well, I fiddled with just about everything, but it looks like it'll be
on its way to a repairman. When you look through the viewfinder and
start winding, you can see the mirror progressively raise, in sync with
the travel of the film winder. With the lens off, you can see this
(and feel the "connection" by touching the mirror as it goes up.)
Something got flipped around in there.
Bill.

"Bill" wrote in message
oups.com...

Well, I fiddled with just about everything, but it looks like it'll be
on its way to a repairman. When you look through the viewfinder and
start winding, you can see the mirror progressively raise, in sync with
the travel of the film winder. With the lens off, you can see this
(and feel the "connection" by touching the mirror as it goes up.)
Something got flipped around in there.
Bill.

It certain does seem out of whack.

By the way, which repairman? I don't believe that Nikon will repair an F
(or F2 either) any more due to lack of spare parts.

I have seen the advertisements for various people, but I have no knowledge
of any of them.

Jim

"Jeff Burke" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:14:18 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

By the way, which repairman? I don't believe that Nikon will repair an F
(or F2 either) any more due to lack of spare parts.

This guy does great work on Fs: Robert Kipling


Will he work on an S2? The 1/1000 speed is off; that is a common problem
with older cameras (well, it is over 50 years old). Fortunately, the
curtains are in good shape.
Jim
If you want the meter fixed, use this guy:
http://hometown.aol.com/drwyn/myhomepage/index.html

Problem Fixed!
A friend of a friend who tinkers with old Rolliflex cameras came by to
look at it. Since I had planned on taking the camera in for repair, I
figured there was no harm letting him handle it. He gently held the
mirror down and went through 4 winder/shutter release cycles. That was
it - cleared the problem and I've since wound/released the shutter
about 100 times with no problem. He said that he'd seen similar
situations before on other SLR's and it had to do with a faulty/dirty
mirror lock-up mechanism.
Got lucky this time...
Bill.

On 2006-08-20 13:11:59 -0400, "Bill" said:


Problem Fixed!
A friend of a friend who tinkers with old Rolliflex cameras came by to
look at it. Since I had planned on taking the camera in for repair, I
figured there was no harm letting him handle it. He gently held the
mirror down and went through 4 winder/shutter release cycles. That was
it - cleared the problem and I've since wound/released the shutter
about 100 times with no problem. He said that he'd seen similar
situations before on other SLR's and it had to do with a faulty/dirty
mirror lock-up mechanism.
Got lucky this time...
Bill.

I envy you. I sold all my Nikon F Photomic FTN gear in 1979 to buy my
Pentax 6x7 gear. I like the MF Pentax, but I wish I had never sold the
Nikon. I've never found another camera to equal it.
--
Michael | "He's dead, Jim."