Simply the best 35mm manual focus SLR, EVER
Written: Aug 28 '03 (Updated Feb 10 '04)
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Pros: Extremely high quality, smooth handling, many options
Cons: Heavy, LCD readout light
The Bottom Line: If you don't want the camera to make all of the decisions, you simply cannot get any better than this at any price.
My HIGHEST Recommendation
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| lawman67's Full Review: Nikon F3HP Film Camera |
Until around 1987 I was what you might call an intermediate amateur photographer. Intermediate in that I knew many so-called rules about photography, such as how both F-stop and focal length affect depth of field, as a good example. My photographs were well exposed, I used the correct lens for a given subject (eg. Short telephoto for portraits) and I developed and printed my work (black and white) in the small darkroom which doubled as a full-size bathroom in my parents' house.
Parents' house should be the tip-off, as in 1987 I was 20-years-old, and that is essentially when I gave up photography, after a 10 year fascination with making pictures and the equipment used to do so. What I lacked at that young age was experience, patience and an understanding that even common subjects could be photographed with amazing results. I was simply more into the process than the result, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Fast forward a decade and a half and I found that my photographic equipment had been reduced from my 1987 kit of 2 SLRs and five lenses (4 primes and a zoom) to a digital point-and-shoot (Canon PowerShot S200 Digital Elph). I really enjoy that digital camera and take it with me almost everywhere I go, however I have found myself looking back fondly on the way I used to take pictures and the options my old equipment opened, then going on to consider how I could turn the things around me every day into works of art. An ulterior motive is my 9-year-old daughter, who is at almost the age I was when my father gave me my first SLR.
So, with visions of teaching my daughter the joys of photography and getting back in to a hobby that we can share, I bought a camera outfit that would have cost more than my car back in 1987 (it was a cheap car). That outfit consists of the well-used Nikon F3HP reviewed here, a like-new Nikon FM2n, a pair of like-new Kiron zoom lenses (28-105 and 80-200) and three prime lenses (Nikon Series E 28mm f2.8, Nikon Series E 50mm f1.8 and Nikon Series E 100mm f2.8 - anyone selling a nice 24mm f2.8 Nikkor let me know). Top it all off with a tripod, a flash, a few filters (polarizing and red) and a decent bag, and I'm ready to hit the streets with my daughter and teach her the basics.
As this review is of the F3HP camera, I'll get right to my particular example, which will be the camera my daughter starts on. I'll move her to the FM2n as soon as she gets the basics of depth of field and focal length and is ready to learn about exposure, until then the F3's AE mode can take care of proper exposure. My F3HP appears to be rather well-used, with obvious, but not excessive brassing under the strap rings, along the edges of the top plate, and from the look of the rubber-like material on the finger grip, this camera has spent a lot of time being held and manipulated. In addition, there are a few minor marks on the shutter curtains, but no light leaks and speeds are all accurate. Finally, the foam seals at the back and in the mirror box appear brand-new, as do the focusing screen and mirror. In short, this camera while cosmetically unimpressive, is in outstanding user condition. I wasn't planning on splurging on an F3 (I went out to buy an FE), but once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. As there seems to be a glut of used F3s in the Los Angeles area, I picked it up for $350, which considering that new F3s are still available and cost well over $1000, I consider this a good deal.
My old camera equipment was Minolta, and back in 1987 I owned an SR-T 200 (purchased new in 1979), an X-570 purchased new in 1984, and while it wasn't mine, I had virtually unlimited access to my father's Minolta X-700. While I liked the speed of the newer models' automatic exposure (aperture priority in the X-570 was always good enough for me), I preferred the solid metal construction of my all-manual SR-T. The camera wasn't particularly comfortable to hold due to its large and angular proportions, however there was a level of mechanical honesty about it that made it a real pleasure to use.
Compared to my old gear, the F3 is a revelation. People complain that the flash sync speed (1/80th sec) is slow, however my old cameras all were limited to 1/60th sec and I do very little flash work anyway. In all other respects, the F3 is simply a delight. My favorite feature is the "High Eyepoint" finder. I wear glasses about half of the time, my vision being adequate for anything except driving. The F3HP allows me to see everything in the viewfinder, whether I'm wearing my glasses or not. In addition, that viewfinder shows virtually 100% of the image that will be captured on film, which is far better than the 88-93% most "consumer" cameras show. For both teaching and learning about composition, I consider this a very significant feature and is yet another reason why I'm glad to start my daughter out on such a quality camera.
Of course, being an "F" camera, that viewfinder and the focusing screen are interchangeable. I fitted an "E" screen with gridlines in my F3, though I doubt I'll be spending the high-cost of accessory finders. Also, the F3 accepts a particularly fast motordrive, but once again, for what I do manual wind is actually better.
The only complaint I have is from my daughter's perspective, which is that the F3 is neither small nor lightweight. A 9-year-old won't want to carry an F3 around all day, and the controls and frame are a bit large for her 9-year-old hands, but on a tripod those problems vanish, and though large, she is able to hand hold it without too much fumbling.
How does it perform? Come on, its an F3. For my average adult male hands, the camera fits as though it were custom built for me. Controls are intuitively placed and everything falls readily to hand. In addition, everything feels good, from the tightness of the shutter speed dial to the ball-bearing smoothness of the film advance lever, it just feels exquisite, despite the well-worn appearance. It is also smooth and quiet compared to the FM2n, perhaps smooth enough to let me handhold 1/30th sec instead of my old 1/60th limit (I'll find out when my first role of slides comes back).
Now for what I don't like. The little red button that turns on the viewfinder light is just as useless as the light itself. Sure, it works, but its hardly necessary and it takes such hard pressure on such a tiny button that I find it easier (when not on a tripod) to just point the camera at something brighter to read the LCD. The LCD itself is my other complaint. While the LCD on my camera works perfectly and has decent contrast, the nature of the display itself isn't as intuitive as the meter needle in say an FE or the new FM3a. In automatic mode, if merely shows the shutter speed the camera selects for your chosen aperture. In manual, an M appears, along with "+" and "-" symbols indicating over or under exposure. When the exposure is correct, the "+" and "-" are both in view. It works well enough and is just as simple as the "+", "-", "0" in my FM2n, but being an LCD it doesn't stand out as well as the LEDs in the other camera. Still, I would prefer a simple needle, or at least a bright LED.
The other quirk which is shared with the older F2 and F cameras is that there is no hot shoe on the prism. I bought the little adapter that sits over the rewind crank rather than spending on the dedicated Nikon speedlight. With the correct flash, the F3 offers modern TTL flash metering, though I cannot comment on this as I only have a generic Vivitar 283.
I consider this to be about as close to manual focus perfection as a camera can get. Sure, I would prefer a different exposure readout, but the LCD doesn't really interfere in my operation of the camera. Some may wish for more AE modes, but again I find aperture-priority AE more than sufficient on a manual focus camera. In short, this is an extremely high-quality piece of equipment that on the used market represents a terrific bargain. Of course its overkill for a 9-year-old, but hey, in a year or so she'll be ready for the FM2n and then the F3 will be all mine, at least until she asks nicely to permanently borrow it.
***Update 9/10/03***
Well, I've had the F3 for about three months and have shot perhaps 10 rolls of film through it. I had to raise the price I paid by $100, because that is what it cost me to have a problem with the AI metering ring repaired. The ring was sticking a bit, which didn't cause much problem, however what was a problem was that it would only follow a lens' AI prong up to about f2, nothing wider. Now, with the glass I own this isn't much of a problem (my fastest lens is the 50mm f1.8 E), but ever the perfectionist, I just had to have it repaired.
Other than the minor problem, the camera is perfect. I left the FM2n home when I went on my summer trip tp Korea and used only the F3 with the 28mm and 100mm lenses. I got a few snickers from a snobby guy with an F5 who started walking up to me when he saw the F3, but turned away when he saw the Series E telephoto attached. Of course, he didn't see the incredible images that came from that lens.
The F3 was an absolute delight on that trip. I used it in heavy rain, from the deck of a small boat, in hot sunlight and even in a room full of 9-year-old girls, which can be a very hazardous environment. The pictures were, with VERY FEW exceptions, beautifully exposed and tack sharp.
I shot mostly Kodak's TCN Chromagenic black and white film on this trip, though I also shot a roll of Kodachrome 64. Even the narrow-latitude slide film came out exactly as I wanted it to, each shot metered perfectly and only one bad slide, which was entirely my fault for thinking in P&S instead of semi-spot-meter mode.
Most of the time I left the F3 on automatic and used the convenient AE lock to meter my shots. I really prefer aperture priority over other auto modes on the newer cameras as it lets me decide what the picture will look like. I took a lot of portraits, both of friends and relatives and of strangers doing their daily routines, and the F3 was a natural for this type of shooting. The LCD display always told me what the shutter speed was, so I knew if I needed to open up the lens when camera shake would be a problem, but unless it dropped below 1/60th of a second, I had total latitude to make my aperture choice solely based on how much, or how little depth of field I desired. Perhaps the best photograph I took was a head-and-shoulder portrait of my two-year-old niece playing. She looked up briefly at me and I snapped the shot using the 100mm lens wide open. It is a black and white photograph, and the rather unattractive room she was in is reduced to a mystic-looking gray fog. This is in contrast to the subject herself, who I might say is extremely beautiful and captured in exquisite sharpness and detail. I am sending the negative to a professional lab to be enlarged to 16X20, it came out that well.
I've gone out a few times on picture expeditions since my trip and usually take the FM2n with the standard lens. Its a more care-free and spontaneous camera, despite lacking the speed of automation. That is the one area where the F3 suffers compared to cameras like the FM and FE series, it is large and heavy. That size and weight are reassuring when out on a serious shoot, but when wandering the grounds of museum with the family, it can be a bit much.
In closing, I think what I like most about the F3 is the way the camera really brings out the best of my talent (however much or little of that there is). It never is in the way like some modern marvels can be with their LCD menus and function dials, but it is also always ready, unlike a manual camera. The controls are luxurious and the function is simply perfect. While there are individual features from the FM3a I would like to graft onto the F3, I still believe that taken as a package, the F3 remains without equal. Not for every job, most certainly, but for the serious or wanna-be serious photographer, it would be very hard to do better than a Nikon F3HP.
***Update 9/29/03***
I went online (KEH Camera Exchange) and bought the companion SB-12 speedlight for the F3 at a very reasonable $37. While the slow 1/80th sec flash sync speed is very limiting when the camera is loaded with ISO 400 film, I took it out with Ilford Delta 100 (B&W) loaded and found that even outdoors I had considerable latitude in my choice of apertures for outdoor fill flash.
I also would like to take back any criticism of the unusual flash mount other than the minor inconvenience of having to remove the speedlight to rewind and change film. When used with a speedlight made for it, the F3's flash shoe is infinitely more secure than the standard ISO hotshoe on other cameras. While I will keep my AS4 shoe adapter for when I need either the bounce or reach of my Vivitar 283, I consider that a temporary solution until I can get my hands on an SB-16 with ISO and F3 bases.
I also got back my first prints shot with the F3 since the repair, though the pictures were perfect even before. The 80% center weighted metering really works the way I do, resulting in not a single over or under exposure in my entire 36 exposure roll of Delta 100, including some daylight and indoor fill-flash shots. One of which, taken with teh 100mm f2.8 series E lens was just blown up to 16X20 with incredible results.
This remains the most delightful camera I have ever used, and will be with me for a very long time.
*** Update 02/10/04 ***
Well I've had my F3 for the better part of a year now, and along with my series E 50 and 100mm lenses, it remains as the only part of my initial outfit that I've kept. that is the problem with buying gear based on 20-year-old memories; my photography is different than it used to be. I've found that now I shoot mostly people, and also really enjoy shooting distant cityscapes and isolating elements of architecture out of an broader scene.
I gave the FM2n to my daughter and sold the two Kiron zooms to get a small and light Tamron which replaces both. I've also divided my photography into two categories; serious and casual, with seperate equipment for each, though for true photographic expeditions I throw my casual body (Nikon FM3a) and lens into my serious bag.
The F3HP has become the cornerstone of my serious outfit, and all of the design elements that delighted me last year, have only strengthened my appreciation for this amazing camera. Its 100% viewfinder coverage, 1" eyepoint and outstanding ergonomics help the camera to simply disappear, aallowing me to focus on the subject and how I want to ccapture it. The F3 is a natural extension of my mind and hands, and that is perhaps the highest praise I can give.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 350 used
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Solid Enough for a Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
lawman67
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 in Computer Hardware |
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Member: Andrew F
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 189
Trusted by: 64 members
About Me:
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say.
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