As my film journey progresses, I absolutely love the simplicity of shooting with my Nikon FM2n and Yashica Electro 35 GSN. But I have been thinking about getting into medium format at some point. I’ve really had my eye on finding another Yashica. Especially the Mat 124G. But then I was watching Youtube and and I saw Kai’s video on using the Nikon F6.
Watching his video got me thinking. I have the Nikon FM2n. The perfect, most simplistic 35mm SLR made by Nikon. It doesn’t even need a battery to function. But what if I paired it up with the most advanced 35mm SLR Nikon ever made? That would be an awesome complement to the FM2n.
And so began my quest to finding an F6. In late June, I finally found the camera I wanted. It was on eBay and would be delivered from Japan. The store had awesome reviews so I made the leap of faith and made the purchase. Surprisingly, it arrived in, I want to say, only 2 days. Opening up the box, this camera looked brand new. I had to do a double take on it. It looked so much like my D850, I couldn’t believe it was actually a film camera. I also couldn’t believe this camera might be 10-15 years old. But in my hands, it felt like an old friend.
But what lens I going to pair this camera with? I currently had only two Nikkor f-mount lenses, the 28mm AI-S and the 60mm AI-S macro. I needed another lens. After some research, I settled on a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D I found on KEH.
I loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 400 on July 1st and finished the roll on July 28th. I took some images around the house, Merchant Mill Pond State Park, downtown Norfolk, Great Bridge, Alligator River NWR and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Unlike on my FM2n, I decided not to overexpose my images and let the camera determine the exposure for me.
I also developed this roll at home. This was only my second time developing on my own and I ran into an issue with the other roll I was developing along with this one. But this roll turned out fine.
In the end, I found this camera to be amazing. It is now my go to walk around camera. I’ve put a roll of Ektar 100 in it and I really need to get out and finish this roll off. Since its Ektar 100, I’m a lot more selective in the type of images I want to capture with it. It’s a very vibrant and saturated film, so I really want images with colors that pop out.
I’m kind of sad I got rid of most of my f-mount lenses, especially the 20mm f/1.8g and the 500mm f/5.6 PF. Those would have been perfect for this body. I am now looking to get another lens for this camera. I have my eyes on the 35mm f/2D next.
