The best AF film SLRs

I think.. the best, with the latest AF electronics would be a Nikon F6. Price wise, and weight wise.. an F 100 would be my choice. If you get an F100, be sure to get one with the "later" rewind fork..
 
Number one, F6, hands down, the most advanced 35mm film camera there will ever be. No Action Finder or 6x finder though.

F4, for its conventional control layout and versatility with all kinds of lenses.

F100, for all the reasons given above.

Then, the F5, rounding out this select group. Unbelievably capable body that can be used to split logs, but it's power hungry and as big as a medium format camera.
 
If price is no object the F6 is absurdly good. The F100 is terrific for the money.

The F6 is the one SLR I won't be parting with, ever.

Someone mentioned the Contax Aria above, it's my favorite light SLR as well. Great glass too :)
 
I guess F6 is the best , would like to have it .
I have and used an F5 a lot , very good .
I have an F4s also , nice controls but AF is a bit slow , maybe I'll use it with Zeiss primes in the future .

Canonwise it's the eos 1v , my guess 'cause I never had one .

http://www.etiennemichiels.com
 
My N8008s is my favorite Af camera. "it just is".

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And it puts real meaning into the phrase "Coming back from Digital".

You can find them for ~$25 these days.
 
I use an F4s only with my manual focus primes. My one AF lens, a 50f1.8, lives on my 8008s/801s.
 
I've always liked the Nikons. Canon AF cameras were too plasticey and didn't feel right in my hands, although the optics were excellent.

Nikon N6006. You can buy them for $15 now, and they have one of the all time great sounding shutter/motor advances ever. Ka Ching! I had one w/ a Leica R Summicron on it and it was by far the best R camera I ever shot with. Metering worked perfectly in aperture priority stop down mode.

Nikon N8008s. Excellent metering, quiet shutter, great viewfinder, shutter speed to 1/8000, and takes AA batteries. Usually go for $25 to $50. What's not to love?

Nikon N80. Small, light, quietest SLR shutter I ever heard (or not heard). Very well damped. Usual great Nikon metering. Only it's smallish viewfinder bothered me. $40 now.

Nikon F4 and F4s. What can I say? What a great camera! But reeeelly heavy and big. $100 and up now.
 
An amazing SLR body, manual focus: Contax RX. Gorgeous, well-built. Integrated winder. Great lenses. Feels like a real camera.

AF: I love my F100. I had an F6 for a while, and it IS better. But, unless you have both in-hand at the same time, you'll likely not feel that the F100 is lacking in any way. I don't miss the F6 at all now. The F100 may even be 'better' in one important aspect. It's not nearly so precious. I'll stick it in a beach bag and not worry. The F6 i always wanted to keep pristine, and having that LCD on the back just made me need/want to handle it a bit more gingerly. Both are built 'tough,' of course.

I still have an EOS 3. It's still fantastic, although i don't love the way it looks. But, it still uses the best AF lenses. 35L, 50L or 1.4, 85L or 1.8, 135L —*all amazing.

All that said, the camera i am most in love with at the moment is the Nikon FE2. Feels more like 'photography' than the F100 or EOS. More like what a Leica M felt like, except with a viewfinder i actually LIKE. With a 50mm/1.8 Series E on it, it's as small as the M7 or Ikon i used to have, and i like that little $50 lens as much or more than any Leica lens i've owned.

I had an F4 for a while, too. Nice, but maybe a bit too big? I think i got one after having an F100, but only because i wanted to try the waistlevel finder. That experiment didn't prove to be as valuable as i had hoped, though.

[Oops — i got so involved in the reminiscing that i forgot this was supposed to be about AF cams.... Sorry.]
 
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I'd have to sit in the Minolta camp as that is where my EVIL GAS ended before I found RFF- though I went through early Nikon AF too.

I have..er..."several" Min AF lenses still. Such wonderful glass.

Choosing a favourite is difficult. Probably the 9xi, as some of my best photo experiences were had using it backpacking through South America for 5 months.

The 9xi was quite technical and not all the functions were stright to hand. I like it's potential for multi-spot metering a la the OM4 with the expansion card, the dust and weatherproofing off camera flash system etc.

I like the Dynax /Maxxum 9 for it's sheer ruggedness,100% VF and return to a more user friendly interface.Very solid camera.

I like the 7 for the smaller ligher weight and histogram display on the rear LCD.

And the original 9000 as an MF camera though my F4 is nicer to use with MF Nikkors.
 
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I'll vote for a few here. Canon EOS 3 and 5, Contax N1, Nikon F100, Pentax MZ-S.
The EOS 5 is very cheap nowadays and does everything you could want it to. The only real disadvantage is that the battery doesn't last so long. I got 2 of them (an EOS A2E and an A2) for 22 bucks plus shipping. The command dials were broken, which I fixed the day they arrived. They have worked perfectly since then.
 
F4 - is the slowest of the bunch, but the build quality is off the scale.
Nice camera for people who like to shoot a mix of manual and AF lenses.

F100 - the biggest AF bargain around.

F5 - Great, but in many ways the F100 is the better cameras... But it does suck down batteries at an alarming rate...

F6 - Probably the best AF film camera ever. Blazing fast, good size, modern RGB matrix metering etc.


Canon 1-v
If you can life with the Canon ergonomics its pretty damn hard to beat.
The HS model will hit up to 10fps. Worked for James Nachtwey...
 
Pherdinand said:
by far the minolta dynax7, i'd say :p:p
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Y'know, I bought a Maxxum 7 + VG7 grip with two lenses locally once.

Just by selling one of the lenses, I already recouped half of my cost. I kept the body and the 24-100mm (? don't remember exactly) lens around and shot some nice photos.

I *really* like the controls and how the camera handles. More so than my spartan EOS 1n.

Eventually I sold it to get a Schneider large format lens. Kinda missed it.
 
Roger Hicks said:
But how many of us have actually tried very many AF SLRs? Both, let us say, Canon and Nikon? Because the truth is that actually, most of the half decent ones are pretty good, if you like that sort of thing. I had a Pentax that I tried to mistreat -- including soaking it in salt-water spray on the sea-front in a winter storm -- and it just went on working
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Between working as a news photographer in the dying days of film, reviewing cameras for magazines and periodically working in a store that sells a lot of used cameras I tried just about all the prosumer and professional AF film SLRs.

One thing I noticed was that autofocus made very few improvements in accuracy over the life of these film cameras; it wasn't until digital and instant feedback that issues like consistent mis-focusing, lack of ability to calibrate individual cameras, sample variation etc were even written about. Curvature of field and focus shift in lenses, too. The manufacturers got away for a long time with the processing delay covering up a multitude of sins. I tried to write about some of this at the time but the magazines didn't want to know.

My favourite is still the Nikon F100, but I wish it had the autofocus of the D3s.

Marty
 
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I've used Nikons, most of the Fs, and all the FM/FEs. I see all kinds of Canon consumer cameras, but rarely pro models teaching Photo. F4S hands down wins in my opinion, for the combo of AF, manual rewind, VF info and compatibility with more Nikon glass.
 
EOS 3 all the way for me. The eye control focus, fast continuous shooting, and the general ergonomics suit me perfectly.
 
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