Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Actually, I believe Nikon's titanium shutter curtains were chemically etched to create dimples that reduces weight and adds flexibility. As a result, the shutter curtain is very flexible in the direction it is supposed to, but fairly rigid in other directions, which is a good thing. Nikon then made F2's mirror bracket in titanium that really helped Nikon manufacture titanium bodies later on. In the 60's through well into the 80's, Nikon was probably the most advanced civilian titanium fabricator. > Ken Iisaka wrote: > > > > > Nikon went to the titanium shutter curtains with the F. The Nikon RFs > > > were all cloth shuttered, like the Leicas. > > > > The first few hundred Fs had cloth shutter curtains, unofficially. The > > later SPs which were produced alongside Fs had titanium shutters, as > > well as black S3s which were produced in 1963. If the cloth shutter was > > damaged, Nikon replaced it with titanium, so you occasionally see S2, > > early SPs, chrome S3s and S4s with titanium curtain. > > > > I have heard of someone attempting to retrofit a titanium curtain in a > > Leica body. I do not know whether it was successful or not. (now on > > topic!) > > I seem to remember the F2 had a QUILTED titanium shutter. Remember that quilted > aluminum foil! > Mark Rabiner