Nikon F5 35mm Film Camera

Pros: Speed, custom features, OUTSTANDING metering! Incredibly versatile!
Cons: Weight, initial cost to purchase.

The already legendary Nikon F5, the film SLR flagship is a 35 mm film camera without peer. Designed by Nikon engineers to be the standard bearer for the company before digital SLRs became so advanced and prolific, this 35 mm masterpiece is now just a ...

Pros: Built, 3D Color Matrix Meter, Operations, Handling, Performance, FAST!
Cons: Heavy, Expensive?

The Nikon F5, as its numeral indicates, is the fifth generation of the legendary Nikon F series, with the first F appeared over 40 years ago (in the summer of 1959). Each of the F series, spanning from manual focus (F, F2, F3) to autofocus (F4, ...)...

Pros: Workhorse, good ergonomics, great photos
Cons: Heavy, expensive, complex

The Nikon F5 is the camera that Nikon's engineers created to be the cornerstone of the company's twenty-first century product line. A product line that hopes to blend pro models, amateur models, and digital cameras into a seamless family of imaging...

Pros: a superb machine, built like a tank
Cons: tanks are heavy

NIKON F5—The finest SLR on the planet

Product review by Frank Van Riper
Professional photographer, author, and photography columnist of The Washington Post

Engineered from the ground up to go against its competitors in the...

Pros: Tough, exposure is right on in any condition, comfortable, inexpensive for the features & quality
Cons: Heavy, but it's basically a laptop in a camera for just under 3 lbs!

I'm not going to bother you with the "features", you can read about them elsewhere. Let's get right to my experiences, mainly in ANTARCTICA with this camera that ended up being mostly a NIGHTMARE on equipment. I wanted a camera that could judge...

Pros: Every function possible and more
Cons: Eats batteries

Just a couple of weeks after the F5 was introduced I started my research on it and decided to drop nearly $3,000 for the body. I must say, this was one of the best photographic moves I have made in 35mm.

The camera offers all the bells and...

Pros: totally reliable, solid, autofocus speed, very reliable metering
Cons: sort of heavy, not designed for everyone

I'm a professional newspaper shooter and this camera is my day-in, day-out workhorse. I had been an 2 camera N90s user until one of my camera bodies was rendered unusable in a drop. Sinse the body was insured, I made the move up to the F5. I still...

Pros: Matrix metering, Matrix flash with D lenses, solid as a rock
Cons: Some of the custom settings are confusing to use, some are worthless

The Nikon F5 is the king of the hill when it comes to Professional cameras. With a Matrix metering system that is so good I have never, repeat never questioned it and all of my shots are perfect. Using an SB-28 flash with a Nikon D lenses takes all of...

Pros: Build Quality, Weather Proofing, Excellent Metering
Cons: I wish the focus area brackets in the viewfinder illuminated in red

I purchased the F5 more than a year ago and this is what I think. I take better pictures with the F5, let me clarify, at an air show, while whale watching and of course all the people shots I would have missed if it were not for the speed of the auto ...

Pros: Superb tool for the professional and serious amateur photographer, a solid performer under any conditions
Cons: It is a heavy lump of metal, particularly when matched to heavy glass

I've owned an F series camera since 1975, the first being an F2, the second the F5 which I bought over 3 years ago. F Series cameras are built to last and they do indeed last. I seriously doubted that I needed to upgrade the 30+ year old F2 until I...

Pros: Fast, accurate, and reliable
Cons: Black autofocus indicators are bad in low light. Heavy.

...so I bought two of them!

The first thing I need to say about this camera is that I totally trust the RGB metering system. For my style of shooting (fashion, concerts, sports) it has never let me down. This allows me to shoot faster because...

Pros: focus, trick view finder
Cons: weight, size

They thought of everything, and then some. This camera encompasses everything a photographer could possibly want out of a camera. The first drawback, price, is obvious. But another drawback which ultimatly made me decide against this camera is the...

Pros: fast, accurate and reliable
Cons: high cost, but worth it

I have used the F5 for three months in some very dangerous and hectic conditions. I work for a daily newspaper in the South Central Kentucky region, the Bowling Green Daily News, and have covered structure fires, police shootouts, accidents, sports,...

Pros: Speed, size quality feel
Cons: price, battery usage

In the constantly changing world of 35mm cameras the Nikon F5 remains King. With the introduction of Nikon's new F100 camera many felt that this would be the beginning of the end of the F5. Sorry folks it was a nice filler but its can't compete against...

Pros: Ergonomics, custom functions, build quality
Cons: Price

I bought this camera as an upgrade from my Nikon FE. I felt that Nikon now has autofocus technology that was useful. I used to own the Nikon N2020, one of the first autofocus cameras that Nikon made. Unfortunately, the autofocus system on the N2020 was...