Want to take a trip through time? Okay, then. Imagine yourself an adventurer and free-lance photographer in the early 1970s. The race to the moon has been won by the U.S., but the space race is still going strong. Thanks to transistors, computers have been brought down to the size of an average car. Newspapers and magazines are in their heyday and you're wondering where your next assignment will take you. You might be sent to a jungle in Southeast Asia. Or perhaps to Antarctica for a few months. Or maybe just the local speedway to cover the Friday night races. No matter where you may end up, you're going to need a camera that's up to the challenge of not just working, but thriving in those conditions. That's why you never leave for a job without your Nikon F2 kit in your bag.

It took a while for you to save the money for the kit, but it's been the best investment you've made. One of your first impressions is that the fastest shutter speed has been shortened to 1/2000th of a second and there are markings on the self-timer switch for settings between 2 and 10 seconds. And while there's a battery door on the bottom, it's only there to power your meter. This solidly built Nikon is all mechanical.

It came with a beautiful 50mm f/1.4 lens that is as pleasing to look at as it is to look through. In your kit are also a 35mm f/2 and the 105mm f/2.5. This combination of lenses has never left you wanting for the perfect look. If you're at a protest, the 35mm makes images that put readers in the middle of the action. The 105mm is supposedly for studio head shots, but you find it invaluable in getting just that little bit of telephoto for when you need to step back from the fray a bit. And the 50mm? Well, that just lives on your Nikon F2 and is perfect for getting the street shot you're needing, even if where you're standing lacks streets.

For an upgrade, you had a choice of different metered heads that, while they added weight and size to your kit, helped assure that you nailed the exposure for each shot. It turned out your preference was the Nikon DP-2 with the red LEDs that kept your exposure in range. And you also had a selection of viewing screens to fit different situations. Out of the eighteen viewing/focusing screens available to you, you decided on the Type L with the split-image rangefinder focus set at a 45 degree angle for when the standard horizontal split just wouldn't work.

So while you're waiting for your phone to ring with your next assignment, you can relax with the knowledge that your Nikon F2 is ready to go at a moment's notice. You pick up the newspaper to read about the latest Apollo mission only to see that NASA has chosen the Nikon F2 for the Apollo 15 and 17 flights. In your head you chuckle to yourself and think "great; the biggest assignment of them all and they're sending my camera and not me!"

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