Nikon

Nikkormat FT Silver

35mm Film Camera

The Nikkormat FT is an all-metal 35mm film camera produced in Japan between 1965 and 1967, available here in black with chrome trim. It is a manual focus SLR featuring a centre-the-needle exposure system where a needle can be seen at the lower right side of the viewfinder, indicating the readings of the built-in CdS light meter vs the actual camera settings. To achieve correct exposure the user should adjust shutter speed and f-stop until the needle is centred. The needle is also duplicated in a window next to the top film rewind crank, allowing exposure to be controlled without looking through the viewfinder. The meter can be activated by pulling the film wind lever out to the standby position, and turned off by pushing it back to sit flush against the camera. Though the Nikkormat FT can be used without batteries, batteries are required for this light-metering system to work.

The camera uses a metal-bladed, vertical travel focal plane shutter with a shutter speed range of 1 to 1/1000 second plus Bulb, and flash X-sync of 1/125th second. There is no built-in accessory shoe to mount flash units. Instead, two PC terminals synchronise with flash units; an M-sync to all speeds for M and FP type (1/60 second for MF type) flashbulbs and an X-sync to 1/125th second for electronic flashes using guide number manual exposure control. It also has a shutter speed ring that sits around the lens mount, rather than the top mounted shutter speed dial seen on many cameras of the same era.

The FT measures approximately 95mm high, 146mm wide and 54mm in depth, while weighing 745g. It accepts all lenses with the Nikon F bayonet mount and meter coupling shoe. Modern AF Nikkor autofocusing lenses do not have a meter coupling shoe, but all non-G AF lenses have two pilot holes to retrofit the coupling shoe, making them compatible with Nikon F-mount cameras. Although most AF Nikkor lenses will mount and manually focus on the FT, the combination cannot provide open aperture metering; only stop down metering. We recommend checking compatibility before purchasing a lens.

Pease note that lenses do not automatically synchronise their aperture information with the FT body. When mounting lenses the lens' maximum aperture must be set against the film speed scale on the FT's shutter speed ring. Next the meter coupling pin on the ring surrounding the FT's lens mount flange must be pushed all the way to the right and the lens' aperture ring must be preset to f/5.6 to line up the meter coupling shoe with the pin for mounting. Note that the lens maximum aperture must be reset whenever the lens is changed.