Winter Light

The little Nikon EM and its Series E lens gets little love from many Nikon enthusiasts, but it has always performed well for me.

I'm currently using a composite of the above images as the desktop background on my old iMac.

Slow Walking EM

 Another fine day for a leisurely stroll through Albuquerque's Old Town.

Ken Rockwell judges the EM to be Nikon's worst camera.  I beg to disagree.  I like the Nikon EM for its compactness, light weight,  aperture-priority automation, and the fact that it can use all my fine Nikon lenses.

I recently had a total disaster with a bad batch of PMK Pyro developer, so this roll of Kentmere 100 was processed in some reliable old Rodinal 1:50.

A Nikon Lightweight

I have done several repairs on my Nikon EM to keep it going.  I like the camera because of its small size, light weight, and the fact that it accepts any of my Nikon lenses.  The-aperture-priority-only feature is not a problem as it is my preferred mode for any of my slr cameras.  I shot a roll of Kentmere 100 in the camera over the course of a week recently in Old Town and in the nearby Sawmill neighborhood.  The meter worked fine throughout, and I thought the Series E 1.8/50mm lens and the film delivered nice results.

La Plaza Vieja

Cervantes in repose

Sawmill Tower

I got out early on my three-wheeler to beat the heat and that got me to the Sawmill neighborhood just as the Flamenco School was about to open.

National Institute of Flemenco

The yearly Festival Flamenco just concluded here; it is an event that attracts performers and enthusiasts from all over the world, and it has grown steadily in popularity.  I was actually happier when it was of more modest proportions.  The prices for most of the Festival events have gotten beyond what I am prepared to support.  However, there are opportunities to enjoy Flamenco throughout the year and many are very affordable and even free.  The Spanish Broom group often shows up around Old Town and they offer performances at no charge, relying instead on donations through their website.

Spare Parts

 In one week I managed to break the plastic rewind cranks on two old cameras that I like, the Nikon EM and my two-decade-old Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim.  Luckily for me I had a spare crank for the VUWS, and the Nikon EM was put back in working order thanks to the generosity of a friend.

So, time to test the repairs.  I headed over to the Los Poblanos fields to see if I could find some wintering Sandhill Cranes.  Thee were plenty of birds, but none were willing to allow me close enough for a picture.  I had to settle for a shot of an old cottonwood which showed no objection to being photographed.

Nikon EM

The next day I took  both cameras to the Tingley ponds. The little Ultra Wide was loaded with Kendtmere 100.  In the Nikon EM I had a roll of slightly expired Fuji Neopan Presto which Jim Grey sent me some time ago, 

I had walked around one of the ponds with the Vivitar 70-210 Macro Zoom on the Nikon EM.  That gave me more than enough reach to shoot the lounging ducks and geese.  Back at my starting point I rewarded my subjects with a single slice of bread which caused quite a lot of excitement.  There is a sign at the pool's edge requesting that people not feed the birds, but I figured my small transgression would not be noticed.

Shortly afterward this woman arrived in an suv and distributed about forty pounds of bird food to the ducks and geese.  She told me she did this daily!  I captured the scene with the Ultra Wide.

With two rolls of film to process I decided to do them together with semi-stand development in highly diluted HC110, following the technique developed by hjlphotos.  That turned out well with the Fuji Neopan 400.  The Kentmere 100 from the Ultra Wide did not like that choice however, and I had to resort to some careful photoshopping to get something acceptable.

Adventures in Film Photography

 My repair of the meter coupling on the Nikon EM seemed a success, so time for a test.

 I mounted the 50/1.8 Series E lens and loaded the camera with a roll of Arista 200. As sometimes happens I did not get the tongue of the film into the take-up spool quite right, so I gave the rewind knob a couple turns back and opened the camera back to try again.  I then saw that I had rolled the film leader completely back into the cassette.  I threw the film with disgust into the trash -- only to retrieve it seconds later as I remembered that I had a reloadable cassette to which the film could be transferred.  I put everything into the dark bag, pried open the Arista cassette and had the reel and film in the reloadable cassette in  a couple minutes.

I carried the Nikon EM around for about a week to finish the test roll and the meter worked smoothly as expected under a variety of conditions.  I finished off the roll with a couple shots around the house and then proceeded to crank the rewind knob to get the film back in the cartridge.  The plastic rewind knob cracked in half on the first turn.
 

The whole thing went back into the black bag so I could fish out the exposed film and get it into the Paterson tank for processing.  As I expected, all the images looked to be properly exposed.

This through-the-window shot was made with a Vivitar 70-210 f/3.5 Macro Focusing Zoom

 
The prospects for repair of the rewind knob looked dim.  In a search on the web I found that a broken rewind knob on the EM is not an uncommon problem. Replacements are available on ebay, but they are generally priced higher than what I paid for the camera. The same knob is on several Nikon models, so perhaps something will turn up to get the camera back into operation. I hope so, as I like the light-weight and compact Nikon and its little Series E lens.

Another Nikon EM

My Nikon EM developed a problem I was unable to fix.  I haven't used the EM a lot, but I liked it for it's compactness and reliable performance.  I decided I would like to replace the camera, though it seemed unlikely I would find another  for the same cost of $10 which I paid at a neighbor's yard sale.  

To my surprise I did find another Nikon EM on ebay for $13.  A test roll of expired film showed the shutter and meter working, but all the images had a broad stripe light leak near center.  I scraped the old seal material out of the channels on the back of the body and replaced it with black yarn.  What actually got rid of the leak, however, was a strip of black foam which I installed near the back hinge.  I then shot a new roll of Kentmere 400  while walking the dog around the neighborhood, and that showed the new seals to be performing properly. 

The residence of the Brothers Mathias is just across the street, so it has ended up being the subject of a lot of camera tests.  I noticed some nice shadows on the building late in the afternoon, so I made a picture that shows a broader view of the structure than I have shown in the past.

One of the Brothers welcomed us to the neighborhood when we moved in fifteen years ago.  That is the only time I recall speaking with any of the residents.

So I'm pleased to have a working Nikon EM again, particularly because I nearly always have used the camera with the nice little 1.8/50mm Series E lens which probably would not get much use otherwise.

Nikon Lightweight

I carried around my Nikon EM for a week loaded with Kentmere 400.  I usually shoot the camera with the Series E 50mm lens as it makes a nice lightweight kit, but this time I mounted the 50/1.8.  I processed the film with some Ilford Ilfotec DD-X which produced ok results in subdued light, but too much grain and contrast in full sun. 

Mad Cat

Cattle Drive

Casamero Pueblo

Fairlane 500

Light Leaks

In the process of going through some boxes of pictures for a family photo album I came across a kit of light seal material which I think I bought about ten years ago from Jon Goodman.  There was enough material to take care of several cameras, so I decided to put it to use,  starting with my ten-dollar-yard-sale Nikon EM which I haven't done much with, partly because of a small light leak.

I scraped out the old deteriorated seal material from the Nikon using a small screwdriver.  A little dab of glue on each end of the narrow strips held them in place well.  I also replaced the seals near the back hinge with some adhesive-backed foam panels from the same kit.  The whole job took about half an hour.  

As soon as the new seals were firmly in place I loaded up some Kodak ColorPlus 200 and took the Nikon for a walk around the neighborhood.

The next morning we took the dog and the camera for a walk beside the river and I finished up the roll.

No unwanted photons were detected.