Nikon F401, 35mm SLR, results

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Nikon F401, 35mm SLR. Photograph gallery.

Looking across the Solent towards the Isle of Wight

The Nikon F401 is growing on me, even though it's a heck of a lump. Looking across the Solent towards the Isle of Wight on a bitterly cold February afternoon in 2006. Whilst at right, yet again, is Raphael, increasingly old , frail, diabetic and a remarkable 19 years old when this was taken. This camera is a bit of a pain for black and white use, as it will rewind the film all the way back into the cassette.

A regular haunt for collection cameras is the Shuttleworth Collection near Old Warden. This biplane is a Bristol Fighter from WW1, at one time this was a unique surviving flying example but in recent years two more have joined it. The light shutter release made for crisp shots and the hefty weight effectively damps out vibration nicely. I don't like shutter speeds faster than 250th, as the propellers are unnaturally frozen.

The Nikon F401 was taken to an Airshow to see if the auto-focus controls would cope. Generally it was okay, but did tend to hunt if the finger was relaxed after the initial focus lock was made, in the end I found myself using the camera entirely manually. However the two pictures shown here were both auto focus and exposure. The auto-focus was useful at the Shuttleworth Collection show as the aeroplanes can get quite close, requiring a definite attempt to focus back from infinity.

Salisbury Cathedral

Above left, a couple of images from the 2010 trip to the United States, which took in a 1800 mile bike ride through Colorado, the Nikon didn't object to being bounced around in a tank bag for ten days. First off, yellowing Aspens outside of Gunnison and above right a New York taxi scythes through a very wet Broadway.

At left, back in the UK we have Salisbury Cathedral and the Poole lifeboat formating on the steamship Waverley during a practice rescue.