My Nikon F2S camera, nicknamed “Nikon Athena,” is a damn fine 35mm shooter.
But i want more for it. I want to turn this camera into a 35mm shooting BEAST. I want to enable burst shooting mode in this bad boy.
In other words, I want to press the button and have this camera take several consecutive shots. Similar to the feature available in my Nikon Df digital camera gear.
But in order to achieve this, I need to acquire a Nikon MD-2 motor drive.
So I bought the motor drive off eBay … attached it to Athena … and discovered I needed a battery attachment.
An MB-1 battery attachment, to be precise.
So I bought the battery attachment off eBay … attached it to Athena … and discovered that the battery attachment needed a nested internal battery cage to hold AA batteries. I needed TWO of these guys. Which take five batteries each. Damn, why don’t I just hook my camera up to a generator at this point?
But if it turns my Nikon into a film camera on steroids … so be it.
And now, here’s the camera, all souped up with new components. And if you’re wondering which components are add-ons – look for anything that isn’t covered in hot pink leatherette.
Damn, with that 300mm prime on the chassis, it kinda looks like Nikon Athena is on steroids.
So let’s test this bad boy out with the new rapid-fire attachments.
There’s a nature park along the Hudson River in Green Island. It’s accessible just under I-787, and it actually has a few car-charging stations (my car is happy). After plugging Lightning’s Girl into one of those charge ports, I shot a bird with this new camera setup.
The idea was to test the rapid-fire action on this souped-up Nikon Athena, and hopefully the bird won’t get away from my gaze.
Let’s see.
Got him. The shot’s a little soft, mostly because I’m dealing with a manual-focus lens and I’m operating this as hand-held. But it did what I needed.
Next test. Sunday afternoon at the harness track. I set up past the finish line, with Nikon Athena on a tripod. I focused on the final stretch turn, and used the rapid-fire shot to see what five frames per second can do for me in this situation.
And down the stretch they come.
You can use the slider to see the interval. These were taken less than a second apart.
THIS WILL WORK FOR ME.
I now have more confidence on this week’s train chase, in that I can shoot rapid-fire both with my Nikon Df for digital – AND with the Nikon F2S for film.
This I can use.
Just in time. 😀
Chuck The Writer 