POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 8:26 AM
Monday March 23, 2009

Cameras • Retro

f mount • nikon

F Mount turns 50, gets a shabby cupcake and a fizzy candle from Nikon

f-mount_50th_logo.jpg.jpgMat Halprin writes:

This is pretty big. In 1959, the Nikon F camera and its associated lens mount dethroned Leicas and other rangefinders as the camera to have for photojournalists and other pros, as well as bringing SLRs into the mainstream. SLRs existed prior to the F, but they lacked an automatically returning shutter and film winding mechanism. The F had all this and more. To this day the F lens mount is still used on all Nikon SLRs (with minor changes) and you can theoretically mount [almost] any lens on [almost] any camera from 1959-2009. Not to mention that there are original generation F cameras still snapping pictures today with little or no maintenance.

So this huge milstone arrives for Nikon and what do they do? You'd assume they would do a limited edition reissue of the original F, like they did when the SP rangefinder had its 50th a few years back. But no. They introduce a new logo and that's it. I thought this deserved mention on BBG, since I read it and love it and I haven't seen much other coverage on this. Nikon really dropped the ball.

Bad Nikon! (That's all I've got, Mat. We've failed you, too.)

1

9 Comments

error404

#1 – 9:23 AM March 23, 2009

the F mount and the fact that it made the transition to digital and was fully interchangable with any F mount lens was the reason I bought NIkon when I went SLR digital.

The small shabby grasping shenanigans of all the other manufacturers who effectively orphaned all their old lenses really Ripped My Knitting.

Rob Beschizza

#2 – 10:01 AM March 23, 2009

We should institute the Shabby Cupcake award for inadequately marked anniversaries.

felsby

#3 – 10:17 AM March 23, 2009

It is a great joy of mine to mount my 38 years old 55mm Micro-Nikkor on my D200 DSLR. All hail the F-mount!

Thad E Ginataom

#4 – 1:56 PM March 23, 2009

I was seven, then, when the Nikon F came out. Now I'm nearly... Oh, never mind!

Happy Birthday Nikon F

I've never owned one, but for so many years it was the camera of desire!

winkybb

#5 – 9:23 PM March 23, 2009

Yeah, happy birthday F-mount. The low level of obsolescence makes me glad I chose Nikon many years ago. Everything still works together.

mazerrackham

#6 – 7:07 AM March 24, 2009

My grandfather died when I was very young, and left his old camera gear to our side of the family. I never even knew about it until recently when I was showing my dad my new DSLR, and he said "oh, grandpa used Nikons, too...". A few minutes of rummaging later, and his old pelican case was produced. It was kind of amazing to click an "heirloom" lens older than I was onto my new camera. Its pointlessly sentimental, but using these old lenses I feel a connection back to a man I regrettably never got to know.

Kudos to Nikon and happy birthday F-mount!

hep cat

#7 – 3:54 PM March 24, 2009

automatically returning shutter and film winding mechanism

should be

automatically returning mirror

Exacta had the first wind-on lever for the first 35mm slr in 1936, so I don't know what you are talking about with the film winding part.

OM

#8 – 5:28 PM March 25, 2009

...Think about it, kids. If the F wasn't an excellent camera, would Paul Simon have written a song about them?

Anonymous Anonymous

#9 – 10:22 PM April 6, 2009

I think the Logo's kinda crappy. It's not not clear what the "sunburst" for the zero means. If you looked at it without having an explanation, would you know what they were referring to? I think they should have spelled out Fifty, using the distinctive script of the "F" and the rest of the letters complementing it.

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