Appreciation post: I just learned the original Nikon F had over 650 parts

Tyler Gibson · 2026-04-14T15:25:08.705762+00:00

Read that in a 1960s service manual I picked up at a swap meet in Spokane. Makes you respect the folks who could fix those things without a schematic, right?

shah.zara5mo ago

My buddy tried fixing one and lost half the screws lol

8

black.jordan5mo ago

That's a crazy number of parts. I'd end up with a few extra pieces like @shah.zara's friend. My repair skills are basically limited to duct tape.

1

mila_sullivan3mo ago

My dad had an old F body in a shoebox for twenty years. When I was a teenager he finally handed it to me and said "see if you can make it work." I spent a whole summer taking that thing apart and putting it back together, every single screw in a muffin tin sorted by size. Ended up with a shutter that fired but the winding mechanism jammed after three frames. Still have that box of parts in my garage. Makes you wonder how many of those cameras ended up as junk because someone like me tried to fix them.

1