6th December 2025

This is probably one of the rarest Nikon Fs to be manufactured - even rarer than the NASA ones! This is my recently acquired black Nikon F High Speed Version 2, ‘Apollo’ 1976 Montreal body, S/No: 7450350.

The body, which is in mint unused condition, is 100% authentic. It still has the clear plastic base plate protector and the interior protective ‘mat’ in the bottom of the camera back.

So far as I can establish this is one of twenty or so camera bodies prepared in Japan with the intention of being issued as loan cameras to professional photographers attending the 1976 Montreal Winter Olympics. That it is in mint condition, and came from Japan, not Canada, suggests that it was probably never shipped. It is missing its specially adapted, 9fps F-36 Electric Motor Drive and bespoke battery pack, but that matching motor drive has just been purchased at an auction in Japan although the owner is not - at this stage - willing to buy my Nikon F HS body. A point of interest is that the Nikon F High Speed can be used without a motor drive or with a standard F-36 or F-250 motor drive, while the special High Speed motor drive can only be used on the correct body.

At first glance the body looks no different to any other very late model Nikon F ‘Apollo’. It’s only upon closer inspection that you see that the mirror lock-up switch has been blanked off and the stop down button has been replaced by a significantly larger version. The major change is only seen when looking inside the lens throat; the original mirror assembly has been completely removed and a semi-silvered fixed ‘pellicle’ mirror installed in its place. It is fitted with a Type B focussing screen and has, as expected, a motor drive baseplate fitted. Some sources suggest that the semi-silvered pellicle mirror is actually a Canon Pellix one - the conversion being outsourced to a specialist company at the behest of Nikon Japan. Only around half a stop of light is lost in transmission through the mirror, whuch seems very reasonable. One can also fit a standard F-36 Electric Motor Drive to this body, allowing for the highest frame rate - 4fps - to be used without having to lock the mirror up.

There are very few references to the Version 1 and Version 2 cameras on the internet, so getting any really useful information is tricky. Grays of Westminster have a complete Version 1 with Motor Drive for sale but only a very few have appeared in auctions.

According to sources, between 30 and 54 of the Version 1 7fps body/motor combinations were made for the 1972 Olympics. On those the mirror had to be locked up in order to achieve the high frame rates, with a special viewfinder fitted - not ideal when using anything other than wideangle lenses.

One story goes that in 1976 a number of the surviving Version 1 7fps bodies were converted to the Version 2 9fps model for the Montreal Olympics. However, if this were true the serial numbers don’t fit in the 1971/72 year sequence, nor were the early Version 1 bodies ‘Apollo’ ones, suggesting that the later Version 2 bodies were modified from the last run of standard 1973/4 'Apollo' bodies that remained unsold.

Robert Rotoloni estimates 7fps production at 54 cameras in his March 1997 article published in the Nikon Historical Newsletter. He further recounts rumours of 20 of the Version 2 9fps cameras being supplied as loaners at the Montreal Olympics. From the state of mine, and from an image of its matching motor drive that I have seen, this combination was never issued for unknown reasons and probably only recently have they been split up, although why confounds me!

Sadly this camera body has to go - I've run out of space and, ironically, life! I've got aggressive prostate cancer, and whilst in remission, that's what's going to get me in the end, so I've got to clear the shelves while I still have the chance. Please drop me an email if you are interested.

20251206

Nikon F High Speed - version 2 'Montreal'