I picked up a Nikonos V with a 35mm lens for family holidays in the hot summer of 2018 at Garda lake, Italy. Being with kids on holidays, it is always a good idea to have a tough camera. Even if most children at the beach thought the camera was broken because it had no screen on the back, I really enjoyed using it for the simple operation and sturdy construction.
It was the first time for me shooting under water. Due to refraction there is an increase in focal length by up to 1/3. At the same time, water absorbs light much stronger than air. To get a wide range in focus, I used aperture settings from f11 to up to f22 and zone focus. I shot Ilford HP5+ ISO 400 film and pushed it to 1600 which allowed me to get exposure times up to 1/1000 a second.
The joy of using the camera was having it at hand on the wrist strap all the time. It is not a lightweight, but alongside shooting underwater, it was also a lot of fun to use it above the waterline. As we await a third kid this year, there will probably be many more beach and nature holidays in the future. I will certainly use it again, and from my experiences so far, can recommend it for any outdoor activity.
Third one is veeeery good!
Love these!
Love these shots – been looking at getting one of these for a couple of months and most shots I have found are of fish, reefs or surfing. Thanks for posting.
I saw a couple of these in a shop in Bologna last weekend, they look great! I love the diving shot, the dog one is really nice too.
I had a Nikonos III in high school. It was my way of getting Leica like silence on a budget. The 35mm lens was easy to zone focus (we all practiced a lot, fancying ourselves as street photogs) and we had no issues estimating exposure. Working with film and doing your own processing you really got a feel for those things.
It was a real delight to use. I sold it to a friend who used it with great success in his diving school in Aruba.
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