freaklikeme wrote:
Was Minolta the only manufacturer to use a Judas window so you could see the lens aperture setting through the VF?
OregonSun wrote:
I've seen it on Pentax and Ricoh bodies.
Also on Zeiss Ikon Voigtlander Icarex 35S variants.
As stated above, this was a feature of the Nikon AI lens design, and I used it a LOT. No electronic communication to the lens, but you could see what aperture you had selected in the viewfinder none-the-less. The F3 had a little grain-of-wheat incandescent bulb which lit the Judas window so you could see it at night (IF the little red activation button wasn't corroded!)
OffTrail wrote:
A bunch of Nikons have that. If you look at Ai and Ai-S lenses, they've got two sets of aperture markings. One for the photographer to see when looking down at the lens, and the other set ends up under the prism and reflected into the viewfinder.
That's why the Ai and AI-s lens meter connector tab (bunny ears) have slots to let light through and the non-Ai are solid.
madNbad wrote:
That's why the Ai and AI-s lens meter connector tab (bunny ears) have slots to let light through and the non-Ai are solid.
OffTrail wrote:
Ah, I didn't know the cutouts were for light but it makes sense.
And although Nikon AF-D lenses don't have the bunny-ears, if you look closely you will see that they do come with detents for the screw position to mount one should you choose to do so and want to use AF lenses on a pre-AI body. Again, almost insane levels of backward compatibility on Nikon's part.
Nikonos II and III with advance lever doubling as shutter release. Nikonos lenses using knobs to set aperture and for focusing. And of course, these Nikonos cameras were also waterproof up to 160 feet.
Canon cameras with the very effective QL (quick loading) system (Canonet QL-17, FTB QL)
Ricoh 500 rangefinder with quick action advance lever at the bottom of the camera.
grantgoodes wrote:
And although Nikon AF-D lenses don't have the bunny-ears, if you look closely you will see that they do come with detents for the screw position to mount one should you choose to do so and want to use AF lenses on a pre-AI body. Again, almost insane levels of backward compatibility on Nikon's part.
I recall those two small punch marks on the AF lenses, but not the AF-D. I'm sure they were still there, just did not not buy many AF-D lenses since I had AF and then the AF-S lenses followed not long after the AF-D. The G lenses started to kill off compatibility.
Canon did the right thing by ripping off the band-aid and developing the far better (wider) EF mount. I can still use early 90s lenses on 2024 cameras with a simple adapter.
Bulk film backs for 35mm SLRs. 250 or even 750 frame rolls of film. Somewhere I have one new in the box for. Minolta 9000, of all things. And a hand cranked loader to fill the cassettes.
JJkawa1 wrote:
My Kodak Retina had the shutter advance on the bottom of the body, definitely never saw any other camera with that feature.
The bottom shutter advance is definitely rare, although I've seen a couple others that have it, e.g., some of the Canonflex models, the Ricoh 500 mentioned a few posts ago, and also the Praktica IV/V series.
The Prakticas actually have the bottom 'rapid advance' AND the standard for the time knob advance on the top plate. Are there any other cameras that had dual film advance methods?
My very 1st camera (1971?) was a "clockwork Ricoh" 126 C Automatic. It looked like Dad's Leica rangefinder and it had a spring winder on the bottom for "automatic" cocking of the shutter and film advance. It shot 126 cartridges, had a 40mm/2.8 lens and used flashcubes.
(126 was 26x26mm, so it's square with a crop factor of 1.09.)
I recently picked up the Ricoh Speedlite PX, a side mount TTL flash for the XR-M (XR-X) that is powered by the camera. I've seen similar for some fixed lens compacts like the Olympus XA (not TTL, requires battery), do any other interchangeable lens cameras have this?
EB-1 wrote:
I recall those two small punch marks on the AF lenses, but not the AF-D. I'm sure they were still there, just did not not buy many AF-D lenses since I had AF and then the AF-S lenses followed not long after the AF-D. The G lenses started to kill off compatibility.
Canon did the right thing by ripping off the band-aid and developing the far better (wider) EF mount. I can still use early 90s lenses on 2024 cameras with a simple adapter.
EBH
That you can still use those Canon lenses but not all Nikon lenses with full functionality has less to do with the EF vs F-mount but rather Nikon‘s willingness to build a fully functional adapter and their decision to remove the aperture ring when they moved to AF-S (there are some AF-S D-type lenses which work seamlessly on cameras from 1977-2026, but very few). The D780 is basically a Z6 but has the full F-mount with all its features - Aperture index, AF motor, etc - but Nikon just refuses to build an FTZ adapter that does the same.
More rare to find especially these days are 4x4 frame cartridges with 120 film for the Hasselblad 500 system. They come up here and there on ebay for sale. The 4x4 cartridges flew more under the radar since 6x6 was and is the preferred size for 120 films with the Hasselblad system. The 4x4 only provided 16 frames instead of 12 with 6x6 cartridges - IMO not a big advantage for much smaller square size. I was handed one of these 4x4 cartridges years ago but only used it once so far.
retrofocus wrote:
More rare to find especially these days are 4x4 frame cartridges with 120 film for the Hasselblad 500 system. They come up here and there on ebay for sale. The 4x4 cartridges flew more under the radar since 6x6 was and is the preferred size for 120 films with the Hasselblad system. The 4x4 only provided 16 frames instead of 12 with 6x6 cartridges - IMO not a big advantage for much smaller square size. I was handed one of these 4x4 cartridges years ago but only used it once so far.
Those are the A16 (645/6x4.5) and A16S (4x4) film backs, which shrink the frame to the current kinda-medium-format sensors we have today. They were for saving film and you have to put the mask in the VF, etc. Never bothered with them.
taildraggin wrote:
Those are the A16 (645/6x4.5) and A16S (4x4) film backs, which shrink the frame to the current kinda-medium-format sensors we have today. They were for saving film and you have to put the mask in the VF, etc. Never bothered with them.
Correct. The only benefit is getting 4 additional frame on one roll of 120 film. Not enough IMO to bother with mask in the VF and lower resolution when the 120 film's benefit actually is to be able to go to 6 cm. This is likely the reason why the 4x4 cartridges don't find much use.
retrofocus wrote:
More rare to find especially these days are 4x4 frame cartridges with 120 film for the Hasselblad 500 system. They come up here and there on ebay for sale. The 4x4 cartridges flew more under the radar since 6x6 was and is the preferred size for 120 films with the Hasselblad system. The 4x4 only provided 16 frames instead of 12 with 6x6 cartridges - IMO not a big advantage for much smaller square size. I was handed one of these 4x4 cartridges years ago but only used it once so far.
There were also dedicated 4x4 cameras, although I think most of them used 127 film instead of 120.
