01.15
Hey, the F works!
A guy at Action Camera took a look at it and with some minor additional cleaning and a fresh set of batteries the motor spun for the most part fine. “It just needs to work out some.”
So work it out I did. I shot some from the bluffs above the Old Fair Oaks bridge and I discovered what I think is an F-ism:
As you depress the shutter release (the main one, not the motor-drive ones) the mirror pops up, then the shutter fires. If you depress the shutter release button slowly, as you would pull the trigger on a rifle, you reach the point where you lift the mirror but haven’t yet fired the shutter. Then as you keep pressing the shutter fires and the mirror drops.
It’s a disjointing feeling as I wasn’t all together expecting it and I wasn’t sure it was only the mirror being slow and not the shutter. I shot a lot of frames twice. 
Shooting without a meter is fun by the way, f/8 and be there. I found that I can make use of the spot meter in my D80 and then… um bracket. Seems to work pretty well .
Every now and then the motor misses a beat or just locks up. Keeping it in single mode side steps this for the most part.
Addendum: a co-worker who owns several F’s pointed out, “you’re not shooting in “H” (high-speed) mode are you? You’re supposed to have the mirror locked up in that mode.” Oh, oops. Motor works fine now.
