PeterRussell53
New member
After six months of following Nikonites I thought that I may as well finally introduce myself!
I've been a professional photographer since 1971 and used Nikons from the word 'go'! I started with a Nikon F and NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8 and added many great items of Nikon kit over the years. Sadly much was sold to pay for the next upgrade, so I lost some items that have turned out to be really valuable today, like the 8mm f/8, 21mm f/4, 500mm f/5 and 1000mm f/6.3 NIKKORs to name only four.
It was only in the mid 1990s that I began to buy new Nikons without having to sell the old ones first and it was only last year that I seriously decided to try and buy examples of all the early Nikons that I had at the start of my career.
I reckon that I am buying old Nikons for my children's inheritance; the rest of the family would disagree with me! So far I have bought 23 Nikon F bodies, ranging from great examples of a 1959 and an early 1960 F, right up to the last 'Apollo' models. In addition I have added 6 Nikkormats, a Nikonos III and examples of Nikon F2 and Nikon F3 bodies to my existing range of Nikon F-801, F90, F4s and F5 bodies that I have owned from new.
Sadly the 'nerd' in me has meant that I have also bought loads of spare Photomic finders, many boxes of bits and pieces, broken F bodies to strip for spares and all manner of other Nikon ephemera and miscellanea. It's so hard to stop! I'm currently at the major refurbishing stage for three of my four motor drives; a very early 1962 F-36 Motor Drive and Remote Battery Pack just returned to factory condition, a 1971 F-250 Motor Drive also returned to factory condition and the sad tale of a pig in a poke - a 1971 F-250 Motor Drive sold as working that is cosmetically great but has had the innards butchered at some point in its past!
Notwithstanding that, I have also collected about thirty pre-AI NIkon lenses, the correct body and lens caps for the period, instruction manuals, user guides and promotional material - in short an embarrassingly large amount of kit for what started out merely as a quest to get examples of former Nikon kit!
Alongside all this I've still had to find time to work as a photographer, operating mainly in the military, defence and security sectors of the market, (http://www.peterrussellphotography.com). For this I have Nikon D3S and D300 bodies and lenses from the NIKKOR AF 16mm f/2.8D up to the NIKKOR AF-S 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED VR to play with.
I've found the Nikonites forums really useful in my quest for items and information and realise that I have stumbled upon a really friendly bunch of enthusiasts - thank you.
I've been a professional photographer since 1971 and used Nikons from the word 'go'! I started with a Nikon F and NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8 and added many great items of Nikon kit over the years. Sadly much was sold to pay for the next upgrade, so I lost some items that have turned out to be really valuable today, like the 8mm f/8, 21mm f/4, 500mm f/5 and 1000mm f/6.3 NIKKORs to name only four.
It was only in the mid 1990s that I began to buy new Nikons without having to sell the old ones first and it was only last year that I seriously decided to try and buy examples of all the early Nikons that I had at the start of my career.
I reckon that I am buying old Nikons for my children's inheritance; the rest of the family would disagree with me! So far I have bought 23 Nikon F bodies, ranging from great examples of a 1959 and an early 1960 F, right up to the last 'Apollo' models. In addition I have added 6 Nikkormats, a Nikonos III and examples of Nikon F2 and Nikon F3 bodies to my existing range of Nikon F-801, F90, F4s and F5 bodies that I have owned from new.
Sadly the 'nerd' in me has meant that I have also bought loads of spare Photomic finders, many boxes of bits and pieces, broken F bodies to strip for spares and all manner of other Nikon ephemera and miscellanea. It's so hard to stop! I'm currently at the major refurbishing stage for three of my four motor drives; a very early 1962 F-36 Motor Drive and Remote Battery Pack just returned to factory condition, a 1971 F-250 Motor Drive also returned to factory condition and the sad tale of a pig in a poke - a 1971 F-250 Motor Drive sold as working that is cosmetically great but has had the innards butchered at some point in its past!
Notwithstanding that, I have also collected about thirty pre-AI NIkon lenses, the correct body and lens caps for the period, instruction manuals, user guides and promotional material - in short an embarrassingly large amount of kit for what started out merely as a quest to get examples of former Nikon kit!
Alongside all this I've still had to find time to work as a photographer, operating mainly in the military, defence and security sectors of the market, (http://www.peterrussellphotography.com). For this I have Nikon D3S and D300 bodies and lenses from the NIKKOR AF 16mm f/2.8D up to the NIKKOR AF-S 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED VR to play with.
I've found the Nikonites forums really useful in my quest for items and information and realise that I have stumbled upon a really friendly bunch of enthusiasts - thank you.
