Nikon F6: Finesse Incarnate
Welcome to John Crane Photography's Nikon F6 Project

NEW: MAY 13, 2013: To everyone who shoots the Nikon F6 (or is interested in the Nikon F6) - and is on flickr, please drop by the newly created flickr group, "Nikon F6 User Group." This group is newly created, as an outgrowth of our thriving facebook group by the same name, "Nikon F6 User Group." We're a friendly, fun bunch of dedicated film shooters from around the world, focused on getting the most out of creating 35mm film images with the Nikon F6 camera.

NEW: OCTOBER 13, 2012: Just updated the Resource Page with Film Processing information. One of the most frequent questions I get is, where do you send your film for processing? For the moment I'm one of those who'd rather be out shooting than in a dark room. The existence of quality, professional photo labs contribute to the continuing viability of shooting my F6 in a commercial capacity, so I'm more than happy to do everything I can to help ensure their continued existence and prosperity.

I just discovered The Slide Printer/Denver Digital Imaging Center in Denver, Colorado. Their "in by 9am - out by 1PM" service for a 36 exposure roll of 35mm slides, developed and mounted in cardboard mounts, can't be beat. Here's a link to their web site: http://www.theslideprinter.com, and their full contact information:

Phone: 303-698-2962 / FAX: 303-778-7353. Customer Service Department is available Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 5:30 pm MST. Denver Digital Imaging Center PO Box 9506W Denver, CO 80209.

Street address: Denver Digital Imaging Center A Division of The Slideprinter 145 W. Alameda Ave. Denver, CO 80223.

NEW: OCTOBER 9, 2012: Just returned from shooting peak-season fall colors in the Colorado High Country with the mighty Nikon F6. Slides are forthcoming. Stay tuned for more fall color on Velvia and Kodak Ektachrome 100VS.

At right, the Nikon F6 is set up as follows: NIkon F6, Nikon 70-200 VR with Kirk LP-45 replacement foot, NIkon MB-40 Battery Grip, Nikon ML-3 IR remote, NIkon DR-5 right angle viewer, Kirk BL-F6G L-bracket, Kirk BH-1 ball head, Kirk "Crane Clamp" with a spirit level, Gitzo 1325 tripod.

UPDATE: OCTOBER, 2012: Over 4 years and several hundred rolls of film later, the F6 keeps on ticking. At least 2 more generations of digital cameras have come and gone since 2008, but the F6 is the same as it ever was: tough, robust, reliable, consistent, refined and powerful. Tired of constantly "upgrading" your camera yet? Perhaps it's time to do yourself a favor and pick up an F6. You'll never look at your digital camera the same way again, and think of all the great lenses you can afford now that you have the question of the body finally settled...

August 24th, 2012 - If you ever need anything a little out of the ordinary for your Nikon F6 - or your digital - give Kevin at Kirk Enterprises in Angola, Inidana a call. Recently he helped me with a nagging problem I've had using Nikon's ML-3 Infrared Remote while another device (think Nikon SU-800 Commander Head) has to be in the hot shoe. The problem was multiple devices that depend on that hot shoe attachment, but of course there's only one hot shoe on the camera. If the ML-3 is allowed to simply dangle by the cord connecting it to the 10-pin port, not only is it untidy, but unreliable as the angle of the IR beam can affect functionality as it swings in the breeze. Other potential solutions were heavy and awkward, requiring more elaborate contraptions mounted to the tripod itself.

Because I shoot Kirk L-brackets on all my cameras, Kevin pieced together a elegant, simple, and light solution from a few other parts he had available. Here's the parts list in case you're interested: FB-CA (Flash Bracket Collar Adaptor), Kaiser Cold Shoe, 1/4 x 20 x 1/2" Stainless Screw. Cost was reasonable, shipping was fast, and I'm ready for the aspen changing this fall. Thanks to Kevin and the folks at Kirk Enterprises.

We haven't come up with a name for it yet, but I'm liking the "CraneClamp."

- Visit Bob Kidd's "Sunday Street" blog for plenty of good writing and random thoughts on photography, film shooting, cycling, and who know's what else. Just he and the other elite, haning out on Sunday Street.

The Nikon F6 in Washington State's rainy Olympic Peninsula. Click here for the image gallery.

The Nikon F6 on Facebook? Told you it was smart.

Nikon F6's MV-1: First impressions & tutorial.

Opening Statement from August of 2009

Nikon F6: I had in mind when I sat down to write this introduction a eloquent, thought-provoking soliloquy capable of convincing anyone, anyplace that shooting a film camera in 2009 still had meaning; that it wasn't only worth doing but a good thing to do. Smart. An essay that would appear in blogs around the world extolling the virtues of film; of ardent, stubborn truth and idealism, old-school virtues, staying the course despite the appearance of what today appears to be. Nikon would have a parade for me in Japan and I'd throw yellow and black confetti on children as they ... well, you get the idea.

Recently I put up a gallery on my zenfolio site entitled "nikon F6". The only traffic it receives is me checking it from my iPhone. It's becoming more obvious that no one really cares about 35mm film (except Ken Rockwell-God bless him). At first this saddened me. Then the other night we were at a family gathering and I was talking with a fellow photographer, a commercial pro from Denver. We were extrapolating years down the road and he said "no one will know how to shoot film... it will be the domain of the few, the eccentric, the creatives, the artists... it will be a specialty, a niché, desirable because it's rare; a lost art." An idea was born.

The Nikon F6 was introduced in 2004. There are plenty of detailed, very well written compendiums and chronological essays of the camera and some glimpses of the potential thought processes surrounding Nikon's decision to build it. Honestly, I don't know anything about any of that. It's all cool stuff, but it doesn't really do it for me. Google Nikon F6 and you'll come up with a wealth of information. That's not what this site is about.

The Nikon F6 is of course a 35mm film camera. The thing about 35mm film that makes it special to me is the quality vs. portability matrix - and of course the fact that it's analog, not digital. I remember a while back I was reading about one of my favorite photographers, the late Galen Rowell, (Galen Rowell, A Retrospective, Sierra Club Books, 2006) who said no way was he going to lug a large format view camera up a mountain to take pictures. If 35mm film is good enough for Galen, it's certainly good enough for me. The key for me then, is to make sure I get that little, luggable camera up the mountain, into the canyons, under the waters, into the rivers, caves, air ways, flight paths, game trails, every other hard-to-get-to place you can think of and all those you can't imagine. In other words, get out there and shoot. Go places. Do things. Meet people. See stuff. Which should come as no coincidence, is what I love to do.

I bought my F6 new in August of 2008 just before leaving for a photo trip to Zion National Park. Really more just to have one, just in case it was their last. But after reading up on it, running a few rolls of film through it and seeing the results I realized this was no camera to sit on a shelf gathering dust as a collector's item. Rather, an instrument of precision and perfection to be exercised, pushed to the limits, run wide-open on high-test; a weapon against the ordinary; a domineering force of photographic nature born to destroy the bell-curve of "good enough;" a hunter of Barthe's punctum with every release of the refined, kevlar focal plane shutter; the visual can-opener to life exposing to those willing to venture its deep, complex circuitry and technical capabilities exploration of things in a way never before able with 35mm film. Folks, film isn't dead. It just needed a new champion to help take it to the next level. That champion is the NIkon F6.

The Nikon F6 was built with a strong pre-disposition to seize the moment. It's an incredibly sophisticated film camera - beyond what most people realize, employing the at-the-time latest digital technologies in terms of metering, auto focus and electronic sophistication including advanced flash capabilities being deployed in the top-end digital cameras - all in a highly refined, unsurpassed durable, rugged yet elegant package drawing on previous Nikon legends for what could be one, final, jaw-dropping, show-stopping, drop-dead perfect camera: the last of its kind. A final exclamation mark by the authors of photographic exclamation.

I grew up seeing the photographs the pros shot with high-end Nikon gear and think, "man, if only I had a camera and glass like that..." well now I do and I still can't take photos like them. But I continue to try, schleppin' around my bag, burning through film, squinting through the loop at the light box, scanning image after image, scrutinizing in Photoshop and even printing a few decent efforts... all this for the love of the process. You see, I believe the process of photography bares more examination, more attention, than it receives today. Back in the day, photography was pondered; studied; explored. What I fear is happening today is, there is such an overwhelming volume of meaningless, throw-away images shot millions of times a day that the notion of a photograph being "special" is as incomprehensible as someone pondering the bigger ideas behind why the sky is blue or the earth is round. It's simply taken for granted. But photographs are special. They do warrant attention, study, examination and excellence in technique and approach.

So what is this site about? This site is about using the Nikon F6, and what incredible photographs it's capable of taking. I say this realizing I'm inferring that my photographs are incredible. While even a broken clock is right twice a day and I've gotten lucky a few times, for the most part they're not. And that's not feigned self-deprication - it's simply my today's version of the truth. This site isn't intended to self-grandize me and my work, but to show what this camera can do - yes, even in my ham-fisted mitts. The reason for this site is to honor, pay homage to, respect, revere what, at this writing, appears will be the last in the long, legendary line of NIkon F-series film cameras. And how to get every drop of performance out of it.

This site is my attempt at examining some of those photographs and some of the reasons for the photographs and how the F6 helped make them. It's my attempt to hop off that relentless, speeding train of technological progress always apparently late for something - greater convenience, ease of use, digital sterility, simplicity of automation - and take a step back. Years from now, when the film market has all but dried up save for a few, stalwart romantics, and a film Renaissance rumbles through the pile of point-and-shoot castaways in our land fills, people will scour the web, whatever fashion it assumes in that day, and maybe come across this site.

To those people I extend a warm welcome, inviting them to explore the unique, wonderful and even romantic side of photography as it once was, and could be again with this fine instrument. Welcome back.

John B. Crane , 08/26/09 -Fort Collins, Colorado.