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My highly collectible Nikon F camera with Prism is in good vintage shape with a couple nicks and dings from years of use. Nothing too bad IMHO, and comes with the original leather case! I had a ton of money invested in my film cameras at one time and this is the last one. I paid close to $1000 for this camera when purchased! Comes with NIKKOR Prime 1.4f 50mm lens. Shutter operates smoothly. Lens comes with filter installed as shown in the photos. The camera serial dates it to October to December of 1965.
From Cameraquest.com:
The Nikon F\'s Place in History
The Nikon F is arguably the most significant SLR in 35mm history. Introduced in March 1959, the F immediately became Nikon\'s best seller and established Nikon as the Professional\'s 1st was a real turn around folks, and to understand it, we will have to look at 35mmphotography in 1959. While the Japanese were the up and coming new boys on the block, everyone knew that the Germans were the undisputed leaders. Leica was far and away the best selling professional Rangefinder camera. Rollei\'s TLR was the pro\'s choice in 120 cameras. And then of course there were the marvelously sharp Zeiss optics on the awkward but superlatively made Contax and Contarex. Japan was where the cheap cameras came from. You bought Japanese if you couldn\'t afford German.
SLR\'s? 35mm SLR\'s were generally slow working cameras with no instant return mirrorsand no automatic diaphragm. Don\'t know what I\'m talking about? After an exposure, the mirror on most 35mm SLR\'s did not return into viewing position until you advanced the film. In other words, you were stuck looking at a black hole. The instant return mirror came to market on the Asahiflex IIb of 1953--but not everyone was quick to adapt it. And then there was the little matter of the lens diaphragm. If you had just taken a picture at f/16 and you were lucky enough to be using a camera with an instant return mirror, you still didn\'t have a clear view after the exposure because the camera lens was still at f/16. The bright image you had was now dim, until you manually opened up your lens to its maximum aperture. Until automatic diaphragm lenses for SLRs started showing up. They would automatically open the lens back up to its maximum aperture after exposure.
Manufacturer after manufacturer in the late 50\'s kept introducing their idea of the SLR of the future, with all the bells and whistles. While some of them, notably Pentax, seemedto be on the right track, none of them really had a Professional 35mm SLR, UNTIL THE NIKON F. Strangely enough theMarch 1959 Philadelphia photo show saw the US introduction of three new top brand Japanese SLR lines:theMinolta SR-2with 55/1.8 and a list price of $249.50, theCanon Canonflexwith 50/2 and a list price of $299.95, and the Nikon F with a 50/2 had a list price of 359.50.
The Nikon F completely eclipsed everything else in its time as a Pro 35.Professionals switched from the Leica M\'s (and everything else) to Nikon F\'s in legions, and to this day Leica has never recovered.But more than the Professional\'s switch from Leica to Nikon, it also signaled the maturity of the Japanese photo industry.
From that time on, Japan was the new Photographic Industry leader and Germany would be doomed to play catch up. Zeiss got out of the camera business. Rollei hangs on bought out by Samsung. Leica continues its post Leitz family experience once having been owned by a concrete manufacturer and now has new ties to Yashica.
The Nikon F was a really big deal, a crucial turning point in 35mm Photography.
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