The book on the Nikon F

[belgiumreporter]

With 13 F's now in the collection it was time to get some more info on the F. A lot can be found on the net, but there is allways something more to find out.

A lot more can be found in the Nikon F trilogy by Uli Koch. After reading this reference work i realised there was a lot more to be known about the F than i thought there was. Everything and more can be found in the seperate volumes covering "the camera", "the lenses" and "the accesoiries".

The books helped me in finding the period correct lenses for the for the right bodies. Also i was able to pinpoint the exact year and period of production of each body. Apparantly i am lucky of having a body for each year of production safe for the very first and the very last years. According to the serial number my oldest F is the chrome 64535910 produced between 1961/09 and 1962/02 it has to be one of the first inported in Belgium as inports didn't start here before 1962. The last one i've got is the black 7372679 produced between 1972/10 and 1973/01 the year before production ended. This last one is the first Nikon i've ever owned it has been with me all those years and outlived numerous other cameras i've owned. It will allways be in a special place in the collection and should for some reason everything has to go, this will be the last one to go...

[julio1fer]

Sorry for the late answer. I see that both bodies are sporting the plain prism. For me the plain prism is much better than the cumbersome Photonic types (which often do not work anymore).

I was indifferent to Nikons until I got a plain prism for my F. Now looking for a plain black one for my F2.

Uli Koch book set must be wonderful if the price I see in Amazon is not a hoax.

[belgiumreporter]

Dec 24, 2021 15:13:02 GMT -5 julio1fer said:

Sorry for the late answer. I see that both bodies are sporting the plain prism. For me the plain prism is much better than the cumbersome Photonic types (which often do not work anymore).

I was indifferent to Nikons until I got a plain prism for my F. Now looking for a plain black one for my F2.

Uli Koch book set must be wonderful if the price I see in Amazon is not a hoax.

Plain prisms for the F2 are very hard to find (especially black ones) i haven't got one because i refuse to pay the ridiculous prices they go for.

Some time ago i was tempted to buy a F2 with plain prism for not much more than the price of the prism alone, but as i am trying to cut down on buying any more cameras i was able to resist 
It's a strange fenomenon that the prices seperate camera parts often equal the price of a complete camera with the said part on it...Just as with bodies without a lens i for example bought a Leica R3 with summicron 50 for less than what is asked for just the lens.

Now on the Uli koch book, somebody is trying to make a profit on Amazon taking advantage of the scarcity of the trilogy 950$ is a bit steep no? For the moment the only (other) ones available are in Sweden at half of the Amazon price, still a hefty sum for a few books. I once paid some 400$ in the 90ties (don't know how much that will be in 2022 money) for a book on Tifanny lamps, back then it was the only way to get knowledge on the subject as the internet didn't provide any back then.

I was lucky with the Uli Koch books, a fellow Nikon collector took pity on me when he said i was oblivious on the subject of the F and gave the books to me as a gift saying i would have more use for them than he would! Now if i may suggest a book on all Nikons then i would say have a look on the "Nikon Handbuch" by Peter Braczko this is the book i allways fall back upon when i need to know anything Nikon related, my copy is in German but i do believe it's available in other languages as well.

[julio1fer]

t's a strange fenomenon that the prices seperate camera parts often equal the price of a complete camera with the said part on it...Just as with bodies without a lens i for example bought a Leica R3 with summicron 50 for less than what is asked for just the lens.

You are right, a fact that defies economic theory. Less costs more.

Stopped looking for plain F2 prisms. Maybe for one already mounted on a nice F2.

Will look about Braczko’s book. I can read enough German for that subject.

[belgiumreporter]

I've found another series of books on Nikon by Peter Braczkso, it's a trilogy called : "Nikon- the classic era"
It covers just about everything Nikon has produced from the early L rangefinder prototype to the last F6, all the lenses and accesoires, rare cut away models, special issues,.... you name it it's in there. There's nothing on the digital age though. Still if you are serious in collecting Nikon these are definatly the books you will need as reference determinating what you've got or what to look for. Now the bad news: i was lucky to find these books by accident as i didn't even know they existed, should you find them, don't hesitate to buy them as far as i know there isn't a single copy left available anywhere in the world!