Saturday, January 15, 2011

Back To The Basics

Was given a bag full of old camera stuff by Phei Yee apparently they all belonged to her dad and they are all almost close to 20 years old. 



Upon opening the bag I found a Nikon F401x and a 35-135mm lens attached to it. An old film SLR. 





I really have no idea what the controls meant on the dials or where the mode selector was . This really is an old but a very good condition body.





Than the search for a manual of the camera began. I literally searched on almost every photography website I came across for a manual on this camera, but with no success i couldn't find one the only information I had was the first dial was to adjust the camera's mode, the second still not sure. 



Next the lens, surprisingly it has a very wide aperture at 135mm (f/4.5), I tried mounting the lens on my D90 but my D90 body could not read the lens, all it showed was ERR on the status screen. Weird huh. And this is a push-pull lens had problems figuring out how to zoom the lens as i really could not fine the zoom ring (The bigger ring is for focus and the smaller is for God knows what tried turning it but it wouldn't budge). 





Nano coating?haha i doubt so.



The lens is fungus infested, but I don't think it affects the picture quality that much as when i attached it to the body it does not seem to show any problems through the viewfinder.




Anyway I bough a roll of film to test test this camera, I am afraid the lens does not work anymore so probably i might have to mount my Tammy 70-300mm to it as i intend to do some street photography with this baby.



Oh ya there was an external flash unit too in the bag it was a SB-24.


Have not tested it yet but from what I read this flash was the first flash unit to have an LCD screen. 



Well will conduct some tests on this body and come out with some in depth review on it soon. Stay tuned!




*UPDATE: I JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO ZOOM..YOU HAVE TO PULL THE LENSE NOT THE RING..OMG!

20 comments:

  1. Dude, the camera looks good. I got myself a Nikon F3P a few weeks ago.

    The lens should fit on your D90. You have to switch it to the highest aperture and lock the ring. Clearly you haven't used an AF or AF-D lens. heh.

    Anyway thats a nice camera there. Autofocuses, but still good. :) Go read Ken Rockwell's thought about film. Indeed it is MILES better than digital.

    I have converted.

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  2. It doesn't look like an old camera....but I don't barely know how to work on a digi cam. :)

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  3. wow, jealous*. Btw, I also stay very near to summit la. Hahaa!

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  4. Really can't see it's an old one. So cool!

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  5. What's the picture quality like in comparison with the DSLR?

    :D

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  6. Really cool camera! Imagine how wonderful the pictures will turn out!

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  7. wow... envy max..
    i am saving so hard to get myself a dslr soon. hmm

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  8. Cool!! XD

    I wanna get 1 but.. no $$ ..:P

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  9. the 2 dials are shutter speed and aperture..

    Why got aperture dial on the body AND lens?
    Body one is just for metering.. lens is the real aperture.

    :)

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