12.23
Ok, I started cleaning up the F a bit. I suppose I could have found any number of places on the ‘Net with info and docs on how the F models work, but because I’d used Nikons professionally myself a number of years ago (an FM2 and an F3) I opted to rely on my long suppressed “Nikon Zen” to figure out what all the buttons and levers do.
More fun that way.
It took me a bit but through process of elimination I figured it all out. I was most surprised when I turned the key on the bottom and the body split in two. See, back then they didn’t have newfangled hinged doors over the film, you took the damn body apart to get at the film… and you liked it!
Oh and there was film in it (it’s not the shutter speed that got you… it’s the aperture). Price Club brand to boot 
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I removed the old rotting shoulder strap. I was unsure if I wanted to keep the little triangle rings that attached to the camera… then I cut my thumb on one and that settled it, they went with the strap and the film.
The bottom right of the body had some nasty fungus gunk on it. Think about it, that’s the part firmly planted in your sweaty palm. The more I thought about it the more grossed out I got, so I broke out the bleach.
Lets go back a moment to “I cut my thumb” above… Yeah, I’ll want to be getting gloves next time.
The fungus goo came off with some work, but the really neat effect was to hit the once white (now kinda brownish-white) lettering and make it bright white again.
So the shutter seems to fire at all speeds, tho I don’t know how accurately (gotta love mechanical shutters) and there’s still the issue of the three stuck batteries.
