Just like any other F2 Photomic Prisms, the DP-2 finders shares most of the basic but high standard specifications like showing a 100% of the area recorded on the film, which enabling the photographer to compose right to the edges of the screen. The image magnification ratio is 0.8X with the normal 50mm lens set at infinity. The flash ready ready-light lamp is readly for use with dedicated Nikon Speedlight Unit. The ready-light adapter can just slid onto the accessory shoe of the camera to make contact with a pin on the side of the viewfinder as well as with the hotshoe contact. For older flash units such as Nikon Speedlight Unit SB-1 etc., a cord from the adapter is plugged into the synch socket of the flash.
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The ready-light lamp inside the viewfinder lights up when the Speedlight unit is fully charged and ready for firing, so that the photographer need not remove his eye from the finder. |
All these Photomic finders take advantage of the automatic diaphragm feature of Nikkor lenses to measure light with the lens wide open.
Full-aperture metering gives a bright, clear finder image for viewing and focusing. In order to measure exposure at full aperture with lenses having different maximum apertures, the meter must be adjusted to the maximum aperture of the lens in use.
Since the metering is performed with the lens diaphragm fully open, the maximum aperture of a lens in use must be set into the meter. After mounting the lens, just turn the aperture ring counterclockwise, all the way to the minimum aperture setting, then clockwise as far as it will go. The aperture thus set will appear in the maximum aperture indicator window. This is done each time the lens is attached or changed as follows:
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WARNING: Certain manual focus AI-S lenses such as Nikon Series E and ALL current version of AF Nikkor lenses WITHOUT the meter coupling Shoe (Rabbit EARs) on top of the aperture ring will not couple with the DP-1 Finder's exposure coupling (But they can use in full manual mode).
As with other non-AI metered prisms (DP-1 & DP-3) Nikon F2S Photomic w/DP-2 Prism also featured a center-weighted through-the-lens exposure metering. The meter is designed to read the brightness of the entire screen but concentrates some 60% of its light sensitivity on the 12mm diameter central spot-about 1/8 of the total area of the focusing screen. From this central spot toward the edges of the screen, the light measuring sensitivity of the meter gradually falls off.
The Photomic finder has two signal lights in the viewfinder, one with the plus (+) sign for overexposure, the other with the minus (-) sign for underexposure.
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To determine the correct exposure, first switch on the meter and either of the two signal lights glows. Then turn the aperture ring and/or shutter-speed selector until both signal lights glow. |
The film advance lever functions as an on/off switch for the exposure meter. It is switched on by pulling out the lever to uncover a red dot on the top plate of the camera and switched off by pressing the lever flush against the camera body. To check the condition of the silver oxide batteries, pull out the film-advance lever to activate the meter and watch the signal lights in the viewfinder or on top of the finder. If either of the two lights glows with a bright red light, the batteries are in good condition. If not, they need to be replaced.
Viewfinder Accessories
The Photomic finder DP-2 accepts a host of Nikon designed accessories. Other viewfinder-related accessories, expressly for use with the Eye level and Photomic Finders, include the Right-Angle Viewing Attachment DR-3, Eyepiece Magnifier, Rubber Eyecup and a complete range of Eyepiece Correction Lenses.
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Personal Conclusion: compared with the DP1 Photomic Finder, DP-2 is a vastly improved viewfinder with some useful features. The key improvement in extended low light metering capability and long shutter speed settings to 10 sec. make this finder a better option for all round day to day usage. |
Basically it provides everything a F2 Photomic can offer with MORE. Apart from that, it is an extremely well design and solidly built viewfinder. It does not has any gadgets such as built-in eyepiece shutter or any built-in illuminator with this finder yet and still would require a external accessory such as Photomic illuminator to power its finder when you often working in dim available light condition. The idea of using EE aperture Control Attachment Unit DS-1/DS-2 to convert the camera into a shutter priority auto exposure camera sounds good but far from perfect in practice. It is not practical for extended use due to its heavy power consumption. Frequent recharging is required and working duration is short. Thus, in a practical point of view, it may not be as convenient as one would thought it should be as with any modern electronic SLRs.
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Naturally, its non-AI (automatic maximum aperture indexing) "status" has some limitation in areas of compatibility with modern Nikkor lenses where virtually all of them do not provide with a working meter coupling shoe on the aperture ring anymore. |
Now, if you have a chance to locate a unit in the used market, it may still worth to pay a little premium for a AI-finder such as DP-11 or DP-12 ifyou are looking for a working camera. On the other hand, from the perspective of a collector, the F2S w/DP-2 represent Nikon's first sophisticated metered prism with cutting edge metering technologies available during early '70. Well, if you owns a lot of older AI-Nikkor lenses, regardless they have been AI-modified or remains as non-AI and think that your eyesight should remain perfectly okay for a while, this prism (or DP-2 finder with a F2 body) should be a good buy as it is usually cheaper than the DP-3, DP-11 or the most expensive of the pack, DP-12.
BEFORE skipping this page to next section, please be reminded the Instruction Manual for DP-2 Finder in HTML is also available in this site. Please don't mail me for any PDF version.
| Previous | Next | 7/17 The sophisticated but short-lived Metered Prisms DP-3 for Nikon F2SB.
| Back | Main Index Page - Interchangeable Viewfinders
System
Accessories:
Motor
Drives
/ Prisms / Screens / Macro / Film
Backs
/ Flash
Other Accessories:
DS-1 / DS-2 / DS-12 / eyepiece / DH-1 / cases / Cable releases / Miscellaneous
| History
& Background
| Semi-FAQ | Various Features and Functions - 6 Parts |
| Message Board | for
your favourite Nikon
F2 Series SLR model(s)
| Message Board | for your Nikon Optics in a shared environment
| Message Board | Specifically for Dispose or Looking for Nikon/Nikkor Photographic
Equipment
| Back | to Main Index Page of Nikon F2 Series SLR models
| Back |
Main Index Page of Pictorial History of Nikon SLRs
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The Eyes of Nikon:- |
Fisheye-Nikkor Lenses - Circular | Full Frame | Ultrawides Lenses - 13mm15mm18mm20mm | Wideangle Lenses - 24mm28mm35mm |
Standard Lenses - 45mm 50mm 58mm | Telephoto Lenses - 85mm105mm135mm180mm & 200mm |
Super-Telephoto Lenses - 300mm 400mm 500mm 600mm 800mm 1200mm |
Special Application lenses:
Micro-Nikkor Lenses - 50mm~55mm -60mm 85mm -105mm 200mm Micro-Zoom 70-180mm
Perspective Control (PC) - 28mm 35mm PC-Micro 85mm
Dedicated Lenses for Nikon F3AF: AF 80mm f/2.8 | AF 200mm f/3.5 EDIF
Depth of Field Control (DC): 105mm 135mm
Medical Nikkor: 120mm 200mm
Reflex-Nikkor Lenses - 500mm 1000mm 2000mm
Others: Noct Nikkor | OP-Nikkor | UV Nikkor 55mm 105mm | Focusing Units | Bellows-Nikkor 105mm 135mm
Nikon Series E Lenses: 28mm35mm50mm100mm135mm | E-Series Zoom lenses: 36~72mm75~150mm70~210mm
MF Zoom-Nikkor Lenses: 25~50mm | 28~45mm | 28~50mm | 28~85mm | 35~70mm | 36~72mm E | 35~85mm | 35~105mm | 35~135mm |
35~200mm | 43~86mm | 50~135mm | 50~300mm | 70~210mm E | 75~150mm E | 80~200mm | 85~250mm |
100~300mm | 180~600mm | 200~400mm | 200~600mm | 360~1200mm | 1200~1700mm
Tele-Converters: TC-1 | TC-2 | TC-200 | TC-201 | TC-300 | TC-301 | TC-14 | TC-14A | TC-14B | TC-14C | TC-14E | TC-16 | TC-16A | TC-20E
Nikon F
| Nikon F2 |
Nikon
F3
| Nikon F4 |
Nikon
F5
| Nikon F6 |
Nikkormat / Nikomat |
Nikon FM
| Nikon FE/ FA | Nikon EM/FG/FG20 | Nikon Digital SLRs | Nikon - Other models
MIR Supports for Photographic Community: Various Message Boards/Community
Forums
Nikon
F-series|
Nikon
F2-series|
Nikon
F3-series|
Nikon F4-series| Nikon
F5-series|Nikkormat/Nikomat-series
Nikon FM-series|Nikon
FE-series|Nikon
FA|Nikon
Digital
SLR
series|Various
Nikon
Models|Nikkor
Optic
-shared
Others:- Free Trade Zone - Photography| Free Trade Zone - Business Community |Free To Zouk - Photographic Community
Apple's Mac Public Community Message Board | Windows based PC &
Apple/Mac
Public Community Trade Exchange Centre
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
About this photographic site.
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HOME - Photography in Malaysia |
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Copyright © 2000. leofoo ®. MIR Web Development Team.
In
memory of my friend Com.
Augusto Staut,
Brazil, 1971-2000.
Credit: Chuck Hester, US for his patience, encouragement
and help to setup the various content in this site; Robert Johnson for some of his original
images on the F2H-MD appeared in this site; my ex-staff, KiaSu for his superb
3-D logo appeared in this Nikon F2 site; Marc Vorgers from Holland who
generously provide me with some of his images of F2AS; MCLau®, who has so much time with me to
re-edit the content in this site and not to mention buying a Nikon Coolpix 990 just
for this site. Keat Photo,
Kuala Lumpur for providing
their Nikon F2A to take some images for this site; again, Mr Edward Ngoh the
great camera collector who provides us his collection of F2AS with MD-2; hawkeye.photographic.com
for their images on the Speed Magny film backs; Sean Cranor for his image
on Nikon F2 25th Anniversary Model; Ted Wengelaar®, Holland for his continuous
flow of input on some of the early Nikon bodies; CYLeow ® , photo editor of the Star
newspaper, Malaysia for some of his images used in this site. Ms Rissa Chan, Sales manager from
Shriro Malaysia who has helped to provide some of the very useful input. HiuraShinsaku®,
Nikomat ML, Japan for some of his images on various F2 models; my staff, Wati, Maisa, Mai and my nephew, EEWyn®, who volunteered and helping me
did so many of the film scanning works. Contributing photographers or resellers:
Jen Siow, Foo KokKin, Arthur Teng, Mark Fallander, John
Ishii, Ed Hassel, YoonKi Kim, Jean-Louis, M.Dugentas (Dell Corner.com.), Mr "Arsenall" and a few images mailed
in from surfers with no appropriate reference to their origin. Dedicated to KU Yeo, just to express our mutual regrets over the outcome of
a recent corporate event. Made with a PowerMac, broadcast with a Redhat Linux powered server.
