Gadagne Lyon St-Jean - a photo on Flickriver

On December 19, 2024, I paid a visit to the two museums hosted in Gadagne, an imposing Renaissance ensemble in Lyon St-Jean, France. The first museum in devoted to the Puppetry and the second is the Lyon's History Museum (www.gadagne-lyon.fr/en).

I loaded my Nikon F4 (year 1989, see the details about the camera bellow) with a Rollei RPX 400 which is the former formula of the Agfa APX 400. The film cartridge is DX-coded and I did not modified the nominal DX-coded 400 ISO sensitivity.

I choose the AF Nikkor lens 1:1.8 f=85mm with a protective Hoya HMC UV 62mm screw-on filter plus its dedicated Nikon HN-23 metal shade hood. I brought along too the Nikon SB-26 flashlight in my bag in case of necessity.

Smartphone documentary picture
Palais Gadagne, December 19, 2024
69005 Lyon
France

After at view 30, the last seven views were completed the day after with a series a views of my Hasselblad 500 C/M camera at home. The film was then rewound (manually) and processed the film developed using 350 mL of Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developer prepared at the dilution 1+25 for 12min30 at 20°C.

Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta Auto Bellows with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.

The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.1.1) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.

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About the camera :

Maybe it would have been better not to ask for this question: « what’s new do you have at the moment?» to my local photo store, because Christine grab underneath the counter, stating « I have that … » . What a beast ! A Nikon F4 in the exact state of the Nikon brochure year 1990, presented with the standard AF Nikkor 1:1.4 f=50mm. I was already hooked by the machine. After two days, I decided to buy it even with some little common issues found on early Nikon F4 (see below), fortunately not affecting the whole, numberous functions of this incredibly complex professional SLR of the year 1990’s.

Nikon F4 came to the market on September 1988 starting with the serial number 2.000.000. Fully manufactured in Japan (modules came from 3 different Nikon factories) the F4's were assembled in Mito, Ibaraki (North to Tokyo) Nikon plant (no more in the mother factory of Tokyo Oi like the Nikon’s F). When I lived in Tokyo in 1990-1991, Nikon F4 was the top-of-the-line of Nikon SLR camera’s. I saw it in particular in Shinjuku Bic Camera store when I bought there, in December 1990 my Nikonos V.

Nikon F4 incorporates many astonishing engineering features as the double vertical-travel curtain shutter capable of the 1/8000s. Compared to the Nikon F3, the F4 was an AF SLR operated by a CCD sensor (200 photo sites). The film is automatically loaded, advanced with to top speed of 5,7 frame/s !! With the MB-21 power grip (F4s version). The F4 is a very heavy camera (1.7kg with the AF Nikkor 1.4/50mm), incredibly tough and well constructed. This exemplary is devoid of any scratches or marks, and in a condition proving that it was not used for hard professional appliances, for those it was however intended. The camera has still it original Nikon neck strap, the original user manual in French. The lens is protected by a Cokin (Franc) Skylight 1A 52mm filter and the original Nikon front cap. The two small LCD displays (one on the F4 body, one in the DP-20 finder) are both affected by the classical syndrome of « bleeding ». Fortunately, all information could still be read. One says that 70% of the early Nikon F4 suffer from this problem but also found on other models.

According its serial number and the production rate of about 5000 units/month, this Nikon F4s was probably manufactured in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in May 1989.
The camera was exported abroad thereafter attested by the presence of the golden oval little sticker("Passed" on the DP-20 viewfinder. In order to certify the quality production, two Japanese organizations, the Japan Camera Industry Institute (JCII) and the Japan Machinery Design Center (JMDC), joined forces to verify and mark the conformity of products for the foreign market. This is how, between the 1950s and 1980s, this famous little gold sticker was affixed, with the legendary "Passed", meaning that the device had been checked. Finally, when we say that the device had been checked, the production line had been checked because each device could not be checked individually.

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About the flash :

I received from a German seller for 50€ this Nikon Speedlight electronic flash SB-26 that was, at the time of Nikon F4, the most powerful dedicated Nikon flash (Guide Number 36 at full power and 100 ISO).

The SB-26 communicates with the Nikon F4 body (and many other Nikon camera's) and can be operated in many different modes including TTL real-time metering with automatic equilibration of the ambient light using the 5-zone matrix metering done by the DP-20 photometric viewer as well in the center-weighted mode. Other possibilities include the normal TTL mode, an Auto mode using the own sensor of the flash and a manual mode with 7 power levels.

The flash head can cover the optical field from super-wide angle lenses 18-20mm, wide-angle lenses 28mm and 35mm, normal lenses 50mm, and long-focal lenses at 70mm and 85mm. The head can be rotated according two axis for indirect lightening. In addition, the SB-26 has a special focusing aid for the Nikon F4 autofocus system, projecting in the the darkness a red focusing image. SB-23 flash can be also used as master or slave flash in a coordinated flash system.

The flash requires 4 AA alkaline cells for approximately 100 lights at full power and much more with energy recycling at lower power levels.

Taken on: December 19, 2024

Tags:

Lyon

France

Gadagne

Museum

Saint-Jean

Nikon

35mm

SLT

camera

Japan

AF-Nikkor

1:1.8

f=85mm

Rollei

RPX

400

analog

photography

film

Adox

Adonal

Agfa

Rodinal

developer

Sony

digitizing

Minolta

Auto

Bellows

III

Slide

Duplicator

Macro

Rokkor

50mm « less

Sets appears in: • Gadagne Museum Lyon Saint-Jean

Camera: vivo V2124, f/1.8, 1/17 sec, 4mm, ISO 5139 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	vivo V2124
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.059 sec (1/17)
Focal Length:	4mm
ISO:	5139
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	D65
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.1.1 (Macintosh)
Show full info

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