Nikon F4 Press

[stevierose]

I just read a post on one of the FB camera groups I am part of with a photo of a Nikon F4 Press (F4p) Camera which is supposed to be very rare and has extra shutter spores including 350 and 700. Does anyone have one or know how many were made?

 

[Huss]

Wow had to look that up! Never heard of it until now. Wonder why it needs those extra speeds?

 

[Fjäll]

I had one last year. It supposedly had better weather sealing than the standard model. I ended up settling for an F5 instead. Didn't pay much more for it than the standard F4.

 

[Huss]

"..traded the 4 second and 2 second shutter speeds in exchange for additional manual shutter settings of 1/350 and 1/750."

as per Ken Rockwell.

 

[Colin Corneau]

I worked in press photography for 25 years...never needed 350th or 750th..am I missing something?

The standard F4 was built like a tank. Fantastic underrated camera, and the subsequent F5 was even better.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I worked in press photography for 25 years...never needed 350th or 750th..am I missing something?

The standard F4 was built like a tank. Fantastic underrated camera, and the subsequent F5 was even better.

I wonder why anyone would want those speeds, too. I had an F4 for a long time, and the weather sealing on the normal version was great. I used to take it out in heavy rain with no problems.

 

[Pál_K]

Those speeds would make sense to me only if they operated without batteries or if the batteries became too weak.

 

[Noserider]

The addition of those speeds was specifically for sports photographers who often needed those in between steps for low light sports footage, think gymnastics and basketball. Just a smidge faster than 1/250 and 1/500 which would reduce the apparent subject motion blur a bit more without going a full shutter stop. Remember that when the F4 was in professional use even 1600 ISO film for color print film was "fast" and most pro's were using Fujichrome 400 pushed 1 stop or dare I say it ( I dare I dare!!) Kodachrome 200 pushed 1 1/3 to 500 ISO. I had to send to A&I Labs for that level of Kodachrome push back then..

 

[Noserider]

The addition of those speeds was specifically for sports photographers who often needed those in between steps for low light sports footage, think gymnastics and basketball. Just a smidge faster than 1/250 and 1/500 which would reduce the apparent subject motion blur a bit more without going a full shutter stop. Remember that when the F4 was in professional use even 1600 ISO film for color print film was "fast" and most pro's were using Fujichrome 400 pushed 1 stop or dare I say it ( I dare I dare!!) Kodachrome 200 pushed 1 1/3 to 500 ISO. I had to send to A&I Labs for that level of Kodachrome push back then..