Hello there dear reader! So how are we all? I hope managing to keep things on an even keel during this Corona virus malarkey?! My wife and I decided to make the whole experience even more exciting by welcoming our baby daughter into this topsy turvy world just as lockdown began so I’ve been focussing very much on the whole ‘stay at home’ thing.
I’ve even (shock horror) bought a digital camera for day to day/casual photos of the family but we’re not here to talk about silly digital things are we? NO!! We’re here to talk about PROPER cameras! Cameras that have film in them not silly megapixels, cameras that are powered by cogs and springs not silly-con chips and fairy dust!!
It’s no secret to anyone who has the misfortune to engage me in even a brief conversation about film photography (in fact sometimes the conversation doesn’t even have to be about film photography) that my favourite 35mm camera is the Nikon F2.
It’s been my first choice 35mm camera for about 18 months now and in that time I’ve shot some of my fav portraits with this amazing camera combined with my small but growing selection of Nikkor lenses. I’m not going to go into masses of detail about my F2 in particular since I’ve aready done that HERE.
When I first started shooting film I had a whole heap of different camera bodies with different lens mounts and ended up with a real hodgepodge collection of lenses - all in different mounts so not interchangeable at all: Olympus, Pentax K, Canon, M42 etc it felt a bit pointless having a normal, wide and long lens in each mount and so I decided to sell everything and start over again. This time focusing on Nikon as not only are their lenses interchangeable across a very large number of Nikon cameras they are also some of the finest available to humanity (and I wanted them here and I wanted them NOW)! ;)
It’s a measure of a camera like the F2 that it is still held in such high regard by those who shoot it and there’s a nice community of like minded (or should that be afflicted) F2 enthusiasts out there. In addition there are people who specialise in servicing these venerable cameras and there is one person who stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to the Nikon F2, that person is Sover Wong.
If you’re serious about owning a Nikon F2 then at some point you’ll become familiar with the name Sover Wong. He is really in a league of his own when it comes to camera servicing (in fact he specialises in the F2) and when I found out about him I knew that I just had to get on the waiting list, yes that’s right - waiting list! 14 months when i first enquired back in August 2019 but as it turned out, I didn’t have to wait quite that long and here I am 9 months later with my freshly serviced and working like new F2.
It’s worth stating here that I’m not being paid to write this blog (like I could make that happen) this ain’t an infomercial thing, I am quite clearly not an ‘influencer’ (LOLZ) I’m just a bloke who flippin well loves his Nikon F2 and I also appreciate those who skilfully keep these mechanical beasts in tip top shape. I paid my money like everyone else and just wanted to give others an insight into what you can expect from getting your F2 serviced by Sover Wong (the observant amongst will already have figured out that I had a very positive experience)!
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
I know it might sound daft having been on a waiting list for 9 months but Sover is FAST!! I sent him my camera on a Thursday and I had it back working like brand new by the following Wednesday! He kept me in the loop with the whole process which involved him first of all giving the camera a once over, assessing what was needed and checking in with me to confirm the work required. As it turned out my metered prism finder was ‘ok’ and while the meter was a little off it was consistently so across the range so with a minor adjustment to the ISO selector it will work just fine. That being the case i was able to just get the body serviced.
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
Sover sends over a load of photos of your camera stripped down with before and after shots of the work carried out, I absolutley love being able to see the interior of this intricate machine.
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
As you can see from the image above Sover found some fungus inside the camera body - i was half expecting this TBH since I bought my camera from Japan - thankfully it cleaned up well and I was already storing the camera with silica gel packs to reduce chance of moisture in the air encouraging the fungus to spread.
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
Photo Credit: Sover Wong
Here’s the list of work Sover carried out on my F2:
Removed dust and debris inside the camera
Removed all old internal and external foams, cleaned surfaces and then applied new foams
Removed fungus on the mirror box
Modified the battery chamber and replaced the corroded brass tag with a tin plated one
Lubricated the base, winding, shutter and mirror mechanisms
Cleaned the internal flash switch contacts
Cleaned the mirror
Calibrated all shutter speeds to within 1/4rd stop accuracy
Checked flash sync is OK at 1/80s
Checked B, T, 10s, rewind, frame counter, MLU and DOF are OK
Added two rubber strap protectors
Added two new 1.5V LR-44 alkaline batteries
Repaired a dent on the top plate
Upon receiving my camera the first thing i noticed was how smooth the film advance was - prior to sending it off for servicing it had felt a little bit ratchety/rough and occasionally would give a mechanical ‘squeak’ but that sound is now a distant memory as it is silky smooth now. Likewise there was a metallic ding/ringing sound when the shutter fired thanks to some rotten foam inside the camera - that sound is gone too!
The shutter speeds are now accurate to within 1/4 of a stop across the whole range (they were quite a bit out at the higher speeds) and the dent in the top plate which didn’t affect it’s operation but was cosmetically a bit annoying has been almost completely removed. Sover did an amazing job!
On top of all this I got a warranty for the work and as a very nice touch he also includes an aluminum 1 Yen Japanese coin to turn the battery cover without damaging the bodywork and a micro fibre cloth to keep the camera clean.
I would highly recommend Sover to anyone who is serious about keeping their F2 for the long haul (which I am) his work is meticulous and not only that he’s passionate about these cameras which shows through his work, his attention to detail and you really get a sense that he wants your F2 to be the best that it can be - I’m so happy with the work and the results, I’m going to book my other F2 in for the same treatment!
