The closest to "perfect" you can expect froma Nikon body
Written: Jun 25 '05 (Updated Jun 27 '05)
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Pros: Too many to list. It's tough to ask for more from a 35mm camera.
Cons: AF is "slow" with non AF-S optics.
The Bottom Line: The bottom line is that this is probably the most feature packed and arguably the most "perfect" camera Nikon has made.
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| bogrod's Full Review: Nikon F4s Film Camera |
Wow - where could I possibly start when doing a review of this camera body? I guess I can only relate my own personal buying decisions with this particular camera.
I went from a Nikon FA (which finally gave up the ghost) and I had to make a long and hard decision about where I was going to go from there in terms of a camera body. I had a few requirements.
One being that I had grown use to matrix metering with my manual focus glass. That was something that I really, really did not want to give up. My other requirement was that I wanted something that had autofocus capability (certainly not a big priority for me). Thirdly, I wanted something that had mirror lockup. And finally I also wanted spot metering. Basically, it got down to the F4. The F5 was certainly a contender but at the time I really wasn't interested in plunking down that kind of cash for a body.
It's one thing to hear people wax poetic about using one of the F bodies. If you've never used one before, you might think that those people are perhaps influenced by the allure of a "status item". But once you've hit your finger on the shutter release of something like the F4, you will then know what they are talking about. I watched this happen with a friend of mine (who has used a 6006 for years) after he took his first exposure.
There is virtually no vibration from mirror-slap. Nikon integrated a shutter balancer device that counter-balances the "shutter bounce" movement of the gears within the shutter system. Plus, the mirror box movement is so well dampened.
The viewfinder: A delight. To some photographers who haven't had much experience with using a variety of bodies, they may never know the advantage of a good viewfinder. The finder in the F4 is clear and bright. On manual mode you can see in the range of +2 EV over and -2 EV under the "correct" exposure (which isn't available on other bodies) and the camera also has Aperture Direct Readout (something I also got use to with the manual cameras like my FA) which means you can see the selected aperture even with manual glass.
Nikon F finders also have the advantage of being manufactured from a real block of optical glass. That helps immesurably with viewfinder brightness and clarity. The F finders are also free of distortions (in most of the other bodies there is a degree of pincushion distortion put in to compensate for the typical barrel distortion in wideangles) And what is truly unique is that all of the F finders have 100% coverage. So what you see in the viewfinder is exactly how it will be framed on the 35mm negative.
The other advantage to this camera over the F5 is that it comes with three seperate power winders. The F4 was sold in the US under the F4s configuration, which had the MB-21 motor drive attachment. I use the F4 with the MB-20, which gives a smaller "profile" and lowers the weight and bulk a bit (while only really sacrificing one frame per second at the fastest film-advance speed) but photographers wishing or needing fast film advance can go with the F4s or e configurations.
This camera has a number of other nice touches: DX coding, viewfinder blind, the aforementioned mirror lockup (which is good when you want to take macro shots in the shutter speed area of 1 second to 1/15th of a second) and depth of field preview. Multiple exposure is onboard. You have the choice of manual or auto rewind. There is exposure and autofocus lock switches. The F4s and e configurations have a vertical shutter release button (nothing I really benefit from). The F4 like all pro F-series cameras except the F6 have additional prisms available (the best of these is the DW-21 "chiney" finder for macro work - nice with an "M" screen).
There is just way too many good things to say about this camera. It has virtually everyhing that you could ask from a 35mm camera, except for its one real bad quality: The AF is nowhere near what modern technology has produced. Some consider it to be slow, and while I can certainly see where they are coming from, I think the autofocus in the F4 is fine for basically anything outside of sports or extreme fast action.
The real irony to this situation is that the software in the F4 can drive the new AF-S motors inside Nikon's newest AF lenses. (on a side note, the F4 can also drive the very rare AF lenses from the short-lived F3AF line) So if you are interested in fast autofocus, the F4 will not leave you behind if you are willing to invest in one of the new AF-S lenses.
How did this happen? When the F4 was released, Nikon's engineers were already looking to the future. There is mention of the F4 having technology integrated into it for future Nikon products in the brochure.
This review also lists "ease of use" as an area of rating. The F4 also has to be one of the simplest cameras to operate. All of the functions on the camera come in very large, clear, and color-coded dials. There are no funny sub-command functions or dials to spin to get to whoknowswhere. Of course the camera has the added advantage of being very ergonomically designed, and fits easily into the hands.
I think that this camera body is a fantastic value for $500 USD. Certainly a better choice than so many other camera bodies on the used camera market.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $500
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Solid Enough for a Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
bogrod
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Reviews written: 17
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