Cameras I Have Known: The Nikon F2 Photomic

While I was still getting to know the FE2, I started reading up on Nikon's professional bodies. The legendary F looked interesting, but having to remove the entire back of the camera to load film and finding one with operating and accurate TTL metering steered me to the next generation: The F2.  The more I read and learned about the Nikon F2, the more fascinated I became with the last purely mechanical, hand assembled Nikon pro SLR. Over the decade that the F2 was in production, there were six versions. The body remained the same, only the removable metering prisms changed. The non-metered F2 was simply called F2. The body with a DP-1 metered finder was called the F2 Photomic. As metering technology progressed and Nikkor automatic indexing lenses were introduced, the metering heads kept pace. After the F2 Photomic, there was the F2S, F2SB, F2A and finally F2AS.

The F2 Photomic was my first F2 and this is the version that I enjoy using most. Over the years, I have collected all of the metered F2s. I haven't paid much for any of these cameras, but as budget has allowed, I've sent each off to the UK and the shop of legendary F2 repairer Sover Wong. Sover doesn't just repair F2s, he restores them to almost new condition.

Here's a photo of my F2 Photomic just after I got it back from Sover's shop about five years ago.