Bill Smith's Photography

  Been a minute since I last shot with one of my Nikkormats, so I pulled out an FT2, put on a Nikkor O 35 F2 lens, and went downtown. Well I had too, it was a trip to the bank with my brother to deal with some remaining business with my mom's estate, didn't take long and I was back on the street.  So far this has been a 100 ISO Summer, I broke that with the roll of Tri-X I shot here, and shot through a mid 1970s Nikkormat FT2, it seems right.  Nikkormat FT2, Nikkor O 35 F2 lens.  Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilfotec HC 1+31. 

 I was invited on to an in depth Gen X photography Podcast on the subject of Everything Nikkormat   and had a blast. With that, I had to pull out one of my Nikkormats for a spin, choosing the EL, testbed for Nikon for emerging technologies like battery operated shutters and aperture priority, bleeding edge for the early 1970s.  The EL is different than the mechanical Nikkormats in form factor featuring conventional controls, and the battery, the 4SR44 is located under the mirror in the mirror box. Not an easy place to get at when replacing the battery, but it's more protected from temperature swings.  Overall the EL is a great camera, if you're a Nikkormat fan, if you can find one with decent electronics (they are over 50 years old at this point), they can be a nice workhorse, if their mechanical counterparts aren't your cup of tea ergonomics wise.  Fomapan 400 and 510 Pyro is an interesting combination, I had three rolls in this batch, one from the R5 las...