Part 1:

So, long story short, my neighbor had an uncle who was a pro photographer and also a camera collector, and the uncle passed away a couple of years ago. His apparently massive collection of cameras and goodies was left to his kin, who picked through it and claimed all the really cool large format cameras, medium formats, antiques, etc.. What was left was a box of miscellaneous cameras, lenses, and other stuff that nobody had taken and nobody wanted. My neighbor, knowing that I'm into photography, brought the box over to my house one day last summer and said "Here - if you want any of it you can have it, if you don't want it throw it away or sell it off somehow"..

Inside the box, wrapped in old newspaper, were several Nikon F's, an F2, a couple of F3's, motor-drives, lenses, and camera cases and other assorted stuff. Yeah, I know I'm lucky (sometimes). I've been using one of the F3's ever since, and the rest I cleaned up, tested as best I could, and stored them in ziplocks in the safe. I finally decided to get them out and take a few pics using.....

Part 2:
I finally decided to get off my ass and whip up a cheapo light tent. I've been meaning to for ages, and I'm planning on selling off a bunch of stuff on eBay this spring so I got to it. I built a simple frame out of scrap PVC (I did have to buy a couple of fittings, total investment under $2). I used poster board for the shooting surface and draped a clean sheet over the frame for a diffuser. For lights I used a couple of clip lights with 125W rated CFL bulbs. Simple and cheap - under $20 for everything (I already had the clip lights).

Anyway, here are the very first two shots. I did have to adjust WB in the camera, but that was cake with my D300. Lens is the kit 18-200. So far the learning curve has involved aperture settings mostly. I'm sure many more challenges await on other subject matter. I'll post some pics of the tent itself in a while.

Awesome score. How about a shot of the light tent?

Here's a few shots of the tent. As you can see, the white balance on the camera is set for the lamps, not the flash.  I didn't even bother to glue the pvc together. The back drop is attached to the frame with a little bit of tape.  I'm claiming extra credit for using a couple of old Guat .223 ammo crates for light mounts.

A couple of old F's..

Thanks. Those are some clean looking old nikons!

Played around with it a little more. This is the F3 that I've been actually using. I think I need more/better lights. More at the very least...