As delighted as I am with the results with some B&W film in my 'new to me' F3, I'm nowhere near as good at focusing on it as I am with my Df - I thought that it should be easier! Anyway, I know that the focus screens can be swapped but to be honest haven't a clue. The one I've got has the split screen centre with another circle so think it's a K type?
You will probably get as many different recommendations as you get answers. The F3 came standard with a Type K screen-which Nikon described as a Matte/Fresnel field with 3 mm split image rangefinder spot surrounded by 1 mm-wide microprism doughnut. That split image being horizontal. Great if you want to focus on something with an obvious vertical line, but that isn't always available in every composition.
Responding to a request from the US space agency NASA, Nikon developed a screen called a Type P, same as the K except the split image was on a 45 degree angle. There is always a line which is broken by something that is on a 45 degree angle. I had one on my F2 and found it very easy to use.
If you have not done so, pop off the prism on the F3, and you can flip the focusing screen out(release it first), and there will be a letter printed on your screen, which identifies it's type.
I like the "L" screen - split prism at 45 degree. No surrounding microprism. You get used to bringing the 2 images together with the split prism. I found the microprism distracting.
If I remember correctly, F4 screens are interchangeable with F3 screens. But F2 screens are not interchangeable with F3 screens.
It's funny that there used to be a bit of fuss about the Df screen but I find that camera to be the easiest Nikon to focus with (D800, F3 etc) so maybe I should try the full matte screen.
FWIW, pop the finder off and lift out the screen, the type will be printed on the left side of the frame.
My daily screen was the Type P although I used with regularity the Type E, matt with horizontal and vertical grids lines. I did buy an M screen for low light and very fast focus acquisition with fast primes, it is so sensitive with a finely ground fresnel on pretty much the entire screen. Still have the E & M no F3 though.
recordproducti wrote:
As delighted as I am with the results with some B&W film in my 'new to me' F3, I'm nowhere near as good at focusing on it as I am with my Df - I thought that it should be easier! Anyway, I know that the focus screens can be swapped but to be honest haven't a clue. The one I've got has the split screen centre with another circle so think it's a K type?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Mike
I've used both the DF and the F3 (I now have two F3s), and found the focussing much more accurate and easy on the F3. Which makes sense as the F3 is a pure manual focus camera, while the DF is an af DSLR made to look like a manual focus film camera.
I would get your F3 checked out to make sure that the focus screen is correctly seated and that the mirror is correctly adjusted.
