I love the discussion on Leica and Nikon's competition in the 1950s and 1960s, how both companies ended up dominating their sectors of the market, while respecting the other's "turf". Fascinating. Mr Wu certainly knows his field.
Very nice presentation! In Japanese, “niko” means “smile”-it’s a play on words that doesn’t translate into English. I suppose “mat” is short for “amateur,” so the name means smile for the camera bug! It’s impressive that they could serve both market segments. Many companies fail when they try this. Such a gutsy company!
Thank you Mr. Woo and John. Lovely. My second camera, mid late seventies was a Nikkormat FTn with a Nikkor 55mm f1.2 lens.I then got a Nikkor 28mm f3.5HC. My cousin's previous girlfriend gave me her Nikkormat FT2. I used my Micro Nikkor 55mm f2.8 on it. Need to get a new battery for it.
Thank You so much for introducing us to such a wonderful man. He has so much history in his head and was so nice to share with us all. I learned a lot today and thanks agin for doing this interview. Looking forward to more of this man.
Excellent talk Mr Woo . Interesting facts with a bit of gentle humour thrown in. I love the comparison of the Nikomat not sitting at the same dining table as the Nikon family. More from this gentleman please. I've learnt a lot more here about my Nikon cameras in such a short time.
Buy a good quality adaptor for F-mount to whatever your digital camera has. Nikon used the same mount from 1959 until autofocus was introduced, so there are a lot of manual-focus Nikon lenses available, some of them legendary, like the 105mm f:2.5 fex.
@@hansemannluchter643 I'm adapting Voigtlander and Zeiss F-Mount lens on my Z8. Sold off all my DSLR gear a couple years back before I started traveling in Asia. Once I get settled, I will start looking for some vintage lens again.
I purchased my Nikkormat in 1972. Has had a Lot of use and still works like new. Only have had the light seals replaced. Recently have added a F and F2.
Great program. Hope to see the later Nikons like my FE which btw will be buried with me and also more of the other great brands. Cheers from Australia.
Two Nikkormat cameras Mr Woo did not mention, but will certainly know of. The Nikkormat FS was a meter-less version of the FT, and the FT3. The FT3 was only made as a stopgap for a few months in 1977, because the Nikon FM was not ready for market. The FT3 was the first Nikkormat with internal metering linkages like the FM and subsequent Nikons, and accepts modern batteries.
Beautiful cameras, just look at the materials were used. And that vintage click. I’m still holding on my Olympus OMD EM cameras. The materials are top notch still and they just work! I can’t part with my Canon 7D mark II to sentimental to me.
Many thanks for this excellent talk of Mr Woo! I owned a mechanical Nikkormat as a second body to my Nikon F2 in the seventies. I would shoot one body with color slide film and the other one with Tri-X black-and-white. Both great cameras. The only quirk of (at least my) Nikkormat was that when you kept your thumb behind film transport lever to quickly forward to the next exposure, the smallest pressure on the lever would block the shutter release button. Missed some “decisive moments” that way. This would not happen on my F2. Wonder if Mr Woo or other Nik(k)ormat users had the same experience.
I bought an early Nikkormat FT 15 years ago, and it was in such perfect condition I went back to using my FTn and FT2s. As it had remained in new condition for 44 years (now 59 years), it seemed wrong to submit the camera to normal use. No baseplate or lens mount marks, just as if it had come straight from the box. I have no idea of the backstory, I guess someone bought the Nikkormat, put it in a drawer where it remained until the property was disposed of. It cost £34!
Nikon have long said they don’t actually care if the US market pronounce it Nykon instead of Nee-kon. It is, after all, a made up word designed for the international market, the company name for decades was always Nippon Kogaku. Japanese pronunciation tends to stress the ‘Nee’ a bit more than the rest of the non-US world, where it tends to be ‘Nick-on’.
John, i think you found a gem : Mr Woo hold such a wonderful wealth of camera history. Would you consider doing an approximately 45min length with Mr Woo on camera's history? E,g Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Leica, Olympus. There's arent many energtic narrator likes Mr Woo. And if you are heading to Penang, i can bridge you a few veteran in film photography for content. I own F2, F3, F5, FM3a, wonderful gears!
Thank you Mr. WOO! HAD NO IDEA SO MANY NIKORMATS MADE! YOU HAVE EDUCATED ME, THANK YOU! SO THERE WAS INTENSE COMPETITION FOR NIKON TO RIVAL LEICA. AND NIKON FINALLY GAVE UP? AND DECIDED TO DESIGN ENTIRELY NEW CONCEPT! LOOK THROUGH THE LENS NOT AT IT! THANK YOU! THE ONE THING I HAVE LEARNED, FOCAL LENGTH TO FILM PLANE CRUCIAL OR OUT OF FOCUS! SO YOU CAN HAVE A BAD F AND NOT KNOW IT! STILL DELIVER MIRKY PICTURE. WHAT GOOD F WITH BAD FILM PLANE? WHAT GOOD LEICA WITH BAD FILM PLANE? MANY THANKS MR. WOO! PLEASE TALK ABOUT 1951 NIKON S NEXT! WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT S . THANK YOU SO MUCH! I GREW UP WITH F. ALLWAYS GOT MEDIOCHER RESULTS. WONDER WHY? OH! YES, IT HAD MIRANDA FOCUS SCREEN! MAYBE WHY DADS OLD PHOTOS NEVER 100% SHARP? MY BEST PHOTOS CAME FROM PENTAX MV. HAD SEIKO SHUTTER! I OWNED TWO FS ONE TIME.LOST THEM. THEN I BOUGHT A NIKON S. FIXED STICKY SHUTTER, STILL PHOTOS NOT 100% SHARP. HELP ME MR.WOO TO UNDERSTAND WHY? IF YOUR ABLE. SORRY TO IMPOSE BUT VERY CURIOUS. THANK YOU FOR ANY FREE HELP.😅
In any reflex camera system the focused image must agree on the viewfinder and the film plane i.e. image focussed in the finder must also be equally sharp in the resultant image. The usual area that can be knocked out of position are the film plane, focusing screen seating , relax mirror. It takes an experience tech with the right tools to rectify the discrepancy. A simple test is to set shutter on B lock shutter open, place the dreaming film or another focussing scree withagniffirer focus the image on this set up and check distance scale on lens. It should agree. Then look thru the viewfinder, the image should be equally sharp. If the film plane images does not agree with the finder image, dome adjustments need to be done. Most camera film plane are die cast so no adjustments needed but some are fitted with a plate as the film plane "Im this case adjustments needed. areas of possible adjustments , reflex mirror, focussing screen seating.
Ot have a copy of the early Nikon s rf camera. I believe the shutter speed dial is the rotating type. Normally you need to cock the shutter first by the film winder, then lift and rotate the dial to select the speed, then fire.
That is why they changed the name for the American market and made a double "k" but even so, the septics insist on calling them "N-eye-kormats" like to them it's "Eye-ran" instead of Iran, or "Eye-rack" instead of Iraq 😜
