Operations carried out
Cameras - lenses - accessories
Nikon S3
A long road
Its history.
2018… This Nikon S3 was on sale on a famous online store from the faraway country of El Salvador in South America.
Shopping on the other side of the world is always a risk. There aren’t many S3s in Europe, and the price was attractive, so I took the plunge.
Presented in good condition, with a Nikkor 50mm f/2, its lower leather case, but a hole in the curtain, plugged by a patch, honestly pointed out in the sale ad.
It arrived
A few days of waiting, customs fees, of course, and this appliance arrived exactly as described, with even the original sole protection still in place…
A Nikon S3 is not particularly difficult to dismantle, but it requires care, order and organisation, never on the corner of a table.
Indeed, the S3 is built on similar points to its predecessor, the S2, and the evolution of the range heralds the Nikon F. Apart from the rangefinder with its fixed-frame viewfinder, it is virtually identical to the Nikon SP.
Nikon S3 - Nikon SP
Dismantling and repair
It is advisable to take as many photos as possible (almost 200 for this S3), to use a compartmentalised storage box and to classify each part and screw in the order of dismantling.
To avoid too long an explanatory text, here are the photos of the disassembly, the replacement of the faulty fabric curtains with Nikon F titanium curtains, and the results of the shutter speed adjustments.
I used the amateur but reliable VFmoto shutter tester.
Curtains and slow speeds.
As always, each curtain is fitted and adjusted with a base voltage that allows minimum operation.
The slow speed block is cleaned in an isopropyl alcohol bath, dried and lubricated only on the gears bearings.
Nikon Much more than a legend