Nikon FA

The Nikon FA is an analog reflex ( SLR) camera of the brand Nikon. It was built from 1983 to 1989.

General

With the Nikon FA Nikon introduced the world's first manufacturer to a camera with matrix metering on the market. It was also Nikon's first camera with built-in shutter priority. Another newly introduced technique was the measurement data, the internal digital processing. In 1981 a new series of lenses was introduced by Nikon, the AI -S ( " Automatic Indexing Shutter" ) Nikkor, Nikon FA allows the reliable control of the automatically set aperture and focal length- dependent choice of Program AE.

The Nikon FA was offered in black and chrome, appeared in 1984 a gold-plated special edition.

Despite the unsurpassed for its time technical innovations, the camera was not a sales success. Some of the reasons for this are likely initially to small numbers as well as the relatively high retail price of 1300 DM have been.

The Nikon FA was well incorporated into the then- Nikon - camera system of the middle class, which included the Nikon FE, Nikon FM, and later the Nikon FE2, Nikon FM2 and Nikon FM3A. Engine, shims and back walls were mostly interchangeable.

Technology

In the prospectus, the Nikon FA was presented at the time as " Techno Camera" and " intelligent, multi - machine ". Reason for this was mainly the matrix metering and internal data processing with a microprocessor. The camera has a vertically running titanium blade shutter with a shutter speed range of 1 to 1/4000 second, plus B and 1 /250 second flash sync speed. The 1/250 second is also the " emergency period ," which is available without battery power.

When used in the FA AMP ( " Automatic Multi- Pattern" ) exposure metering to calculate the correct exposure is carried out in several stages. First, the luminance values ​​of the five sectors, in which the viewfinder is separated, collected individually from analog measurement cells. Sequential A / D converter to bring the analog values ​​to digital form. From the lens of the type, intensity, number of stops and the focal length are read. After determining the nature of the design parameters with tens of thousands of reference images are compared and calculates the optimum exposure by the microprocessor.

The automatic program used depending on the lens focal length automatically a normal or a short-term program. Even with no set minimum aperture, the camera tries to achieve a proper exposure by selects an appropriate aperture to shutter speed.

In the auto iris are 13 fixed time steps from 1 to 1/4000 s to choose from. Again, the exposure time of the camera will automatically correct for the benefit of an optimal exposure when the shutter speed selected by photographer correct exposure is possible.

As more modes are aperture priority and manual exposure control available.

In the viewfinder the FA informs a digital liquid crystal display of the measured closing time. Only when the shutter priority (S ), the calculated aperture value is displayed here. Other indications in the viewfinder are the in modes A and M optically mirrored working aperture, in the S mode, the shutter speed in a separate viewfinder area, a light emitting diode as an indication of exposure compensation and flash-ready lamp.

Even in failure of the battery that supplies the measuring system with power, photographing with a mechanically formed shutter speed of 1/250 s is possible.

Specifications

  • Matrix multi-segment metering ( "AMP" )
  • Center-weighted metering
  • Programmed Auto ( P), Shutter-priority automatic with short variable at focal length from 135 mm,
  • Shutter-Priority Auto (S ), continuously
  • Aperture-Priority Auto (A), continuously
  • Manual (M )
Focusing screen Analog-to-digital converter Nikon F-mount
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