Nikon S Rangefinders Review

Analog Insights August 16, 2025
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Analog Insights

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Hi, we are Jules, Greg and Max. This channel's primary focus is analog photography in the digital age. We are sharing gear and film reviews as well as learnings from our various shoots and insights on developing film. In the process, we also address different kinds of photography (e.g. portrait & fashion editorials, landscape and street photography) on all sorts of formats (e.g. 35mm, medium format, 4x5 inch). We hope you enjoy our little channel and look forward to hear from you.

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I am doing this for almost ten years and haven’t experienced such a mind-changing camera system before. The Nikon S Rangefinders certainly have their flaws but they are also remarkable, overlooked and underrated. We explored the entire system and break down the differences, the history and today’s usability. -------- In this episode, Greg, Jules and I review the Nikon S rangefinder series. This video was sparked when one of our long-time viewers was kind enough to lend us a Nikon S3 Y2K version. Jules got so excited about the camera that he ended up getting a Nikon S4 which I had purchased for him during a trip to Tokyo and then a Nikon S2 plus fitting lenses. In the process, I was bitten by the bug as well and ended up purchasing a Nikon S2 as well and really enjoy shooting it as a long-time Leica aficionado. Last but not least, we purchased a Nikon SP to complete the set. We decided to look at all the Nikon S rangefinders together as they are quite similar offering a life-size viewfinder, excellent build quality and mechanical operation as well as high-quality Nikkor lenses to use on it. Thanks to Voigtländer, there are even some modern lenses available for the Nikon S mount which are often overlooked. Historically, these rangefinders are closely tied to the famous Nikon F SLRs. Nikon S rangefinders are arguably underrated and often overshadowed by the much more successful Leica M rangefinders - but they also played an important historical role and had famous proponents like David Douglas Duncan back then. The Nikon S has some of its roots in the Contax which was a fierce competitor to Leica at the time. But while Nikon and Leica kept improving, Contax didn’t continue to push for innovation. So there is a lot to discuss and understand in detail here. As always, Greg, Jules and I took the cameras out on various photo walks and I also used the Nikon S4 during a portrait session. Cameras used: Nikon S2 Nikon S3 Y2K Edition Nikon S4 Nikon SP Voigtländer Bessa R2S Lenses used: Voigtländer 21mm f/4 SC-Skopar W-Nikkor C 3,5cm f/2.5 Nikkor-H 5cm f/2.0 Nikkor-S 5cm f/1.4 Voigtländer 85mm f/3.5 S APO LANTHAR Nikkor-P C 10,5cm f/2.5 Films used: Ilford FP4 Ilford Delta 400 Harman Phoenix 200 (I) Fuji Velvia 50 If you enjoy our videos and like to follow us on Instagram, find us here: https://www.instagram.com/analog_insights

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