Alright, so what's it like to use the Nikon F75? It is very similar to the D50 and so seems very familiar to me. I was surprised at how much smaller it was than the D50. And since the 50 mm is the only lens I have for it, the camera+lens combo is much smaller than my D50 with the 18-70 DX lens on. Of course the lack of a screen on the back feels weird. I still find myself looking at the back after I take a picture to review the image, and have nothing to see.
When I got it off eBay, it came with no accessories, except for a body cap on the lens mount, thank goodness for that. Apparently when new it comes with an accessory shoe cover to cover the flash shoe, and an eyepiece cap. The eyepiece cap is to cover the eyepiece to keep light coming in there from affecting the exposure when you aren't looking through the camera when taking a picture. This comes in handy when using the self-timer. The lack of these pieces doesn't bother me. The flash shoe cover from my D50 came off as soon as I got it and has been in a drawer ever since. It also had no manual. I found a PDF of the manual online, though.
The exposure dial on the top left is almost exactly the same as the one on the D50. This is the dial where you choose AUTO, P, S, A, M, and scene modes. The only difference is that the F75 does not have a Child scene mode. The LCD panel on the top right is also very similar to the one on the D50. One difference that always stands out for me is that the number of exposures remaining is only 2 digits instead of 3. Obviously this doesn't often need to go higher than 36 on the F75 for 36-exposure film, and oftentimes it won't be higher than 24. The D50 needs a supplementary 'K' indicator for when there is room for more than 1000 pictures on your memory card with the current image size settings. I see that a lot since I switched to Normal JPEG from Fine JPEG and from a 1 GB SD card to a 2 GB one.
Niceties that the F75 has that the D50 lacks are that the aforementioned LCD panel has a backlight, triggered by a dedicated button between it and the shutter release button. The other one is a depth-of-field preview button. I haven't used that much yet, I'm not used to having it available.
It also didn't ship with batteries. It requires 2 CR-2 3V batteries, which aren't quite as common as your standard AA's. I had to wait until the next day to go out and pick up some. Trying to play around with it without batteries, I mounted the 50 mm lens and had a look-see. I was disconcerted to find that it wouldn't go in perfect focus. I switched the focus setting to Manual and turned the focus ring on the lens. I got it to get better and worse, but never perfect. Then I tried adjusting the dioptre adjustment lever on the eyepiece. Again no luck. I was worried that there was a optional viewfinder eyepiece on it for more extreme prescriptions. By the way I don't get the point of the dioptre adjustment and optional eyepieces for people with glasses. I always look through the eyepiece with my glasses on, requiring no adjustment on the camera. Anyway once I got batteries in the camera focus worked just fine.
Next thing to do is to load film. Even though I used to use a compact 35 mm camera, I'm still nervous when loading film. I always feel I only have one chance to get it right. Put in the film canister. Double check canister is seated correctly. Slowly put out the film leader, but not too much! Place the leader on the take-up reel. Trust that it will take-up properly since it's supposed to do that automatically. Triple check the canister is seated and not turned. Make sure the film is flat. Slowly and gently, yet firmly close back. Wait for reassuring whirring noises. Watch exposure counter. Hear shutter release. Everything's OK! Saying that, it's still deliciously analogue.
Yet another oddity of the F75 is that is pulls out all the unexposed film and, as you take pictures, winds the film back into the canister. This is good because the pictures you have already taken are protected in the canister if you accidentally open the back without winding your film. Your last exposure or two will not yet be in the canister however, and will still be ruined. A downside is that it doesn't squeeze those extra 2 or 3 pictures on the film that you usually get with other cameras. It dutifully wound to exactly 24 exposures. This method results in the exposure counter counting down instead of up, but that's more intuitive to me. One more side effect is that when you get your negatives back the pictures are in the reverse order.
Taking pictures is as you expect. The mirror flip sound, followed by the shutter release sound, but then the additional film wind sound. Then look on the back. D'oh! No screen! Somehow the mirror flip doesn't sound as tight as on the D50, a little floppy and a little slow.
Next post I'll talk more about actually taking pictures.
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