Is This the Most Rugged Film Camera Ever Made? (YES)

Nikonos V Review

Unlike my FM2, the Nikonos V isn’t precious, and is ambivalent about being chucked into the depths of a backpack. You don’t have to worry about hurriedly stashing it away when the skies open, either. It is, essentially, a watertight brick of metal that you can take anywhere. Because of this, I bring the Nikonos V and its signature 35mm f/2.5 lens on all of my most adventurous trips. Even decades after it rolled off the assembly line, the o-ring sealed baody still keeps my film safe from water, air, dust, dirt, grime, and other debris. (If you’re planning to use it in salt water, I highly recommend giving it a tap water rinse after each use to prevent corrosion.)

Nikonos Features

The Nikonos is not an easy camera to shoot with. But the rewards of extra effort and practice are outstanding. A good number of smart features and impressive quiver of superb Nikonos lens options help, too. The Nikonos V, offers through-the-lens metering (different than the Nikonos IV), manual (and auto mode) control for zone focusing, and aperture-priority auto exposure capabilities. More on the construction and capabilities below.

Operating the Nikonos V

This camera takes some getting used to. Since you’re not looking through the lens to compose your photo like you would with an SLR, the viewfinder window is merely an estimate of what the camera sees, so you have to compose accordingly. (Leica users will feel more at home here.) There are definitely some additional nuances to the Nikonos, too.

Manual control aperture and focus are controlled by robust, twistable knobs extending out from either side of the lens. Reading the corresponding f/stop number requires flipping the camera upside down to look at it—a habit that can be a little frustrating to form. Focusing is one part experience, one part luck, while composing shots can be, at first, a maddening exercise of second-guessing and fiddling. But once you’ve broken it in and figured out these quirks, the Nikonos is a remarkably intuitive and simple camera.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/nikonos-v-waterproof-film-camera-review