Modern Classic SLRs Series : Nikkormat EL2 -Automatic Exposure Control Functions

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The Nikon EL2 is an aperture-priority, automatic exposure control camera offering quite stable exposure accuracy with many lenses or accessories offer in the Nikon System. By means of its through-the-lens, center-weighted exposure metering system, the intensity of the light forming the image is precisely metered and converted into exposure data to control the camera's electronic shutter mechanism.

The EL2's automation bypasses the necessity to match needles or calculate exposures. The photographer simply has to set the preferred lens aperture, focus, compose and then shoot. The graph illustrating the flow chart of how the AE works in the EL2. May be a little technical, but good to know if you ever come across a similar illustration to compare the early days of AE with he current sophisticated offerings. I have only the New Canon F-1/T90 to help in this PIM site if your prime interest is in this area.

The EL2's automatic metering system opens the electronic shutter for precisely the time required to obtain a perfectly exposed photograph; shutter speeds range from an improved 8 to 1/1000 second (The later FE retained these settings, while it was an improvement from the original EL in 1972). Should the subject change position or the light vary, the EL2 will adjust the exposure to match: steplessly, instantly, automatically. Thus, the EL2 automatically eliminates the beginners or amateur's greatest stumbling block to more successful picture-taking and at the same time enables the professional to concentrate on the picture instead of on technicalities in the handling.

Should shutter speed priority operation be preferred, the photographer merely turns the aperture ring to maintain the dedicated shutter speed at the desired setting. As the camera's metering system reacts instantaneously to changes in aperture, the camera is always ready for action.

As there are few more options available in the EL2 to work in conjunction with the automatic exposure, you can work either singularly or in combinations to get a "higher" percentage of yield in successful pictures: here they are for your reference:

Memory / AE (Auto Exposure) Lock

For special photographic situations, such as backlit shots, the EL2's memory lock becomes invaluable. And it's simple to use. The photographer merely centers the subject, the face in a backlit shot, for example, in the 12mm diameter circle on the focusing screen.

By merely pushing the self-timer lever in towards the lens, the one "locks" the meter reading to give the theoretically correct exposure for this selected part of the scene, one can recompose the picture, still keeping the memory lock depressed, and make the exposure. However, the meter needle is not locked during this procedure, but continues to follow the changes in light intensity even the AE lock is activated. The EL2 instantly reverts to normal automatic operation when the lever is released, thus eliminating any possibility of accidentally retaining the compensation factor and ruining subsequent exposures.

Exposure Compensation Ring.

Sequence shooting, either by hand or with the EL2's companion AW-1 Auto Winder, may require a different kind of exposure compensation control for backlit shots or special photographic effects. The EL2 is also equipped with an exposure compensation ring which provides convenient dial-in exposure compensation factors of between -1 and +2 EV (one stop underexposure to two stops overexposure), which should be more than enough for most picture-taking situations (but certain highlight or low key pictures may require more than two: well, you can still adjust the ASA to fool the camera circuitry..hehe.).

The desired factor is easily set by just lifting and turning the ring surrounding the dial which has click-stop settings for 1/2 EV values. The compensation ring also enables the photographer to increase the ASA range of the camera's meter from 3 to 6400 by using the appropriate EV factor. The only setback is that it just it doesn't provide 1/3 stop setting - anyway, I doubt other than shooting with narrow exposure latitude slides or chromes, general users may not be that fussy about this.

Manual Control.

If it comes to worst, while automatic operation is unquestionably the most convenient and fastest way to take pictures, there are times when the photographer may want to control the exposure himself. He may choose a fast shutter speed to 'freeze' the subject's motion when it is traveling at high speed, for example, or, conversely, he may deliberately blur the picture by using a slow shutter speed. The EL2 allows for this, of course, via full manual control which is readily available. This is why the EL2 has the edge over the mechanical counterparts, it encompasses what the mechanical Nikkormat F does, and has the option to be more responsive with the auto mode.

Deliberate over- or underexposure control in the manual mode.

What you need to do is just depresses the locking button in the center of the shutter-speed dial and rotate the dial until the desired shutter speed is set. The shutter speed selected will be shown by the green indicator in the viewfinder. When the shutter speed is set, the exposure can be determined by moving the aperture ring until the black meter needle coincides with the green/match needle operation. This technique should also be used for stop-down metering with lenses or accessories that do not couple to the camera's metering system. With manual operation, the photographer can choose freely from the 14 shutter speed settings from 8 to 1/1000 sec., each electronically timed for outstanding accuracy, plus 'B' for longer-duration exposures, manually timed. Flash photography is another field that requires manual control, and the EL2's high flash sync speed of 1/125 sec. is especially well supplementing the Nikon F or Nikon F2's slower sync speed.

Basic Operation | Shutter Mechanism | Lens Mount | Exposure Control Viewfinder info | Metering | Flash | Film Advance (Auto) / Transport

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Recommended links to understand more technical details related to the Nikkor F-mount and production Serial Number:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-153.html by: my friend, Rick Oleson
http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/lhhansen/photo/fmount.htm by: Hansen, Lars Holst
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/nikonfmount/lens2.htm
http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html

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Copyright © 1998. HIURA Shinsaku ® ; Nikomat ML, Japan,
in collaboration with leofoo ®. MIR Web Development Team.

* Credit: A Great thanks to Mr Denis Pleic for his volunteering effort to reedit content and and patching some grammatical mistakes found in this section of the PIM site. Miss Rissa (Marketing) & Edward (Techical) of Shriro Malaysia, distributor of Nikon cameras in Malaysia, in providing so many useful inputs to make this site possible. Mr Hong, Ipoh for lending me his FT2 to take some of the images used in this site. This site is created for his eldest son, Yuen who has picked up his father's hobby and the FT-2. My friend, John Walls from Florida, US for his images of the FTn body and the Zoom Nikkor 43-86mm.

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