Mark's Nikon N2000 Page
Released 1985. Last manual focus Nikon made. First Nikon made of plastic, and first with a built-in motor drive. Still have to rewind manually. Single or continuous shooting at 2.5 FPS. DX coding or manual ISO setting. Runs on 4 AAA batteries in the base. Shutter speed dial, 1 to 1/2000th speeds plus bulb. Program, program high (speed), aperture priority, manual and the original exposure mode: Bulb. No mechanical speeds in case power fails. No batteries, no go. No cable release, no mirror lockup, no DOF preview button. No aperture info in the viewfinder. Dedicated flashes support TTL flash metering. Is supposed to accept any but the first and last lenses, which I like. I can't afford to be too selective. The N2020, released in 1986, was the same camera with auto focus.9-20-23: After several delays it finally arrived, with a metal lens cap stuck on good. Applied all the force I could, it just wouldn't budge. Drilled two holes in the cap to use a spanner wrench, scratching the mirror. Still stuck. Got out the dremmel with diamond cutter and started cutting. Destroyed the lens lock and still stuck. A mini crowbar bent the lens mount, but finally removed it. Was able to straighten the mount by forcing it onto a flat surface. The aperture follower tab is hard to move. But I can mount lenses, and it seems to work OK. Loaded up a test roll, I really don't know if it will work. Wish I knew how someone got that thing stuck on there so tight.
9-22-23: Took it out shooting this morning. Was unhappy with it not working correctly, so I fixed it. Stuck the camera in my 12 ton hydraulic press to straighten the lens mount. Gently pressed it flatter but the aperture follower was still sticky in spots. Loosened the mount screws and it freed up. Tightened them back one at a time, little by little. Left one at 2 o-clock slightly loosened, rest tight, and it works perfectly. Now all the exposure modes work.
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9-23-23: Here are some shots from the first test roll. This is Arista EDU 100 ASA, but I developed it in some dark brown Ilfosol-3 that I bought on 7-7-23. Even with an extra minute of development time it didn't work. It just doesn't last long enough, or I can't shoot fast enough to use it all. This was only a half-liter bottle. So I'm going to try Caffinol-C (coffee) on my next rolls. I can mix that up fresh for each roll for almost nothing.
These are the unretouched originals. Despite being taken from different exposure modes and different lenses, they're all exposed the same.
These are a few I adjusted with Shotwell, a simple image viewer / editor for Linux. Taken in program mode with a 50mm E-type Nikon lens (that isn't supposed to work on this camera), these two are my favorite models. They're not camera shy, offended by photography, or suspect me of plotting against them. Human subjects are more problematic.
2-3-24: This is a roll of Kentmere 100 ASA, developed in Caffenol-C (coffee) for 11 minutes. These were all shot with a Nikor 35-80mm lens in Program mode. The flash test failed, shot with a Nikon SB-15. Should have shot in manual mode.
The underexposed test pattern shot was taken in program mode, some of the grays are missing.
Here's the customary "River View" shot, taken on each test roll. Looks about right for a chilly overcast morning.
Thinking this camera had "Exposure Lock" I metered on the dark vegetation on the right, then composed on the bright areas. Since it doesn't have that feature the meter kept adjusting and perfectly exposed the sky and water instead.
Next I tried "Exposure compensation". +1 stop caused no change, +2 stops was too much. Next time I'll try half-stops.
All this experimentation is what makes film interesting. I could bring out a digital camera and bring back perfect pictures every time. I like digital cameras for color, which is both too expensive and difficult to develop perfectly on film. Black and white seems more expressive and dramatic. When it becomes too easy and boring I'll look for something else.