I have the opportunity to purchase a Nikonos V

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Knavey

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Messages
500
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Location
Florida USA
# of dives
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for my wife. She is an middle experienced LAND photographer in that she is the Year Book Instructor and between her and her students shoots about 10 rolls per week.

We will be taking a live aboard trip in July on the Nekton Rorqual and she is enrolled in the underwater photo course.

I know the Nik V has been discontinued, but I also know that it is considered a very good camera.

The question is Should I purchase it or go digital with all of the new stuff that has come out?
 
I recently bought a Nikonos V, SB-105 and close-up kit. If it's what you want, There are still new cameras out there. I bought mine from B&H. It is a gray market one but I saved quite a bit. B&H will send it to Southern Nikonos http://www.southern-nikonos.com/ for free service if there is a problem.

Be advised that it's not for underwater snapshots. You have to work for every shot. The camera is not an SLR and doesn't have a range finder. You have to estimate the distance and manually set it. It has a light meter but only an aperture priority mode or manual settings. no light meter indicator as such. The learning curve is steep. I am just now after five rolls of film beginning to feel comfortable with it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. When I get on a boat, people get out of my way when I carry it. It commands respect as it shows you are a serious about your photos.

With that said, it would be a great camera if she is taking that course. It is the camera that all others are judged by. The optics are the best and it is very easy to handle underwater. It has negative buoyancy but seems to weigh less than a pound underwater. If she gets it, buy her the "Jim Church's Essential Guide to Nikonos Systems". It is required reading for any Nikonos owner. I would recommend the 28mm lens instead of the standard 35mm. Although the 28 cannot be used out of the water, the greater depth of field and wider angle makes it more useful. I have the 35 mm and considered it. I should have got it but wanted the out of water ability of the 35.

Eric
 
Thanks for the critique,

I appreciate it when people give both the pros and cons of the equipment.

I broke it down today and reassembled it and it is in very good shape. The guy who is loaning it to me bought it for his wife, but she doesn't have the patience to use it. Mine may be a bit more inclined since it is one of her interests...we shall see.

20 days till we weigh anchor....I can hardly wait.
 
It is all verywell someone telling you that walking on a boat with a nikonos v makes people get out of your way because they think you are professional (?), and telling you to go for it.

BUT how much is it?

your wife shoots 10 rolls a week, on what, is she using a manual camera or is she using a modern autofocus slr?

if she shoots slr, then she may well have problems to begin with.

shooting rolls and rolls of film on good dives and only have one photo per film that you can keep can leave you feeling very unhappy, especially if you saw a "one in a million" shot.

owning a nikonos v doesn't make you a professional photographer, there are many shots posted on here by people with that setup or similar asking what and how it went wrong, it is the quality of the photo you take that makes you professioanl!

I take it as she does the year book then she has access to film developing?

what is you budget?

Do you want to go digital?

could you get a good digital camera that has all the slr functions and a housing for a comparable cost of the nikonos v?
 
clive francis once bubbled...
It is all verywell someone telling you that walking on a boat with a nikonos v makes people get out of your way because they think you are professional (?), and telling you to go for it.



Now wait a second, that's not what I wrote. Besides, it was written tongue in cheek. The camera doesn't make a bad photo great. I was just giving him the upside and downside of ownership. The Nikonos is a hard camera to use. Their owners deserve recognition for their commitment to photography

Digital cameras will reign supreme on this board. After all, this is a digital medium. Me, I'm old school when it comes to photography. I see digital and film cameras as quite different. Sort of like video tape vs.. film camera. If the guy wants film, let him have at it.


Eric
 
Everything Eric has said, I ditto. I used Nikonos IV, IVA, and V for several years of shooting. Eric, you hit the nail on the head in all aspects of shooting with this camera.

Barracuda2
 
daytona once bubbled...



Now wait a second, that's not what I wrote. Besides, it was written tongue in cheek. The camera doesn't make a bad photo great. I was just giving him the upside and downside of ownership. The Nikonos is a hard camera to use. Their owners deserve recognition for their commitment to photography

Digital cameras will reign supreme on this board. After all, this is a digital medium. Me, I'm old school when it comes to photography. I see digital and film cameras as quite different. Sort of like video tape vs.. film camera. If the guy wants film, let him have at it.


Eric

I must have missed the tongue in cheek quotes :wink:

but................

he didn't give us much to go on either and some of the points i raised on what set up she currently uses are very important.

it is like asking how long is a piece of string?

it can be as long as you like it.
 
clive francis once bubbled...


I must have missed the tongue in cheek quotes :wink:


he didn't give us much to go on either .........

Well, you're right about both. It was only half tongue in cheek and he gave little to go on.

I gave what I thought would be a helpful answer.

As far as the other part.....
It seems like I was treated properly.
Camera in hand, they didn't ask to see my log book, a requirement of this boat. To me I thought I looked like I had more money than brains. To the divemaster it seems he thought I was serious about photography. Hmmmm, after all, why buy such a rig otherwise.

After my dives, when I got on the boat, the divemaster put the camera in the fresh water bath for me and told me he had selected M-90 and off on the strobe for me. I said, "you know your Nikons".

Look, I'm not a snob about photography. I have owned digital cameras for years. I bought a Nikon coolpix 900 when they first came out and cost almost a grand. I just prefer to work with film. I love going through the prints and throwing out the bad ones. Even more I love keeping the good ones, taking them around and showing them off. Puting them in albums and looking at them in future years. Then, every few rolls, if I'm lucky, I'll get one worthy of blowing up to 16x20 and hanging on the wall.

I gave thought to buying a digital underwater camera. I also considered a housing for my N-90 SLR. For me though, the Nikonos was a no brainer. I always wanted one, even back in the sixties when they first came out.

Eric
 
Hello,

The Nik V will be working long after any digital camera craps out and needs 'upgrading'. She'll also be here for quite a while. If it's macro shots your looking at doing invest in a housed system. Since she already has a land camera just get a housing for it! The macro tubes with the nikonos leaves much to be desired since it's not SLR.

Personaly I would never recocomend digital to anyone unless they was to use something like the nikon D1X. Anything less and you will have quality loss.

Ed
 
clive francis once bubbled...
It is all verywell someone telling you that walking on a boat with a nikonos v makes people get out of your way because they think you are professional (?), and telling you to go for it.

BUT how much is it?

your wife shoots 10 rolls a week, on what, is she using a manual camera or is she using a modern autofocus slr?

if she shoots slr, then she may well have problems to begin with.

shooting rolls and rolls of film on good dives and only have one photo per film that you can keep can leave you feeling very unhappy, especially if you saw a "one in a million" shot.

owning a nikonos v doesn't make you a professional photographer, there are many shots posted on here by people with that setup or similar asking what and how it went wrong, it is the quality of the photo you take that makes you professioanl!

I take it as she does the year book then she has access to film developing?

what is you budget?

Do you want to go digital?

could you get a good digital camera that has all the slr functions and a housing for a comparable cost of the nikonos v?


Price: We haven't discussed it yet...He knows I am willing to give him a reasonable price and I know he was planning on selling it on eBay just like I was going to purchase one off of eBay. I would suspect we will agree on a reasonable price based on eBay sales when (and if) I decided to buy it.

She uses a SLR Auto focus for MOST of her work, but there are those pics that she likes to take and use a manual. I understand it is a tremendous amount of work, and we have about 25 dives to decide if she wants to go through the trouble or not.


Going through rolls of film is nothing new to her also. The sell all of the unused shots at the end of the year to the student body, to help finance the cost of next years pictures. I've seen the table where they lay them all out...hard to beleive that many pictures get wasted, but thats life.


Going digital...now that is the real question...personally, I am the internet and computer geek. We don't own a digital camera (yet) mainly because I know that in 6 months something newer and better will be out for cheaper than what I just paid for.

I know digital is easy, and I do like playing with digital enhancing programs, but believe it or not, they still make the yearbooks at school the old fashioned way...very little computer imagery involved.

I am definately waiting and seeing how the liveaboard trip goes. If she likes it, we buy it. Simple as that. If she uses it for a couple of days, and loses interest, we don't. Of course, then I come back to the board and ask about housings for the SLR and perhaps digital cameras.

Thanks again for the input. I appreciate the candor and look forward to telling everyone how the trip went.
 

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