I've had both but sold the f100 I still have 3 F4s what I always liked about the F4 was how easy it is to use proper shutter speed dial and aperture, you dont even need instructions to use one. I always felt that the f100 compared to the f4 and f5 was not built as well. Why not stick to Canon if you have canon lenses I recently bought a boxed as new Eos 3 for £75 and two Eos 1v for about £150 each, and they are really well made and far more up to date than an F4 but similar price secondhand.
Mostly because I want to play with a system I haven't used before. The Elan I'm currently using is fine and I really don't
need any more capability, I'm just looking to find a new toy.
Let me put in a word for the Minolta Maxum (Dynax) 7 - the last film camera from Minolta. it is a rather compact and reasonably light camera. Has a VERY good and nice to use viewfinder (check the specs, but I believe it is larger than on F100) and decent AF. The lenses I have chance to use it with (28/2.0, 50/1.4, 100/2.8 macro & 70-210/4) all are from very good to perfect.
If you want tougher model that have a look into Minolta Maxum 9. My friend has one - the camera is truly nice - heavy, solid, fast AF. If you want to change the focusing screen in the 7 you need to have it done by a service, on the 9 you can do it yourself.
I have never used the Nikon and I would guess that it may have more sophisticated light metering, but is also much bigger.
One more note on the Minolta 7. Minolta 7D - first DLSR from Minolta (I have one) was based on the film model, is actually much worse than the film 7. Buggy AF, easy to fool metering (the matrix is useless on the 7D).
Now more praise about the viewfinder of the 7. The viewfinder of the 7D is one of the largest once available for DX cameras (quite a bit larger than the low end DX DSLRs today) - but still the viewfinder of the 7 is sooo much nicer (& larger) to use. Actually the only camera that had larger viewfinder than the 7 was Olympus OM-1 we had for a while. Also - my wife wears glasses and has no issues to use the the camera (with glasses on).
*****
Still - you did not mention what is the main use for your SLR gear - AF & long lenses, macro, low light, or you mostly live with manual focus ... ?
Matus, thanks for the discussion of the Maxxum. The main stuff I use my SLR for is the few things I find tough to do with my RFs: Macro and tele. And in both of those things, I tend to use manual focus--for macro photos, I mostly use my LTM lenses an a LTM39 to EOS adapter and for anything longer than 300mm, I have an Arax 500mm mirror lens and a P-6 to EOS adapter.
I do carry the Elan with either the 19-35 or the 50 as a general purpose camera, most often when I have film in it that I don't have in my Bessas.
Ended up selling both and bought an N6006 and an N8008s for about $50 for the two. Those were great cameras, and smaller and lighter than the bigger pro SLR's. Both have good finders and spot and matrix metering. The N8008s was pretty much the equal of an F100, and took cheap AA batteries too. Since I wear bifocals I understand your priority for a good finder. You might want to invest a small amount of money in the cameras I mentioned just to see if they meet your needs. They worked perfectly for me, and one of my favorite things to do was to shoot my Leica R lenses on the N6006 w/ an inexpensive adapter. Just watching the shutter speeds run up and down while I changed the aperture was worth the 8 bucks I paid for the camera from KEH. The auto exposure was right on the money w/ the Leitz glass.
My favorite AF Nikon is the N8008s. It is because of the viewfinder: I can easily see all the information with my thick glasses. An N8008s runs about $25 these days. Mine was a lot more bought 20 years ago. For the same money as an X-Large Pizza with everything on it, you might try it.
Steve, Frank, and Brian, Thanks for the suggestion about the N8008s. I hadn't really thought about that camera; my idle musing about this was "well, I've always wanted an F3 but they are getting a bit long in the tooth and I am starting to really appreciate auto focus, so what's the next generation pro Nikon going for?"...After some checking, I decided that the F5 or F6 are above my budget but the F4 and F100 are do-able.
Rob,
FWIW, I prefer Maxxum 7 to Nikon F100 in terms of handling and control. They are toe-to-toe in regards to VF if I recall correctly.
But Nikon lenses are more plentiful and I can use old Ai Nikkor lenses, I can't use the Rokkors with the Maxxum.
Shadowfox, I do like the ability to use old (read: cheap-ish!) lenses on newer bodies.
Rob, have you considered a used F5?
Francisco and Filmfan, I would be happy to consider the F5 but they seem to go for a bit more than my budget can stand!
Lots of good stuff in this thread, folks! As I mentioned in my OP, I'm not in any hurry and so can take my time and
just maybe I'll be able to get to NYC to actually handle these before I buy.
Much appreciated,
Rob
