In many ways, I wish that the Nikon Zf were more like the Nikomat EL camera. They’re both small and have beautiful ergonomics. And both cameras are ones that you’d want to bring with you everywhere. Wrapping your fingers around the Nikomat EL is the closest thing that I’ve felt to the affection of a loved one holding your hand. But there’s none of the awkwardness of different walking paces, different heights, etc. It also lacks the romance and warmth while trading it for a cold touch that reminds you that it’s there, it’s yours and that it will be the supportive partner you need when shooting photographs. But unlike most digital cameras, the Nikomat EL has been alongside photographers since the early 1970s.
Picking up the Nikomat EL is a memorable experience that genuinely makes you want to go out and make new memories with it. It’s characterized by a brass body that’s cold to the touch, a bit heavy, and feels great in the hand. Turning the shutter knob is a sensory experience akin to the nostalgia of clicking a tuning dial on a radio knob. I remember in the early 90s growing up how my parents held onto our television until its last legs gave way. We’d turn the knobs on it to increase the volume, brighten the screen, mix the color channels, etc. But back then, these devices never earned our respect. If they didn’t work, we’d give them a whack instead of trying to figure out what the problem was. We did the same thing with Nintendo games, too.
But with the Nikomat EL, turning that knob is something kind of like tuning a television to just the right channel. In this case, though, I’d dial in the shutter speed. It feels even better than the Nikon F2.
On the other side of the viewfinder is the ISO dial. Changing this felt more punishing as an experience and sometimes felt like trying to squeeze something too tightly to turn it. These days, photographers would complain about it like they did with the Fujifilm X Pro 3. But with the Nikomat EL, it’s a reminder to take the good with the bad, like Bob Ross said. With the Nikomat EL, you’re also not changing the ISO like crazy — which photographers do too often if you ask me, these days.
Shooting with the camera is like almost any other Nikon film camera or Leica. With Nikon, though, you often have to line up the rabbit ears just right to ensure that the light meter works perfectly. This changed in time, for sure. As you turn the aperture ring on the lens, you see little needles move in the viewfinder that tells you how you were metering the scene. These days, people aren’t paying attention to that as much as they are the Live View Assist preview function. This removes another layer of thought, which forces you to think less about the photograph that you’re making. That’s why I often disable it. But Nikon’s current light meter isn’t anything like the old vintage ones with a little needle telling you what’s what.
The Nikomat EL is a simple tool that takes the complications out of photography instruments and forces the photographer to rely on their actual skill with being in the moment, taking the photograph, predicting what will happen, and so much more.
It makes me truly wish that Nikon did service for all their vintage products, especially with how 3D printing works these days. But more importantly, it makes me happy that Nikon made the Nikon Zf even more so. I really hope that Nikon starts treating cameras as photography instruments, and not as content creation devices.