N2000: First of the "Ugly Nikons"

[Mark Vaughan]

Friends,

This was my very first Nikon SLR - the N2000. I just picked this one up (and another for parts) on Ebay and managed to get it running by scavenging parts off the other camera. I originally bought mine in 1985 right when it came out. I went in to the camera shop in search of an FG-20 and was talked into the first of the "Ugly Nikons". Happy 15th birthday! Folks, they only got uglier from here!!!


"Modern plastic fantastic" precursor to just about every other Nikon that would ever be built - except for the FM3A. Pretty reliable though!


Hey! Where's the winder lever? This was also the first Nikon SLR with a built-in winder. Other firsts: DX film coding, Hi Speed Programed Exposure Mode, AIS Nikkor reading F-Mount, Powered by AAA batteries... All this innovation and the camera was replaced in less than one year by the N2020.

Since I collect MF Nikons this one must be included in the collection. All right, I lied: I think it's beautiful!

Take care!
Mark

[Deleted]

The N series appeared in the time between when I shot with a Nikon F and when I bought a used N90s in 2002. Never had anything to do with the earlier models. But they have interesting designs and I think they are fairly inexpensive to acquire. I see your N2000 has the 50mm f1.8 lens --the standard not the E series. That's one of the sharpest manual focus Nikkors.

Wayne

[Mark Vaughan]

Wayne,

I enjoyed my N2000 for 5 years, then sold it while in college - I needed the cash. I looked at Nikon's after that and lost interest in photography completely. The N-series cameras that followed this one just turned me off. Seems like they got uglier and uglier! I scored an old Minolta x-370 and used that instead.

I believe that the pinnacle of ugliness in Nikon cameras had to be the N4004!

I like the Nikkor 1.8 too. I had a Series E 50mm back in the 80's and had no gripes about it. I own several of these Nikkor's though and swear by them. My favorite though is the Nikkor H-C 50mm f2.0. It's non AI - so I'm careful what I put it on and have to use it in stop-down mode with the F3 and others, but it's by and far the best, I think. I have one 50mm f1.4 that I like as well.

Take care,
Mark

[ebolton]

My only Nikon lens is a Series E 50/1.8, which I use on my only Nikon camera, a FE2 . Optically, it seems great to me. The focus on mine works a little easier than I like.

[Just Plain Curt]

One of my first Nikons and it impressed me so much I've added a few more. Even scored a second N2000 for cheap.

[Mark Vaughan]

I agree Curt - ugly but impressive camera! Of course, at 15-years-old I thought that it was a thing of unimaginable beauty when I first saw it and just HAD to have it. It was a vast modernization and replacement of the FG - and a final good-bye to the EM/FG-20 idea. Mine was very reliable, and the two I picked up ($20 bucks for the pair) work fine.

This is a "1 Year Only" Nikon - and was made in limited quantities. That said, there are a few of these limited production units that can be had on the cheap that I feel will be collectable at some point: N2000, FG-20, EL2, FT3. FA - the reigning king of 1980's 'gee-whiz' cameras - is another one but I think it's production ran for 2 or 3 years.

I may test my N2000 out soon.

Mark

[drako]

Boy, you ain't kiddin' about that N4004, Mark!

[Deleted]

Mark:

I agree on your assessment of the 50mm f2 lens. When I was shooting "Fs" I preferred the f2 to the f1.4--sharper IMO and with much better Bokeh. I have an AI f2 that is pretty much a permanent resident on a recently-acquired Nikon F2. BTW, John White could ai that lens (it would still work on older Nikons) for about $35.

[Mark Vaughan]

Wayne -

Yes: I spoke to John White a few months ago threatening to send my lens over for one of his first class AI jobs. He really is the best, it seems. However, in the interim I began to acquire more AI/AIS lenses and decided to keep the f2 as a legacy non-AI lens to use on my F and the older Nikkormats exclusively.

Johnny - the 4004 truly cracks me up! The other "Ugly Nikon" contenders that I can think of are some of the second generation N-Series like the N-65 from the 90's. They tried to bring back the 'chrome' look on the poly-plastic bodies (coupled with the funky "Best Buy" shape), and it just looks atrocious. Even worse when the gangly dedicated flash unit pops up and hits you in the forehead. I guess every manufacturer went through that phase. They will, no doubt, have some collector / display value with the likes of me at some point...

PS - Curt - correction: the FA was produced for 5 years and, due to the multi-segment meter (that everyone was leary of and now sets the standard for all new cameras) never sold well.

Mark

[Reiska]

Also the ugliness is is in the eyes of the beholder. Like cars also cameras must? follow the prevailing mode, so they should look alike. I think, that there are very few occasions when an industrial designers have tried to create ugly consumer product. I have Minolta Maxxum 7000, Nikon F401S, Nikon f801S and Yashica 108 MP. They have autofocus and are somewhat newer but have the same style as N 2002, that is a then a forerunner of this "plasticy" styling. I prefer manual focus cameras but those AF cameras just accumulates and I have no reason to spit on them.

OK. I will rise my hands. It may took some years before than they become to look BEAUTIFUL. Another line of thought about the cameras filled with electronics is that in a future they will be almost unrepairable contrary to mechanical cameras that at least in theory can be repaired. Anyway, all existing will become older and older. I just received an email from my doctor and she wrote, that sometimes time has a healing factor. I am going to reply "Yes" but not in my case anymore. I have some trouble in my hip joints and an overdose in time will only get things worse.

Reijo

[drako]

Touche, Reijo! I can vouch that older, crappy CARS have a certain appeal, not just for myself but also for "collectors". I've been a couple times to the world's largest auto auction here in Arizona and, yes, there is indeed a demand for ugly junk. How about the AMC Matador? Many would call this a classic but any of us that were around when it was new knew it to be bottom of the barrel. I myself see a charm in junky stuff.

However, I take some issue with "It may took some years before than they become to look BEAUTIFUL". I DO believe that classic design is just that -- classic. Classic camera design, classic auto design -- in any case such acknowledged classics will always be beautiful. But I do not believe the ugly duckling will ever be viewed by the mass of collectors as "beautiful". They could have a certain APPEAL but never BEAUTIFUL.

[drako]

Wayne - what is "Bokeh"?

[John Parry]

Wayne

Don't start... LOL! Actually I don't think it's a problem, as the people who were using the expression before were newcomers from other sites trying to impress, and I don't think we have anybody like that any more...

Johnny

Bokeh is a Japanese word denoting the appearance of those areas of a photograph that lie outside the depth of field of the lens. I can't be bothered with it, although I accept that it does have its uses - for example, I knew exactly what Wayne was trying to convey. If you really want to know about it, try:

www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml

Personally, I'm surrounded by enough confusion, without it being organised into circles!

Regards - John

[Andrew]

Bokeh is also known as the area OOF...so if you take a picture of yourself in mirror is it then called FOO ?

hmm or maybe it is FOO in a TLR or Veiw camera also, yes i think a new trend should begin haha

[Deleted]

John:

After all the ranting I've done about the term it's kinda embarassing that I used it.