5 Frames with a Nikon F65 – an old photographic friend

Nikon F65 is… No, that’s not exactly what I will be talking about in this post. Nikon F65 is my first SLR, and was equipped with a 28-80 Nikkor lens when I bought it brand new in 2001.

I got married in 2001 and my honeymoon destination was Rome. A friend of mine had booked a nice hotel for us near Ponte Sisto. This was our first trip abroad together. While we were doing all the touristic itineraries, I was filming with a handy cam, a Hi-8 from Sony. That handy cam is still active today though sitting in a cabinet at home.

I don’t remember the exact day but probably on the third day of our visit, while walking back to the hotel, I noticed the F65 in the display of a specialty shop, announcing a promotion too. I did not step into the shop and just passed by, but I was feeling the poison in my veins.

After reaching to the hotel, I told my wife to rest, and I headed back to the shop. It was impossible for a consumer to check the prices and compare them on the spot in those days. If you were in a sort of specialty mall then you might be able to discern a value by visiting competing shops. I wasn’t, but I felt that the offer was sensible. After half an hour, I was back to the hotel with my new toy and couple of rolls of film in my pocket.

I used the F65 for 7 years as a travel companion and for other photographic adventures until I picked up a compact digital. Since 2010, I have invested more on Nikon lenses, building a variety of primes as well as DSLR bodies. I finally settled on a Df. I have not bought any digital cameras since then. Although I continued to shoot on film, my almost new old stock Nikon FE has become the prima donna. The F65 has since served a friend of mine for almost a year who wanted to learn analogue photography. Since then, it has come back to me. I cleaned it and noticed that the edges of the front surface have become a bit sticky. I managed to get that sticky surface peeled a bit without too much destruction.

I recently bought the batteries and loaded a roll of Fujifilm C200 and then waited for a photographic excursion to somewhere to shoot the roll. In the end, I had the time to visit a nearby Black Sea village, planning to shoot by the sea during this off season. The old friend performed flawlessly attached a 50mm Nikkor AF-D 1.8. I am sharing the selected 5 photos out of this short photo-walk. Yes, I walked, those tire tracks in the third photograph are not mine. The negatives have been processed and scanned by a reputable lab.

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