Nikonos II Flash Operation in Japanese Movie - what movie was that?

[Andre171]

Hello, after experimenting with a Nikonos IV with flash some years ago, I'd like to get into a Nikonos I/II/III.
Therefore I'm looking for a japanese movie, that showed by the way the operation of the Nikonos with the single use blub flash.
I forget the title and after 2hrs of search I didn't find it. So I hope that someone knows the title. The Scuba scene was like that: two divers going down from a small rubber boat and diving in proper vintage gear (black&white movie, ~60s). They take underwater pictures with the Nikonos and discover some monster.

I'm not sure if this is the right subforum - but high chance, that here may be someone with the knowledge...

Thankfully,
André

 

[Luis H]

Hello, after experimenting with a Nikonos IV with flash some years ago, I'd like to get into a Nikonos I/II/III.
Therefore I'm looking for a japanese movie, that showed by the way the operation of the Nikonos with the single use blub flash.
I forget the title and after 2hrs of search I didn't find it. So I hope that someone knows the title. The Scuba scene was like that: two divers going down from a small rubber boat and diving in proper vintage gear (black&white movie, ~60s). They take underwater pictures with the Nikonos and discover some monster.

I'm not sure if this is the right subforum - but high chance, that here may be someone with the knowledge...

Thankfully,
André

It sounds just like a typical day of diving in the old days...


Sorry, I can't help you with the name of the movie. I don't recall ever seeing it.

I did own a Nikonos II for years and for a film underwater camera, it was a nice design. Very reliable.

As a high-school student at the time, I could not afford a good strobe or the flash and that was a big limitation.

I am going to say that of all the great vintage stuff, film is one thing that I do not miss.

You are in the right sub-forum, hopefully someone with a good memory can help you out soon.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Andre,

I cannot help you with the film, but I have used the Nikonos II with the flash bulb unit for years. It’s is a very easy unit to use, but you need to understand the photography with flash bulbs is slightly different than with electornic flash. I still have my Nikonos II with the flash unit, and demonstrated it at a meeting of the Chinese Scientists, Engineers and Professionals Association here in Portland, Oregon. At the end, I had the camera on a table, with a bulb in the flash unit.

One of the students there asked about it, and I told her to push the top lever to take a pichure. To my complete surprise, the flash bulb flashed! It had not been used for over 20 years, yet the battery and capacitor still worked. She yelped and jumped back in surprise. One of the other students asked about multiple flashes, and I told him we just put in another flash bulb. He had never seen a single shot flash system before!

So if you have a question, I can answer it. I also have several old books which explain Nikonos photography before the electronic flash, some by Jerry Greenberg. So you don’t really need the movie to learn about the Nikonos II flash (bulb) photography. I’ll attach a photo I took in 1968 in Okinawa which was a flash photo later on my other computer. I‘m writing on my iPad right now.

SeaRat

PS, here's the photo I spoke of above. This photo was taken with a Nikonos II, and the flash unit. The film was probably Ectachrome, at ASA (now ISO) 64, the shutter speed was probably 1/125th of a second at about F-5.6. This was taken using the 35mm lens for the Nikonos. One thing people don't realize is that with flash bulbs, the full range of shutter speeds are available. Because of the difference with the flash duration, there is no need to "synchronize" the shutter speed with the flash. The electronic flash required a shutter speed of 1/60 or lower in order to synchronize the flash. But with flash bulbs, you could go to 1/125th secord, or even 1/250 second, and be in synch.

The photo is of U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen Terry Wetzel and Stephen Samo on a reef off Okinawa.

 

[Andre171]

Hello,

thank you very much for your great advices! The information about shutter sync was totally new to me. I found the movie after reviewing many vintage movie plots: Legend of Dinosaurs and Flying Monsters from 1977 (original Kyoryu Kaicho no Densetsu). The plot is around a uw photographer touring trough Japan in an RV and encountering some Godzilla derivates. In the sence of scuba in the 70s seeworthy.

I think a III with flash unit would be good for me. Is the bulb flash capable of the wide angle lens?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Hello,

thank you very much for your great advices! The information about shutter sync was totally new to me. I found the movie after reviewing many vintage movie plots: Legend of Dinosaurs and Flying Monsters from 1977 (original Kyoryu Kaicho no Densetsu). The plot is around a uw photographer touring trough Japan in an RV and encountering some Godzilla derivates. In the sence of scuba in the 70s seeworthy.

I think a III with flash unit would be good for me. Is the bulb flash capable of the wide angle lens?

The Nikonos III has a different strobe port, and probably is not compatible with the Nikonos bulb flash unit. That requires a Nikonos II or earlier (Nikonos I or Calypso camera). The Nikonos III was designed for electronic flash only, and Nikon made a specific strobe unit for this camera.

Yes, the 28mm, F-3.5 lens will work well with the flash bulb unit. But it may not work with wider lenses (it will work, but may not cover all the area).

You might want to pick up a book titled "Underwater Photography for Everyone," by Flip Schulke.

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Another good book is Jerry Greenberg's "Underwater Photography, Simplified," which in the first edition covers the flash bulbs and the Nikonos.

The photo below is in the same series, and probably uses a flash bulb too, but because the diver is further away and looking down, doesn't really enhance the photo that much. It was taken on the same dive is the previous one, but away from the coral cave, off Okinawa in 1968.

SeaRat

PS, I just read up on the flash guns for the Nikonos in Flip Schulke's book, and there was a flash gun for the Nikonos III, which was called the "Flash-Unit P." If you have that one, it will only work on the Nikonos III or greater (IV, V). But if you have the older flash gun, it will work only on the Calypso, Nikonos I and Nikonos II.

 

[rx7diver]

For some time I had been on the hunt for a Nikonos III, the last (and best?) of the non-electronic Nikonos cameras. I've been wanting to resume using my 15mm UW Nikkor lens, but without risking my Nikonos V.

I found a III and a couple of sets of NOS O-rings for it at KEH a couple of months ago. It seems to be in excellent condition. If my drysuit hadn't done the COVID-30 shrink, I would have taken my III diving by now, with photos to share. Hopefully, shallow water temps here will be warm enough soon for diving in my 3 mil.

@John C. Ratliff, I read (somewhere) that I will be able to use my SB105 (my Nikonos V strobe) with my III. Do you know if this is correct info?

TIA,

rx7diver

 

[Gene]

Love the old USAF PJ photos and flash talk. Grew up with plenty of flashbulbs with my dad being a photographer and my first 35mm camera using a bulb in the mid 70s.
I also was a USAF SP in the early to mid 80s, and we sometimes trained near the PJs at Lackland. They rarely were seen standing around....
(And I also spent about a year and a half on Taiwan in 1978-9 as a dependent and remember well AFNT as well as playing other neighboring country US schools in sports. Too bad we were there though when Carter broke relations with Taiwan, ROC.)

 

[John C. Ratliff]

For some time I had been on the hunt for a Nikonos III, the last (and best?) of the non-electronic Nikonos cameras. I've been wanting to resume using my 15mm UW Nikkor lens, but without risking my Nikonos V.

I found a III and a couple of sets of NOS O-rings for it at KEH a couple of months ago. It seems to be in excellent condition. If my drysuit hadn't done the COVID-30 shrink, I would have taken my III diving by now, with photos to share. Hopefully, shallow water temps here will be warm enough soon for diving in my 3 mil.

[USER=7842]@John C. Ratliff[/USER], I read (somewhere) that I will be able to use my SB105 (my Nikonos V strobe) with my III. Do you know if this is correct info?

TIA,

rx7diver

I think you are correct, in that the strobe contact was changed between the Nikonos II and III. I think they kept it the same for the Nikonos IV and V, as they had already made the needed changes in the Nikonos III. I may be wrong though, as the Nikonos IV and V had TTL (through the lens) flash ability, I believe (I have never used a Nikonos V). Check the cord contacts, and that may tell you.

SeaRat

 

[Andre171]

Thank You all! So I'm looking out for a Nikonos II

 

[islandboysrule]

Thank You all! So I'm looking out for a Nikonos II

Check eBay!

This is a great thread btw. I have a collection of vintage underwater cameras (30 or so) including Nikonos I, II, III and IV!