Nikkorex F
John Wade discovers a Nikon that’s really a Mamiya
LAUNCHED 1962
PRICE AT LAUNCH £98 12s 2d Approximately £98.61
GUIDE PRICE NOW £70-100
WHEN the Nikon F was launched in 1959, it was an immediate success with professional photographers, but at £146 13s (£146.65) it was out of the reach of most amateurs. There was a need for a more budget-priced camera, but Nippon Kogaku was not a big manufacturer and was tied up with turning out Nikon Fs as fast as it could go. So the first Nikkorex was produced with co-operation from Mamiya. It was a single lens reflex (SLR) with a porro prism viewfinder, leaf shutter and fixed lens. It didn’t look like a Nikon, and it wasn’t very reliable. So Mamiya took over the whole project and the result was the splendid Nikkorex F.
For the amateur photographer who couldn’t afford a Nikon F, but who wanted the quality that came from Nikkor lenses, the Nikkorex F was a very attractive alternative. And it still is today for film users with the same needs as those of photographers from 60 years ago.
No, it doesn’t have interchangeable viewfinders, but it does have a proper pentaprism viewing system and a 1-1/1,000sec metal vertical running focal plane shutter made by Copal that uses collapsing blinds in place of the more usual cloth curtains. Most important of all, it features Nikon’s famous F-mount, which accepts Nikkor lenses. It’s a totally manual camera, but a now-hard-to-find selenium cell meter slots into an accessory shoe unusually placed on the front of the body. This couples with both the shutter speed dial and the fork-like appendage found on the aperture ring of early Nikkor lenses. In this way, the meter knows exactly what shutter speed and aperture are being set.
Mamiya also collaborated with Ricoh, whose first Singlex camera in 1962 was actually a Nikkorex F with an F-mount and a different name. The following Singlex abandoned the Nikon mount in favour of an M42 screw.
What’s good
Mechanically sound, with guaranteed image quality from Nikkor lenses
What’s bad
Big by later standards and, at just under 1 kilo, very heavy.