Nikomat EL and Efke 100
The Nikomat EL (or Nikkormat outside of Japan), was part of the first wave of Automatic exposure cameras in the early 1970s, others included the Pentax Spotmatic ES(II), the Olympus OM-2 of 1975, the Canon EF of 1973 (they were weird being big fans of shutter priority) and the Minolta XE-7. All these cameras were aimed at advanced amateurs looking for cutting edge (for the time) tech for their camera gear. These cameras delivered.
The Nikomat/Nikkormat EL harkened to further design choices Nikon made with their prosumer cameras with the Nikon FM(2), FE(2), unlike the mechanical Nikkormats the EL had the shutter dial on top and the meter reading is just like the later FE's. The one achilles heal with the EL is not the 6v 4SR44 battery specced for the Canon A series and the New F-1, Nikon decided the best place to put the battery is under the mirror box and you had to access by locking the mirror up, what could possibly go wrong? The EL was discontinued in the late 1970s with the introduction of the FE which was an amazing camera, more on that anohter time.
I was in town for an evening event and spent the late afternoon starting around Union Station and made my way down to Harbourfront. I used a roll of Efke 100, a classic silver rich single layer black and white film that was made in Croatia and was based on an earlier formulation from Adox in the early 1960s. Efke folded six years ago when their ancient coating machine just gave up and no one could fix it, so it was fun while it lasted. If you come across some, give this film a try.
Camera: Nikomat EL, Nikkor S.C. 50 f1.4 lens, Q 135 f2.8 lens, H 28 f3.5 lens.
Film: Efke 100, Rodinal 1+50.
The Nikomat/Nikkormat EL harkened to further design choices Nikon made with their prosumer cameras with the Nikon FM(2), FE(2), unlike the mechanical Nikkormats the EL had the shutter dial on top and the meter reading is just like the later FE's. The one achilles heal with the EL is not the 6v 4SR44 battery specced for the Canon A series and the New F-1, Nikon decided the best place to put the battery is under the mirror box and you had to access by locking the mirror up, what could possibly go wrong? The EL was discontinued in the late 1970s with the introduction of the FE which was an amazing camera, more on that anohter time.
I was in town for an evening event and spent the late afternoon starting around Union Station and made my way down to Harbourfront. I used a roll of Efke 100, a classic silver rich single layer black and white film that was made in Croatia and was based on an earlier formulation from Adox in the early 1960s. Efke folded six years ago when their ancient coating machine just gave up and no one could fix it, so it was fun while it lasted. If you come across some, give this film a try.
Camera: Nikomat EL, Nikkor S.C. 50 f1.4 lens, Q 135 f2.8 lens, H 28 f3.5 lens.
Film: Efke 100, Rodinal 1+50.
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