Questions about purchasing a Nikonos v

[sloss]

fstrecon8653,
I own a big housed digital DSLR and I also still use my Nikonos V often too. I still find the Nikonos very useful. The Nikonos is small and easy to carry and almost indestructable. I carry them on boats, on my kayak, on my sunfish sailboat, into the surf with my kids, the pool and sometimes I prefer the Nikonos over my big digital rig when freediving because it is a lot easier to carry compared to a bulky housed DSLR.
-Chris

I agree with OceanObsessed. I shoot mainly with a D200 and D70 for UW use (waiting for the D300 housing ) and still love the Nikonos V It is a great camera to have with the 35 lens for land and UW. I too, take it kayaking, river rafting, and used to take it all the time to the beach in Bali for fun shots in the shallow surfing away the afternoons.

Underwater, the Nikonos with the 15mm lens is a classic. As someone else mentioned you can achieve images that cannot be taken with a digital camera in some situations, just as the reverse is true. I love both and recently returned from Palau leaving the Nikonos at home and would have loved to have had it with me. I just love shooting it. As far as servicing, I agree with Bonnie; Fred Dion at Underwater PhotoTec can service the camera if you should pick one up. He has serviced all my equipment for a long time and does a great job.

One last side note, the Nikonos camera is bullet proof is taken care of properly. I still have my original green one picked up used from a guest on a liveaboard boat I used to work on. I personally took that on about 2000 dives before going mostly digital, never had it serviced (Fred's done all my other gear), never changed the o-rings, and never had any problems with it ever. Service people probably hate hearing that, and I am not promoting this kind of gear treatment, I am just saying if you love your gear (with a good soak and cleaning) it will love you back! Just my little side story.

Good luck and enjoy shooting the classic Nikonos V!

Doug

 

[OceanObsessed]

One last side note, the Nikonos camera is bullet proof is taken care of properly. I still have my original green one picked up used from a guest on a liveaboard boat I used to work on. I personally took that on about 2000 dives before going mostly digital, never had it serviced (Fred's done all my other gear), never changed the o-rings, and never had any problems with it ever. Service people probably hate hearing that, and I am not promoting this kind of gear treatment, I am just saying if you love your gear (with a good soak and cleaning) it will love you back!

I purchased my first Nikonos IV with an SB-101 strobe in 1983. I only had it serviced once. During that time I never flooded the camera but I did flood the strobe once. I repaired it myself and it kept on working for years afterwards. A couple of years ago I sold that old system on ebay and upgraded to a newer Nikonos V with 105 strobe and 15mm & 20mm lenses that I also purchased on ebay. I don't service mine either but mainly because it is not my pirmary camera. If it lasts 2 years (and it has) then I could purcahse another one on ebay for the same price as annual servicing for 2 years.

The 15mm's depth of field is awesome. At f11 it is in focus from about 6 inches to infinity so pretty much everything is in focus. I love it for freediving because I can pre set the f-stop on the surface and dive down and shoot without messing with the settings.

 

[Mycroft]

I purchased a Nik V in the easly 90s. I started diving in the late 90s, but did some snorkeling with it before that. In Jan of this year was the first time I had the camera serviced. AND that was because the rewind crank broke and I had to have it serviced to get the part replaced! And that was the first time the o-rings were replaced too!

The crank broke because of a bad roll of film jamming the works. (I know this because I had to open the camera to get the film out in a dark area, then manually wind it - almost broke my hand wind that roll of film.

Compare that to the Fantesea housing I got for a small digital camera. Flooded in my pool during the first 5 minutes of a test dive!

 

[Diver Lori]

I know this is an older thread, but I just had to reply. I was talking to Bob Warkentin today at Southern Nikonos. I'm sending in my setup later this week for my upcoming trip to French Polynesia. LOVE my Nik V and 15mm.....they were the benchmark of the industry and the standard still compared to.

I will not forsake film until they stop making it, or Bob gets out of the biz....which I doubt will be any time soon as he just moved to a new location.

Take a look at Helix and KEH too, if you haven't bought yet.

 

[John Gulliver]

Like so many others, I think the Nikonos V with the 15mm lens is a wonderful set-up for close-up and wide-angle photography but the weakness of the Nikonos system (apart from the multiple o-rings and consequent high risk of flooding) is the limited macro capabilty. Skittish macro subjects hate the extension tube framers. That is why I sold my last Nikonos V last summer and bought a used SLR set-up (film, not digital, as I estimated that the difference in cost compared to what a good DSLR would have cost me corresponded to almost 10 years' purchase of film and processing and, at my age, I can hardly expect to still be diving 10 years from now). As regards servicing, the anual service no longer makes economic sense, at least not here in Europe, as the cost of the service and return shipping exceeds that of a good used Nik V on e-bay, so most people go on using their Nik V's as long as they last without service, which is usually 2-3 years, and just buy another one when it floods (usualy via the film advance mechanism).

 

[CaptainHornblower]

I've purchased a lot of camera equipment over the years and my experiences with Ebay were mixed. You might check KEH.com; they are very good and when they say a camera or lens is in "excellent" or "like new" condition 99.99% of the time it's exactly as described.

Also, I understand that digital is taking over, but film still has some significant advantages. Foremost is that exposure is not nearly as critical as it is with digital. Digital is pretty much like shooting slide film, you're exposure has to be no more than a half stop overexposed or one stop underexposed; if you're outside that range the shot is ruined. On the other hand you can be a couple of stops over or under exposed with negative film and still end up with a decent photo. If you're just getting started getting a less expensive and more forgiving film camera may be the way to go.

Bruce

 

[joystershell]

If there is anybody interested, I have a complete Nikonos set-up that I am no longer using. Included is the Nikonos V camera, the SB105 strobe, a 15mm lens, with view finder, a 28mm lens, a 35 mm lens, a set of Nikonos extension tubes, all the sync cords, camera tray, strobe arm, hard case, extra o-rings, manuals, etc. Shoot me a pm if you'd like.

 

[Rockhound76]

Old thread...yup..but I'm an old diver. Just got back from Grand Cayman and I took my venerable Nikonos 5 and the 20mm setup just for grins. (I never owned the 15mm, but used to borrow them from friends). I couldn't find any good slide film, so I picked up some 200 print from Walmart. When I got back, I had the film processed and scanned.

Worked like a charm. The prints were screwed up, but the digital images were beautiful. Macro with the extension tubes was easy (hint: cut down the framers, leaving one side open). The fish aren't nearly as skittish.

I've owned that camera since 1985. It has never flooded or failed me. It has never failed to take a great photo (the photographer, moi, has taken some suckee photos, tho').

I have taken it in to Southern Nikonos (and grumpy Bob) every 2 or 3 years, not every year, but no problems so far.

At this point, as parts and o-rings have gotten harder to find, I MAY just dive it until it floods.

At that point, I'll reluctantly go digital, although I still don't know what setup to move to. My N5 travels so well, especially with all the new TSA and airline restrictions, I'm not sure DSLR in a housing is way to go. I can only hope somebody can come up with a digital insert that would work with the N5 body and those wonderful lenses. I don't know of a P&S system or a compact UW rig that can compare. As for the "wonders" of autofocus...heck, with practice you can set estimated focus faster and more accurately than most P&S focus systems. Most UW shots are in the 1-3' range anyway. Even with the 20mm, a 2' focus set at f8 or f5.6 has enough depth of field to cover mosts any subject.