As you know, Nikon SP shows the best performance among Nikon's rangefinder cameras and is the flagship of Nikon S series.
Following Nikon S and S2, SP came on the market in 1957. Noteworthy features of SP were that all the lenses and accessories for S series were available for SP, and also it employed the separated viewfinders for wide-angle and telephoto lenses, single-pivot non-rotating shutter dial and the self-timer which was the first among Nikon's cameras. Especially, the bright-frame finder (1.0x viewfinder magnification) matched six kinds of lenses. Besides, parallax was automatically corrected.
In addition to this, its shutter releasing sound was so quiet that it was called "whispering shutter".
Well then, let's take a look at it.
- First introduced in September, 1957.
- Camera type : 35mm-format focal-plane shutter rangefinder camera
- Picture size : 24 x 36mm
- Shutter : horizontal-run focal-plane shutter
- Shutter curtain : gummed silk curtain
- Shutter speed dial : single-pivot non-rotating shutter dial
- Shutter speeds : T, B, 1 - 1/1000sec.
- Flash sync contact : FP, X
- Viewfinder components : 1.0x bright-frame finder + reverse-Galilean Albada finder
- Finder frame : 1.0x / bright frame line - 50, 85, 105, 135mm
reverse-Galilean Albada finder / overview - 28mm, bright frame line - 35mm
- Film wind lever : ratcheted winding
- Rewinding : by the rewind crank
- Framecounter : automatic resetting type
- Body dimensions : 136 x 81 x 43.5mm
- Weight (with f1.4/50mm lens) : 720 grams
