Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
I loaded the new-to-me F2 with a roll of 36 exposures of Portra 400 and shot in various places over several days using two lenses.
This is at the Ridgefield Nat'l Wildlife Refuge where I regularly go to shoot birds (with my OM-1 and 300/4 Pro). I liked how the algae looked against the water. Shot using the 105/2.5 (same lens used to shoot the famous Afghan Girl portrait). This same lens was used to shoot the next shot of the egret (since I was too close to get anything other than a head shot with the OM-1).
Since the box speed on the film was 400, I thought I'd try a shot inside at Powell's City of Books. It turned out just fine I think.
The next shots are from a trip to the Oregon coast with a different lens: 35/2.
This shot is at Short Sand beach - a place that I'd been past several times but I'd never stopped there. It's a short hike off the main highway. Lots of driftwood in the cove from recent storms. The above shot is looking southwest while the shot below is looking northwest.
In general, the camera handles much like the Nikon FE. It is pretty heavy tipping the scales at about 1.6 pounds without a lens. I struggled a bit with the meter through the viewfinder and eventually settled on using the meter reading on the top of the finder. One interesting thing is that since the camera is fully mechanical and due to the way they designed the shutter, the shutter speed is infinitely variable. So, if you have your aperture set at f5.6 and 125 would be too slow and 250 would be too fast, with the F2 you can dial in a shutter speed in between to get what the meter thinks will be an exact exposure.
While I am often quite happy to edit my film results these images were only resized (no color, noise or sharpness edits).
This last shot was taken at Cannon Beach, Oregon. While the gull is too far away for this to be a "bird" shot it is a nice beach shot.
I'm not thrilled with the grain of the 400 ISO color film. Maybe I'd have been happier if the weather had been sunnier?
This is at the Ridgefield Nat'l Wildlife Refuge where I regularly go to shoot birds (with my OM-1 and 300/4 Pro). I liked how the algae looked against the water. Shot using the 105/2.5 (same lens used to shoot the famous Afghan Girl portrait). This same lens was used to shoot the next shot of the egret (since I was too close to get anything other than a head shot with the OM-1).
Since the box speed on the film was 400, I thought I'd try a shot inside at Powell's City of Books. It turned out just fine I think.
The next shots are from a trip to the Oregon coast with a different lens: 35/2.
This shot is at Short Sand beach - a place that I'd been past several times but I'd never stopped there. It's a short hike off the main highway. Lots of driftwood in the cove from recent storms. The above shot is looking southwest while the shot below is looking northwest.
In general, the camera handles much like the Nikon FE. It is pretty heavy tipping the scales at about 1.6 pounds without a lens. I struggled a bit with the meter through the viewfinder and eventually settled on using the meter reading on the top of the finder. One interesting thing is that since the camera is fully mechanical and due to the way they designed the shutter, the shutter speed is infinitely variable. So, if you have your aperture set at f5.6 and 125 would be too slow and 250 would be too fast, with the F2 you can dial in a shutter speed in between to get what the meter thinks will be an exact exposure.
While I am often quite happy to edit my film results these images were only resized (no color, noise or sharpness edits).
This last shot was taken at Cannon Beach, Oregon. While the gull is too far away for this to be a "bird" shot it is a nice beach shot.
I'm not thrilled with the grain of the 400 ISO color film. Maybe I'd have been happier if the weather had been sunnier?
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