Travel Stories

Nikonians Remember Merlin

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The late Mike Graham, a.k.a. Merlin, was himself a resource, a no-nonsense hardcore passionate fan of Nikon and a true friend. And not just of us, but of anyone who sought his comments or advice.

Mike Graham, also known as Merlin, R.I.P.

With the authority of a well seasoned pro, with almost 20 years of professional experience, a self-proclaimed dinosaur, he wrote: "I actually made a conscious decision to go with Nikon. I don’t want to knock the competition. I’ve tried just about everything else - Olympus, Minolta, Canon and all the rest, but there is something about the feeling you get when handling professional Nikon bodies and lenses that says:

I’m built for a lifetime of hard use, for any situation you’ll ever meet, and I’ll never, never let you down. You might scratch me and bend me, but you can’t break me. You can take me out in the rain, you can drop me off your desk, or you can cross the Sahara with me around your neck. There is no photograph that I can’t take for you. I will still function perfectly when you’re long gone and forgotten. In twenty years, somebody will pay more for me than I costed new. I am a Nikon, the finest 35mm camera ever built!"

We sure miss him.

In his memory, we are preserving here three of his short articles on specific cameras he owned and loved dearly:

The Nikon F3

The Nikon EM

The Nikkormat FT3

and of course his first contribution to Nikonians, the much liked Merlin Stick, a story that needs to be told:

A Nikonian was going to Paris and a visit to the Louvre was scheduled but this chap knew that tripods were forbidden inside. So he posted the question. Merlin immediately went out of his way to test an idea. Bought a large cane and a small ballhead, drilled the cane and presented us with the article, The Merlin Stick, a solution to a fellow Nikonian he never met in person and whom now he never will.
That and much more is who Merlin was.