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That's advertising for you Jon!!! When it comes down to it, they're all just boxes with a few chunks of glass on the front and a bit of film somewhere towards the back, but I get a lot of fun using many of the less celebrated cameras like the FR1.

@@GrumpyTimyeah I’m all about championing the underdog. Great video btw.

Hi Carlos, that's really great, I think people sometimes forget these days how good these old radios were (and still are).

Hi Ed, glad you've still got your 500 DTL, first cameras are always important things in your photography journey. The self timer on my copy seems like a bit of an after thought, maybe they knew it was a bit troublesome and left it off where possible.

Hi RustyX, yep, weak battery hatches seem to be a speciality for Canon - many AE1 AV1 cameras have broken battery hatches too.

Hi Zinnia, the manual I got came from Learn Camera Repair learncamerarepair.com/ it's not the easiest manual in the world to follow, but it definitely helps.

Thanks flowermaze, I always enjoyed doing videos like this but I haven't done any for a few years now, maybe I'll get to do more in 2025.......

Thanks Hoshi Land Scape.

Hi Libby S, yeah the E series 50mm is a great lens, and pretty compact too - I bought my copy to keep on the EM because it makes a nice small setup to carry around.

Yep, it's strange how little people talk about the Nikkormat, but kind of good for anyone wanting to buy one, because they remain a pretty good bargain.

Yup!

Hi Jim, wow, that's rather good, I bet there aren't many of those notepads left any more.

Cheers Kent, since that video I've shot 3 or 4 more rolls, all at 200 ISO, and I now love the results. I would question whether the film is really a 400 ISO film based on my results and others I've seen. I did post a follow up video showing the results from the second film th-cam.com/video/lq81UF_CcBA/w-d-xo.html

Hi aerozg, the original mercury PX13/PX625 batteries are no longer available, but I use a Zinc Air hearing aid battery, the Blue tab 675 one, with an adapter. The Zinc Air batteries sit at about the right voltage once the meter is turned on. If you search for a PX625 battery adapter you should easily find them. The Zinc air batteries don't last very long, and they do leak, so don't leave them in the camera when you're not using it. You can of course, use the camera without a battery at all - I use a hand held exposure meter most of the time, and often don't use the internal meter even if a camera does have one. You can also get a light meter app for most smart phones - many photographers seem to be using these, but I haven't tried any myself.

Buy a Weston meter with cone

Hi skypalace, was the EM a backup for another main camera, and how did it perform for you?

@the Nikon EM was my main (only) camera for 6-8 months , shooting indoors with flash at f8 and shutter set to m90 speed. Worked great must have shot and sold 40-50 family portraits with it, before moving on th Video production. In ‘85 I started using a Nikon F3 and FM2 till the early 90’s.

Hi Lawman212, I just had a quick probe around my EM, and if you happen to have a multimeter handy.....set the camera to M90 so you don't have to worry about it trying to do a long exposure while you work, then use the continuity test facility on the meter and probe the two motor drive contacts - with the shutter already fired, those two contacts should be shorted together, and as you wind they continue to be shorted together until the wind is finished, at which point they will then be open circuit. Fire the shutter and the contacts will be shorted together again. As for the drive, I don't have one myself, but I do have one for a Practica "B" series camera, and as everyone used to copy everyone else, it's likely to be the same....... Turn the motor drive on (without it being attached to the camera) and short the two contacts together - the drive should rotate a pre set amount and then stop. If the contacts on the camera aren't working as they should, it might be a pain to fix, but you might get lucky if they're located in the bottom of the camera (I haven't checked that).

Hi NelsonM..... as you might expect I have seen all those comments about the EM, and even if there was some bias at the time, it's totally irrelevant now. Possibly Nikon's own marketing and the even the user manual helped to fuel that belief. Regardless of all that, the EM is a fantastic little camera, far better than you might be led to believe based on it's current value, plenty of scope to over ride the auto metering and not the end of the world if you find yourself without a battery, and when partnered up with that E series 50mm lens, it's really compact too.

Hi 陳彥辰 I haven't actually tested this this, but I suspect that there will be no noticeable damage caused to the camera. Of course, the only way to really find out is to do a controlled test using two identical cameras, one with a modern lens and the other with the old radioactive lens, then check the sensor for additional noise or dead pixels - it would be an interesting test, but not something that I'm planning to do myself.

Hi Martin, the shutter timer is something my brother and I built (actually my brother did all the hard work, software, electronics and so on, I just assembled the thing and made the stand). I talked a bit about it in an old video th-cam.com/video/CcAdlWrI6Ek/w-d-xo.htmlsi=6Vmt773Yg47xlzSX about 9 minutes in.

Hi JC, I like my Praktica cameras, I have a few in the collection and they're great.

Yep, solid as a rock, and I approve of it's newer friend the F301 too, those are a far better camera than the cheap price these days would have you believe.

Hi John, I'd heard that some of Nikon's marketing for the EM was a little misguided, certainly some of the adverts I've seen for the camera back up that theory. Glad you stuck out for the SLR rather than being led down the zoom point and shoot route, good as those are, I still think an SLR is more fun.

Cheers Paul, obviously correction dioptres were available for many cameras at the time, and there may well be ones for the EM, but tracking them down these days can be tricky, and often the ones that I have seen cost about the same amount as the entire camera. My crude 3D printed version has worked so well that I want to make some more for other cameras, which of course need a slightly different design, so I haven't quite got round to it yet!!!

Hi Anthony, I got the masters from the school that sold me the duplicator itself in the 80s - somehow I've managed to keep hold of that lot ever since, but I've only got a handful of the masters left now and I guess once those have gone I won't use the thing again.

Cheers Joseph, much appreciated. I'm a bit behind on my viewing, I've got a couple of yours still to watch.

@@GrumpyTim just reached my 2k subs. Views are still low. Hope fully during my holidays I will do a wolseley run

Well done for the 2K subs Joseph, only people who have done it will know how much work that can take. Always like to see a Wolseley running, one day I'll add one to my collection, but I need to make space by getting rid of some of my less loved stuff first!

@@GrumpyTim One thing I advise you, if you come across a cheap one get hold of it. it will only come for the cheap price once.

Hi Leland, yeah, Fomapan and Kentmere usually seem to battle for the honour of being the cheapest B&W film in the UK, often depending on what deal a particular supplier has on at the time, but while it's available this FP4 Type 517 definitely beats them.

Hi ohjajohh, I love the old trains, and even more, the old buildings at the stations, perfect photographic subjects.

Hi Jack, I also used to shoot a Zenit among other film cameras before I turned to digital, but recently I've found a lot of enjoyment in using the old film cameras again. It's not good for the wallet though, and sticking with digital makes a lot of sense, I guess I'm just not that sensible!!! Have a great Christmas.

Hi Neville, I sometimes get frustrated with myself if I haven't been out and taken some photos, which is silly really because I'll usually have a camera with me, I just didn't see anything worth shooting. So in actual fact I should feel relieved that I didn't just randomly waste film.

@@GrumpyTim I'm surprised that you haven't photographed the art deco bus stop at Barnard's Green yet. 😉

That's a good point Neville, every time I go past that bus stop I think to myself that I should walk down that way with the camera......and then promptly forget next time I go out!!! Maybe I'll rectify that situation soon.....

Hi Conrad, I think everyone has their favourite camera system/make, and some makes just don't feel quite right. Even though I've been shooting Nikon since the early digital days, I still find the mount that attaches in the wrong direction a weird thing! I relatively recently got a Pentax P30, it's a nice little camera and I've already put a film through it, but my copy could do with a bit of work before I use it too much - the exposure meter is way out and I had to resort to using a hand held meter, and also, if I leave the camera sitting for a few weeks it suffers from the infamous Pentax infinite wind - I also have a ME Super that needs to come apart for that same issue because the keyhole surgery style fix isn't going to work on that one. It'll definitely be worth the effort when I get round to it because they're lovely cameras and I've got a whole load of PK mount lenses to use with them.

@ yeah my attraction to the more automated Pentax cameras as my “easy “ cameras and backups is due to being lucky enough to have built up a large collection of K mount lenses

Hi Luzr, a cabin in a swamp in a rainforest sounds like a dream location, definite location envy here! Glad you enjoyed the video.

Hi kevlandy, I've not used it below about 3 degrees C (where it worked just the same as any other time), but popular belief says that the liquid fuelled stoves like this perform far better in low temperatures than the disposable gas can powered stoves - those I have tested below zero degrees and they do indeed get very sulky.

Thanks for the reply.👍 I do have an old brass primus, but I was lazy this weekend and took my canister powered bistro stove up to the dark peak, and the bloody thing wouldn’t work.😳 I got soaked through and nearly contracted hypothermia...🤣🤣🤣 I’ll take the primus next time.👍 Thanks again.🙏

Wait until I get my hands on a Leica, I've got a Zenith strap lined up and waiting!!!!

Hi Sabe, it could be that the selenium cell is dead, that does happen quite a lot. Or one of the wires might have become detached if someone has meddled inside the camera in the past. Or the meter itself might be physically stuck - you can check for this if you look down on the meter and rotate the camera rapidly beneath you - if you can see the needle moving as you rotate the camera, then the needle itself isn't jammed. For what it's worth, I rarely bother using the internal meter on many of my cameras, I'm so used to using a Sekonic hand held meter that it doesn't really take me any longer, and the readings are probably better too.

Cheers David, love the Kraftwerk/OMD reference! That Super Ozeck has become my "go to" lens for studio based review videos, just swapping for a longer macro lens for the really close bits. It may not be the sexiest 28mm ever made, but it's a good all rounder.

Cheers Luzr, glad you liked it and thanks for watching.

Hi Paolo, set the camera (or your hand held exposure meter, depending on how you like to work) to 200 ISO and then develop the film as standard. If you send it to a lab don't say anything and let them develop it as if it had been shot at 400. I've shot 3 rolls at 200 ISO now and the results are vastly better than when shot at 400 regardless of whether I'm using an auto camera like the T-50 or something a bit older where I'm metering using a hand held meter.

@GrumpyTim thanks man

Hi Scooping Dutchman, yeah it would have been nice if the small tank was there as well, but at least I have most of the set. The stove is still used regularly and always a pleasure to cook on it.

Hi driline, yes, that's definitely the case, if you look at the manuals that are available online you'd be fooled into thinking the early model was damaged or broken because there are no aperture numbers in the viewfinder. Awesome little camera, I really must use mine again.

Hi John, I quite like the offerings from Konica too, but I can see how you might prefer the Nikkormat, workhorse is a good description for it. For most of my cameras that used to use the old Mercury batteries I now use Zinc Air hearing aid batteries with an adapter to make it the correct size. This solution works ok, but those Zinc Air batteries don't last that long so I usually pull them out of the camera once I'm finished shooting, particularly as they do leak, not in a way that's quite as destructive as alkaline batteries but it's still undesirable. I have a Gossen Luna Six and I wanted it to be very accurate and also be ready for use without having to think about the battery every time - my brother did the leg work on that one, making an adapter that takes a Silver Oxide SR44 battery and contains a diode to drop the voltage to the correct level. It's not simply the case of fitting a random diode though - the current drawn by the meter needs to be measured and a suitable diode selected that will drop the voltage by the correct amount based on that current draw. The Luna Six has been tested at multiple light levels and matches the results from a modern Sekonic light meter, so that's a good job done.