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40-584: Compared to the FTb, the TX has a top shutter speed of only 1/500. The meter is center-weighted rather than the 12% partial meter of the FTb. It also dispenses with the self-timer and MLU of the FTb, although it does retain the depth of field preview lever and support for stopped-down metering. The TX also does not support the CAT (Canon Auto-Tuning) flash system. It was also sold in the US as

80-477: A 524 kHz central processing unit (CPU) and 8 KB of memory) programmed to look for exposure errors caused by unusually bright or dark luminance patches and automatically correct the exposure settings. Nippon Kogaku said that the program was written after the visual assessment of nearly 100,000 photographs. AMP was originally intended to be introduced in the Nikon FE2, but it was not ready for production in time. As

120-540: A removable finger grip, similar to the one introduced on the Nikon FG , and an eyepiece blind. However, the FA's real claim to fame was the AMP meter. AMP used a light meter with two segmented silicon photodiodes to divide the field of view into five segments: the center and the four outer quadrants. The readings of the various segments would be analyzed by a four-bit microchip computer (with

160-459: A setting determined by the camera. With spot metering, the camera will measure only a very small area of the scene (1–5% of the viewfinder area). By default this is the centre of the scene. The user can select a different off-centre spot or recompose by moving the camera after metering. Certain models support a mode which allows averaging of multiple spot meter readings, and some support metering of highlight and shadow areas. Spot metering

200-420: A thousand. The design concept behind multi-zone is to reduce the need to use exposure compensation . Many manufacturers keep their exact calculation methods confidential as proprietary information. A number of factors are taken into consideration, including: autofocus point, distance to subject, areas in or out of focus, colours/hues of the scene, and backlighting. Multi-zone tends to bias its exposure towards

240-439: A very limited fashion: completely manual mechanical control with two shutter speeds (1/250th second, marked M250, and Bulb, marked B) and without the light meter. The FA was initially in high demand, despite its very high price – selling at barely 10% lower than the professional-level Nikon F3HP – because many Nikon owners were eagerly awaiting such a technology leader. Unfortunately, early production teething problems with all of

280-486: Is common for metering to default to a central point in the viewfinder, using a pattern based on that area. There is considerable variation among different manufacturers how multi-zone metering is implemented–even in the model range of the same brand–and how much priority is given to the AF point itself. Some "Scene" modes, such as sunset, sports and night exposures also often affect the calculations of this metering pattern. Clipping

320-406: Is not influenced by other areas in the frame. It is commonly used to shoot very high contrast scenes. For example, in a backlit situation a rising sun may be behind a person whose face will be much darker than the bright halo around the body and hairline. Spot metering allows the camera to measure the light reflected from the person's face and expose properly for that, instead of adjusting exposure for

360-476: Is reduced by using a high resolution metering sensor and analyzing each area for washed-out ("blown") highlights or underexposed shadows. Although there are some similarities with multi-zone, matrix, or evaluative metering, this mode uses a high-resolution sensor for detailed detection and gives more weight to reduce clipping. Nikon FA The Nikon FA is an advanced amateur-level, interchangeable lens, 35 mm film , single-lens reflex (SLR) camera . It

400-458: The Bell & Howell FD35.   Canon F series   |   F series with pellicle mirror   |   Canon T series   |   Canon A series   See also: Early Canon film SLR cameras | Canon EOS film cameras | Canon EOS digital cameras This camera-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Metering mode In photography ,

440-507: The Canon A-1 (released 1978) and the Olympus OM-4 (1983) then pummeling Nikon sales. Nikon Inc. (USA)'s brochure referred to it as "THE TECHNOCAMERA". The FA did have one very rare and conservative feature for an electronically controlled camera. Nippon Kogaku's philosophy that a camera must always work when called upon resulted in the FA's backup ability to operate without batteries, albeit in

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480-636: The Nikon F bayonet mount (introduced in 1959) supporting the Automatic Indexing-Shutter (AI-S) feature (introduced in 1981). The contemporary Nippon Kogaku AI-S lenses were the Nikkor AI-S, and Nikon Series E types. The AF-S Nikkor, AF-I Nikkor, AF Nikkor D and AF Nikkor autofocus lenses are also AI-S types, which will work too but for manual focus only. The FA could also use the older Nikkor AI (introduced in 1977) and AI'd Nikkor lenses, but in that case,

520-624: The Nikon MD-12 motor drive of the Nikon FM and Nikon FE series, but the unit will not provide power for the FA. The Nikon FA was a mostly metal, heavily computerized version of the Nikon FE2 . The FA was a battery-powered (two SR44 or LR44, or one 1/3N) electromechanically (much electronics, but many springs, gears and levers) controlled manual focus SLR with manual exposure control or aperture priority, shutter priority and programmed autoexposure. The FA

560-586: The Nikon MD-15 motor drive (automatic film advance up to 3.2 frames per second, plus power for the camera electronics), the Nikon MF-16 databack (sequential numbering, time or date stamping on the film), and the Nikon Speedlight SB-15 (guide number 82/25 (feet/meters) at ASA/ISO 100) and Nikon Speedlight SB-16B (guide number 105/32 (feet/meters) at ASA/ISO 100) electronic flashes. The FA can also utilize

600-862: The Topcon Super D (in the USA/Canada; RE Super in the rest of the world) in 1963. Despite outcries from traditionalist photographers who knew how to correct their own metering exposure errors, the feature was quickly copied by all the major SLR manufacturers. The FA (like the rest of the compact F-series) was built to Nippon Kogaku's traditional and unusually high (and expensive) standard of workmanship for amateur-level SLRs. It used high-strength alloy parts, hardened metal gearing, ball bearing joints and gold-plated electrical switches; all made to precise tolerances and largely hand assembled, in an era when most other manufacturers switched to high-tech plastics, simplified modular construction and coarser tolerances to lower costs in

640-433: The metering mode refers to the way in which a camera determines exposure . Cameras generally allow the user to select between spot , center-weighted average , or multi-zone metering modes. The different metering modes allow the user to select the most appropriate one for use in a variety of lighting conditions. In complex light situations professional photographers tend to switch to manual mode, rather than depending on

680-784: The AMP meter and the shutter priority and High Speed program autoexposure modes would not work as well as AI-S lenses allowed (this is due to their non-linear aperture stop-down mechanisms). Nikon's most recent 35 mm film SLR lenses are not fully compatible with the FA: the AF Nikkor G type (introduced in 2000) lacks an aperture control ring, and the AF Nikkor DX type (2003), with image circles sized for Nikon's digital SLRs, will mount, but will not function properly. IX Nikkor lenses (1996), for Nikon's Advanced Photo System (APS) film SLRs, must not be mounted, as their rear elements will intrude far enough into

720-489: The FA had a distinctly chunkier body and larger, boxier pentaprism cover to house its extra electronics. The limited-production Nikon FM3A of 2001 continued to use this body design until 2006. The Nikon FA is a historically significant camera. It was the first camera to offer a multi-segmented (or matrix or evaluative) exposure light meter , called Automatic Multi-Pattern (AMP). It had a built-in microprocessor computer programmed to automatically analyze different segments of

760-452: The FA used a plastic top plate: fiberglass reinforced polycarbonate for the black bodies, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) for the chrome ones. The FA also used the ultra-fast, bearing-mounted, honeycomb-patterned, titanium-bladed shutter and through-the-lens (TTL) off-the-film (OTF) electronic flash automation of the FE2, but added a digital liquid crystal display (LCD) information panel at

800-416: The autofocus point, thus ensuring that the point of interest has been exposed for properly. A database of thousands of exposures may be pre-stored in the camera, and the processor can use that information to determine what is being photographed. Some cameras allow the option of locking exposure when autofocus is achieved. In other cameras the AF point is not used for exposure calculation, and in such cases it

840-405: The camera allows a user to move the focus point off the image center, metering will occur around the new focus location. Although promoted as a feature, center-weighted metering was originally a consequence of the meter reading from the focusing screen of SLR cameras . Light scatter from the focusing screen and proximity of the meter cell caused less sensitivity at the edges. In this metering mode,

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880-439: The camera uses light information from the entire scene and creates an average for the final exposure setting, giving no weighting to any particular portion of the metered area. In some situations, such as a snowy landscape, this mode will result in underexposure by 2 f-stops or more, because the metering system attempts to darken an excessively bright scene. This mode meters a larger area than spot metering (around 10–15% of

920-496: The chrome body only (no lens) was $ 646. Note that SLRs usually sold for 30 to 40 percent below list price. The FA was the most sophisticated member of the remarkably long-lived, classic Nikon compact F-series SLRs and was built upon a compact but rugged copper-aluminum alloy chassis developed from the ones used by the earlier Nikon FM (introduced in 1977), FE (1978), FM2 (1982) and FE2 (1983) cameras. The FM/FE series have only minor external controls and cosmetic differences, but

960-458: The dark sky area, resulting in overexposure of the moon. Spot metering gives correct exposure of the moon and underexposes the rest of the scene which was dark already, so the low exposure is not noticeable. Spot metering may also be used for theatre photography, where brightly lit actors appear in a darkened auditorium. Spot metering is a method upon which the Zone System depends. In this system,

1000-483: The end of the road for Nippon Kogaku's electromechanical cameras. All future Nikon camera development would emphasize the computerization of picture-taking. Time has proven the Nikon FA to be very mechanically tough. Unfortunately, the complexity of all of its electronics made the FA less reliable than the other, simpler Nikon compact F-series SLR models, although still better than multimode SLRs from competing brands. During

1040-441: The entire frame), and is generally used when very bright or very dark areas on the edges of the frame would otherwise unduly influence the metering. As in spot metering, some cameras can use variable points for readings or use a fixed point in the centre of the viewfinder. This mode is also called matrix , evaluative , honeycomb , segment metering , or esp (electro selective pattern) metering on some cameras. This metering mode

1080-433: The face of competitive pressure. As a result, the Nikon FA could endure conditions that would cause virtually all other contemporary non-professional-level SLRs to break down mechanically. A higher price was considered a fair trade for impressive durability. The 1970s and 1980s were an era of intense competition between the major SLR brands: Nikon , Canon , Minolta , Pentax and Olympus . Between circa 1975 to 1985, there

1120-407: The first generation of matrix metering, AMP was hardly foolproof. For instance, holding the FA vertically instead of horizontally might cause the meter to give different readings of the same scene. However, AMP was still demonstrably superior to the centerweighted type of light metering then in common use. AMP would give a good exposure 90-95% of the time versus 85-90% for centerweighting. Note that AMP

1160-508: The light meter field of view and select a corrected exposure. Virtually all cameras today, whether film, video or digital, have some sort of matrix metering. The Nikon FA was Nippon Kogaku's high-technology standard bearer, sandwiched between the sturdy, but basic Nikon FE2 and the professional-level Nikon F3 SLR (introduced in 1980). With its advanced AMP meter, Nippon Kogaku fully expected that many professional photographers, as well as amateurs, would buy it. The FA accepted all lenses with

1200-417: The meter concentrates on the central 60–80% of the scene. The balance is then " feathered " out towards the edges. This mode of exposure is less influenced by peripheral areas of the scene and is therefore well suited for photographs with subjects or objects of interest in the central part of the image. Some cameras allow the user to adjust the weight/balance of the central portion to the peripheral one. If

1240-415: The mid-1990s, it was fairly popular on the user-collectible market and commanded prices ($ 500 in pristine condition) higher than when it was new, almost as high as the very popular, but much lower featured Nikon FE2, making the FA a relative bargain. However, since spare parts to repair any failed electronics became unavailable around the year 2000, the FA has become much less desirable to user-collectors, with

Canon TX - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-403: The mirror box to cause damage. During the early 1980s, Nippon Kogaku manufactured approximately 70 manual focus Nikkor AI-S and Nikon Series E branded lenses. They ranged from a Fisheye-Nikkor 6 mm f/2.8 220˚ circular fisheye to a Reflex-Nikkor 2000 mm f/11 super telephoto. This was the largest and widest ranging lens selection in the world by far. Major accessories for the FA included

1320-427: The much brighter light around the hairline. With the face properly exposed, the area around the back and hairline will become over-exposed. In many cases spot metering will over or underexpose a portion of the scene, so that the point of interest will be correctly exposed. Another example of the use of spot metering is photographing the moon. Other metering methods will increase overall exposure in an attempt to lighten

1360-399: The sophisticated electronics meant that Nippon Kogaku could not meet the demand. The FA picked up a reputation for unreliability (for a Nikon) and ultimately did not sell as well as hoped because, by the time production got rolling, its technology was eclipsed in the public's imagination by the advent of autofocusing SLRs, especially the landmark Minolta Maxxum 7000 in 1985. The FA also marked

1400-457: The top left of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in, open aperture, through-the-lens (TTL) light meter versus the actual camera settings. Depending on the set exposure mode, the LCD would display +/– over/underexposure markers, HI/LO out of metering range warnings, shutter speed and/or f-stop. Unfortunately, the LCD could not be illuminated in low ambient light situations. The FA also had

1440-415: Was Nippon Kogaku's first SLR to have shutter priority autoexposure and first to have all four of the now standard PASM exposure modes. The FA actually had two programmed modes: a normal mode and a High Speed mode that automatically biased toward faster shutter speeds whenever an AI-S compatible lens (including Series E) of 135 mm or longer focal length was mounted. Unlike the other compact F-series SLRs,

1480-448: Was a dramatic shift away from heavy all-metal manual mechanical camera bodies to much more compact bodies with microprocessor electronic automation. In addition, because of rapid advances in electronics, the brands continually leapfrogged each other with models having new or more automatic features. After many years of conservative designs, the Nikon FA was intended to be Nippon Kogaku's technological blockbuster, surpassing such worthies as

1520-449: Was automatically disabled in the FA's manual exposure mode and could be turned off in the autoexposure modes. In both cases, the FA would default to Nippon Kogaku's traditional 60/40% centerweighted metering. However, the FA omitted the autoexposure memory lock of the FE2 - AMP was supposed to obviate any need for it. AMP was the most important advance in exposure control since built-in, through-the-lens (TTL) light meters were introduced by

1560-481: Was first introduced by the Nikon FA and was termed Automatic Multi-Pattern metering. On a number of cameras this is the default or standard setting. The camera measures the light intensity in several points in the scene and then combines the results to find the setting for the best exposure. The method of calculation can be different from camera to camera. The actual number of zones used varies widely, from several to over

1600-572: Was manufactured by the Japanese optics company Nippon Kogaku K. K. ( Nikon Corporation since 1988) in Japan from 1983 to 1987 (available new from dealer stock until circa 1989). The FA used a titanium-bladed, vertical-travel Nikon-designed, Copal -made focal plane shutter with a speed range of 1 to 1/4000th second plus Bulb and flash X-sync of 1/250th second. It was available in two colors: black with chrome trim and all black. The introductory US list price for

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