What's your favorite film Nikon F Series ?

Coolest looking: Nikon F with eye level finder

Best to use: f2 with eye level finder or AS

Wildcard: f4 with split prism screen (never tried but would like to). The f4 in underrated IMO.
 
I have a black Nikkormat FTn, a black Nikon F with a plain prism and a black Nikon S2 (original). The S2 is by far my favorite, no problem to find absolute first class 50mm lenses for it.

What to use on the F and on the Nikkormat? The Nikkor H Auto 50mm f/2 distorts far too much. The Nikkor f/1.4 is too big.

Erik.
 
Erik van Straten said:
I have a black Nikkormat FTn, a black Nikon F with a plain prism and a black Nikon S2 (original). The S2 is by far my favorite, no problem to find absolute first class 50mm lenses for it.

What to use on the F and on the Nikkormat? The Nikkor H Auto 50mm distorts far too much. The Nikkor f/1.4 is too big.

Erik.
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Erik, I reccomend the 45 gn 2.8. Small, light and it's a Tessar.
 
My favorite is the F, despite its quirks. The F2 Titan is probably the best mechanical camera, but a plain F2 with the eye level prism is a lot cheaper. I like the original F for its similarity to the Nikon RFs.

Erik van Straten said:
What to use on the F and on the Nikkormat? The Nikkor H Auto 50mm distorts far too much. The Nikkor f/1.4 is too big.

Erik.
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Erik, if you have enough light, the 55mm 3.5 micro has almost no distortion and is very sharp. It’s not small but you won’t have to use a hood because the glass is so recessed. otherwise the 45mm 2.8 (esp the later version) is nice and tiny.
 
Erik van Straten said:
I've heard that focusing the 45mm is a bit clumsy because of the flash-coupling.


Erik.
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The flash coupling can be de activated by a catch/clip. It then focuses like any normal lens and the direction is the same as Leica. From infinity to around 15m the focusing seems like its not doing much, but for the distances I use - around 3m it is very precise.
 
F2 with the DE-1 prism, just love the clean view through the finder and the lack of meter doesn't bother me at all. I mostly use it with a VC 40mm f/2, perfect everyday setup.
 
I have the F4s, F5, F90x and F80.

* F90x: brilliant camera, always delivers. Shame that it is a noisy little bugger: shutter, mirror and advance are all noisy.

F80: a small and likeable camera, more quiet than my Leica IIc. Pity about feeling so plastic and AF is slow with screwdriver lenses.

F5: a beast that get the job done. Eats a lot of (cheap) batteries. Has broken the motor of a Sigma 28-80 whilst focusing.

F4s: the most civilised of the two F. Good AF and even better metering for b&w films. More silent in Cs mode than the F5 too. More battery efficient too and provides matrix metering with my old AiS 28 f/2.8.
 
In various configurations, F, F2, F3, FM2n, FA, and Nikkormat. Have had, and shot professionally, F4 and F5. Of those, the F4 cameras had more problems than any of the others. The strange battery configuration was a nuisance, and we had a couple that simply stopped working. Never had that with any other F body.
 
Have owned all the pro variations over the years, still have the F6 and F. Bought the F4s and F6 new, the rest were second hand. The F3HP had the circuit board under the flash connection die, which made the camera worthless. The F2 had weird shutter issues, that took a couple of years and repeated trips to the repair shop to rectify, so that was disappointing. The F5 just always felt too big for my hands. And the F4s, though I enjoyed working with it in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I eventually got bored with it.

The F6 just works really well, and I love the way it meters light, so it's a keeper. And the F is just the F, you either love it or hate it, I happen to love it.

I've used the FM series cameras, and the killer on all those for me is the self timer hits my knuckle when I hold any of the variations of that camera, so without the MD-11 or MD-12, I find those cameras unusable.

Best,
-Tim
 
p.giannakis said:
F90x: brilliant camera, always delivers. Shame that it is a noisy little bugger: shutter, mirror and advance are all noisy.
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I love mine; its a rugged tank of a camera and there's probably not a weather condition I haven't used it in. I'd forgotten how noisy it is until I went back to it after several years of DSLRs. Not that it matters; the stuff I shoot isn't affected by noise.


It just shows how much things have changed.... Mine was something like $1100 or $1200, and I ordered it from B&H over the phone! No internet yet in 1996.
 
My Fave

My Fave

The original non-metered version..."the straight F" as some call it.
Mine is black...bought the body used in 1972 for $75.00. Gussied him up (yes, he's male) with the screw on soft release. That cost, I think, an addition dollar.

He has never failed and still operates properly.
 
I started with FG20, sold it because I was not into SLR, I didn't have connection with it and so-so 50 1.8 E, either.

One day I went to charity store and they had Nikkormat for 24CAD. It has mirror lock up, shutter speeds visible in VF and exposure meter needle on the top. It is saying "FT" near serial number. I only have to change seal in the back. It works. Despite its size and weight I took on the streets after getting 28 3.5 for it (low price, great condition).

After I read how F2 are getting slotted for curtains, I have rebellion moment and purchased F2 body. I don't like to use cameras which are considered as one of the best for spares. I ordered waist level F finder before F2 came. Today I have put them together. This F2 has RF prism!
I have Vivitar 20 3.8 for it (paid 90 USD, clean copy and focusing as close as two inches or so).
I would like to 3D-print simple plate which will cover the F2 prism and hold my Russar VF.

49203578608_0851f3e721.jpg
 
I have shot with an F3HP more than any other camera, I think. They always just worked for me. That said, the F2AS is my favorite. I loved my F4s as well but the F2 takes the cake.
Phil Forrest
 
In got a lot of nikon bodies and lenses when my dad died, so I used them for 35mm. 5+ years ago when people were giving 35mm bodies away fro next to nothing, I bought more than I needed, but couldn't pass up bargains. So I have
F, F3, F4, F5, F100, N90, N80, FG, FA, FE-2 and FM3a.


I much prefer manual focus, so maybe Im biased here. for me the perfect body would be the F3 with a normal prism, but I hate the LCD display. I much prefer the match needle. So my most used are the FE-2 and FM3a. I have a split prism screen in my f4 and use that for slide film, just like the ease of useing slide film and how it meters almost perfect results. for small AF body, cant beat the N80. I still see them listed for under $50 today. I bought one new in box with the battery grip for $20, with a small case and a 50mm 1.8d lens, almost new in the box. nice little camera.


the nice thing with the Nikon line is that there seems to be the perfect body for everyone, no matter what you prefer. I love that fact that most of the bodies can still shoot (meter) with MF lenses, unlike canon.


john
 
splitimageview said:
Pancake 50/1.8 for the F. No distortion. But no meter coupling for Nikkormat...
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Correct, but one can use stop down metering with the depth of field plunger.

---

Currently don't have any of the "pro" F's , but I do have:

Nikkormat FT
FE
N90s
F80
N65
AF600

FE and AF600 get the most use. F80 with built in flash is great for grabbing family snapshots. I had an F4 - they're tremendous bargains as others have mentioned - but just didn't get along with the ergonomics. A N90s seems to accomplish most of what I wanted from the F4 - minus the ability to use my pre-AI lenses. The N65 barely gets any use, but it's not worth much and works as a backup family cam or lightweight hiking option for when I need builtin flash and don't care what happens to the body 🙂

Looking at my system and uses, it might make more sense to replace the Nikon bodies with a F3 and a F100, but I'm pretty content with what I've got right now.
 
ktmrider said:
The original and the camera that revolutionized photojournalism is still my favorite, the Nikon F with plain prism. I have it combined with one of the best normal lenses ever made-55f3.5 Micro Nikkor. It actually does everything my film Leica's do and a few things they don't....
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Same here. I have an early chrome plain prism F with Micro-Nikkor 55mm and AI'ed 28mm f/2 as my final Nikon SLR kit.

Over the years, the one I had and used the most is a race between my original F Photomic FTn and the F3 with HP prism finder. Both brilliant cameras.

I had an F2 for a couple of years, it was technically a step up from the F but never reached the emotional connection I have to the F. The F4 and F5 never appealed to me at all, didn't buy one or use one as a result. I had an F6 briefly: terrific camera indeed, probably the best of the line in any realistic assessment, but it was so far beyond my time using 35mm SLR film cameras in any serious way ... I let it go to another Nikon enthusiast who is still using it.

The F I have now is a rescue camera: A friend from another photo community found it laying in a box in his basement, lens missing, half of the everready case gone, jammed and dirty. He gave it to me, I gave it to Fred at International Camera Repair some years back who completely overhauled it and made it work like new again. It's a low serial number camera, likely from about 1961, and I have the external, coupled selenium cell meter for it too (which needs a new cell and recalibration).

G
 
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