The Nikon Illuminator

The illuminator for the Nikon SP is one of those strange gadgets that optical firms had great fun turning out in small quantities in the 1950s. One looks at it and says "How neat, or cool, or something …"
What does it do? It shines a small amount of light onto an SP's bright-frames window to allow the user to see the lens framelines even in low light levels.
The accessory consists of the illuminator and a small leather case which holds the device and up to two extra AA batteries. The illuminator consists of a black plastic housing that holds one AA battery. The plastic is similar to bakelite but softer. An accessory shoe sticks out the back, allowing the user to slide the device onto the SP's shoe from the front. A spring clip holds it in place. The shoe incorporates a pin connector to transfer the hot-shoe-sync from the camera to the top shoe on the illuminator. Below the housing is a swing switch and next to it a tiny port for a grain-of-wheat bulb. "Nippon Kogaku" appears in raised letters in front of the shoe.
In operation, you mount the illuminator and rotate the variable switch from the marked "off" position to the light level you are comfortable with.
The illuminator was inexpensive, but only a few SP owners seem to have ever bought one, and it lingered on Nikon price lists until the mid-60s.
The illuminator has two design problems. The end-cap for the battery compartment is a hard chrome that screws into the plastic with a side metal contact to get in the way of proper threading. As a result, cross-threading is an ever-present danger, and once the plastic is recut, the cap is almost impossible to get on correctly.
The other problem is that the rotating switch has no positive "off" click position. In practice, it is all too easy to hit the switch and leave the light on without realizing it. The inevitable result is a leaked battery and ruined compartment. Many illuminators suffered from the problem and got tossed. As a result, the illuminator today is a rare collectible.

The picture in the background of the illustration is the entrance of the Flicker Hole in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico.

Novoflex and Nikon rangerfinder cameras

While most optical firms in the 1950s (including Nippon Kogaku) opted for big, bulky lenses to fill out their longer focal lengths, the German firm of Novoflex went a different route. They marketed slow but light-weight optics mounted on fast-focusing grips that allowed easy hand-holding. These proved particularly popular for covering sports events and photographing wildlife. The series went through several changes in focal lengths and mountings, but the earliest series included a 300mm lens head that allowed infinity focus on their reflex housing for the Contax (and Nikon RF) cameras. Here is such a rig, lacking only a Nikon-specific “bridge” to make it the fastest and best-designed reflex housing unit that would ever work on a Nikon rangefinder camera. I intend to get such a bridge made.

The Novoflex reflex housing is particularly nice with a rotating finder, bright, but plain ground glass and a convenient quick reset for the mirror. The front mount is Leica thread but the housing is deeper than the Visoflex I, which limits its use of Nikkor and other non-Noflexar optics.

Novoflex also made a popular series of bellows for various makes of cameras. This is their reflex housing-specific bellows with a Schneider 135mm Xenon in barrel-mount that allows infinity focus similar to NK’s 135mm f4 Nikkor.

Nikon RF Images #1

Here are three images to enjoy.
The first is of an early Nikon M/S. It was one of a hundred imported by the Overseas Finance & Trading Company in January 1951 in response to a sudden and welcome increase in demand for Nikons. That demand had resulted from Jacob Deschin's favorable article on the Nikon that had appeared in the New York Times on December 10th, 1950.
Adolph Gasser picked this camera out and bought it for his brother. It received a lot of hard usage over the next 30 years. The finish on the base is worn and the leather is in terrible shape, but the shutter and rangefinder are accurate and it still takes good pictures. The lens is in the 316XXX series, not an earlier 5005XX that one might expect. Why? I do not know. The second series used a better formula [Yes, Nippon Kogaku did make several small optical changes to this lens over its long lifetime] and Gasser may have made a later substitution. The two series did overlap. Note other details: The accessory shoe is engraved with "Japan," as were many in that shipment. The MIOJ mark in the back leather is virtually worn away. The release guard is of the higher, later type. Perhaps the original one was lost. The cap and lens shade are contemporary, as is the yellow, drop-in filter with its type etched into the glass.

The second image shows a Nikon SP with a 35mm f1.8 Nikkor. The point of the picture is to show how the angle adapter for flash worked. It placed a Nikon flash unit (here a BC-5) off to one side, retained the hot shoe contact and allowed the mounting of an auxiliary finder. Clever.

The 28mm (2.8cm) Nikkor for the Nikon Rangefinder cameras

The 28mm f3.5 W-Nikkor for the Nikon rangefinder cameras has been a favorite of mine ever since I bought it in 1971. I used it more than a normal lens for work throughout the 1970s and 80s. It is compact and sharp. A Nikon RF camera so equipped is easy to slip into a waist pouch and it weighed almost nothing. Although I use my 21mm more often now, I still appreciate the images this lens can give me.

• Guadalupe River in Texas.
• Snowmass Mountain in Colorado in the Maroon Wilderness.
• Entrance to the Flicker Hole in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico (photo by Linda Loder)