Nikon F2AS w/ md3 motor drive

Anyone have a clue on what these are worth? Everything is in mint
condition. They've been in a camera case for the past fifteen years.

Bill Jones

 

The foam is probably rotted, and the batteries may have leaked. Both
easy to fix. The AS is the most desirable, while the MD3 was an economy
drive. If truly mint, aim for about $800.

Jan

 

Thank you for the "appraisal". The camera is perfect. No leaky batteries.
I make it a habit to remove the batteries from all my cameras before they go
in the case. The motor drive is the really large on that holds about six
batteries. It isn't the MD3. I remember that one, I had one on an F2A.

Thanks again.

I think I will sell this one and buy a D1x or similar Nikon digital.

Bill

 

Sorry to drag this out, but I'm not familiar with the batterypack which
holds six batteries. As I recall, most of the battery packs looked
similar, except for special high speed ones. The usual F2 battery pack
held 2 nicads or two 5-AA battery holders. If you have the double unit
(for high speed work), and if the camera is for high speed photography,
then it is worth much more than I said.

Before you sell it, PLEASE have it checked out by someone who knows more
about these than I do.

(The Nikon Compendium would be a good book to check also.)

As to your replacement, please consider the D100 - and exceptional
bargain now - and put your money into lenses and good quality
post-exposure equipment , software and printer. Arguably, digital is
more about what you do with the image rather than the hardware you take
it with.

Please let us know how this turns out.

Regards.

Jan

 

Jan,

I just opened the case to see what I have. It's an MB1 connected to the MD3
drive. It holds eight (8) AA batteries. I put some batteries in it,
connected it to the camera, and it fires away. I think this was the highest
speed MD available at the time. I seem to remember if was about 4 fps.

As for the Nikon digital, I'm under the impression that the D100 has been
discontinued. Is this the reason for the bargain prices?

I don't need lenses. I have 2 F4s backs with a full compliment of autofocus
lenses (everything from a 20mm to a 400mm). I used to be a commercial
photographer specializing in hotel brochures before I got tired of the
travel and waiting forever to be paid by the advertising agencies. The F2AS
was a backup body I knew would never let me down if the automatics died in
the middle of nowhere. As it turned out the F4's never let me down either,
even after a Pelican case failed during a trip down the Colorado River and
the camera was soaked. After it dried out I sent it to Nikon and they said
it was fine. They make amazing gear.

I've got much more equipment than I will ever use again. (a 500CM and a
superwide, a Horseman 4X5, a Nikonos and UW strobe, and three 4800 ws
powerpacks and eight strobes, and a complete 4X5 color darkroom) I'm
closing in on retirement and will probably sell off most of it and buy a
really good digital to play with. Where do people sell this stuff? I see
it on Ebay but I wondered if there was a more specific place? Putting an ad
in the local fish wrap is a waste of time because few people know what this
stuff is.

I will look into a really good printer. I have an HP5650 that's just OK.
I've got Photoshop 7 and a fast computer with two HD.

Thanks for your input. I'll keep reading the posts here. This newsgroup is
a great resource.

Bill

 

Bill,

Makes sense now.

I wish I could give you some good advice, but if I were you I would not
be sure what to do either. EBay seems to be the place knowledgeable
people look when wanting to find equipment - at least that's where I look.

As I understood it, the D100 was discontinued when the D70 came out.
However, the second hand market for these actually went up. Now, Nikon
seems to be trying to dilute the market with rebates and other
incentives, preparing us for what I understand will be a Model 2 D100.

I suppose the wisest thing to do is to go with a digital which most
closely matches whatever you have become comfortable with. In my case,
I was comfortable with the Nikon N80 in film, so the D100 made sense.
The Fuji S1 or the Kodak 14N would have been just as good since they,
too, were based on the N80. Not having to buy new lenses was a big plus.

The F4 was a tank. I've never been able to break one. Probably the
most quality-sensitive camera Nikon ever made.

Now, to blow your mind a bit, I, too, have an assortment of cameras -
Nikons, Leica, Hassy's, Rolleis, Linhofs, Koronas, etc, etc, etc. While
I push the D100 as my love, I usually shoot with a $199., (used),
Panasonic Lumix FZ-1!

What can I say?

Good luck.

Jan