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It’s safe to say, i am finally able to do my review for the nikon F3. After a heap of rolls under every possible lighting condition (i hope), so first up is the pros:

• Solid Built Quality. Most DSLR’s which are more expensive than it, are very plasticky. You get a feeling that it wasnt made with love. But with the Nikon F3, it feels like it was tenderly made, it feels solid in your hands without giving away on being too heavy. You get a feeling that the money you so hardly earned to buy this baby was worth it and its embodied in a solid piece of glass and smooth black finished metal. If to be compared to a car,the Nikon D3 would be the Latest Jaguar XKR, then the F3 would be the Jaguar D Type, old but having soul, and beautifully crafted. AND the F3 is made in JAPAN. Now when was the last time you had a piece of camera equipment made in the land of sake and asimo?

The Jaguar D-Type

The Nikon F3 Hp

• I really like that the shutter release is controlled electronically, but first i forgot to mention that the Nikon F3 was a breakthrough camera at that time, a half electronic half mechanical camera, all SLR’s after it had autofocus, and all those before it were all fully manual. The extent of its electronic-ness, is it’s metering and shutter. Without switching the camera on, which is neatly a small notch, no one can accidently fire the trigger. Especially useful if you have a little sister that likes to fiddle with your camera.

• Precise exposure metering. The other thing electronically controlled is the metering. Always spot on. If you just leave it on Aperture priority mode, chances are the pictures will come out correctly exposed. For taking portraits though, metering has to be made of the subjects skin, then locked on that exposure before taking a shot.

lovely correct exposure everytime

• Exposure lock button. One of my favourite features of this camera. It must have been a wonder back then. You just point at the subject where you choose to meter, half press the shutter AND press the exposure lock button, recompose your photo and snap.

• Multiple exposure. A small barely noticeable notch just by the film advance lever. I just figured out that if you were to multiple expose your photos twice per slide, then you’d be able to get 72 exposures! Cool! No? Whatevs

Live view?? Nah, it has an interchangeble viewfinder, pretty neat if you ask me. The small red dot just above the shutter indicates the camera is on. And look further to the left on the film winder (the round thing) the hot shoe for flash is on that.

now comes the cons:

• why the flash hot shoe is not on the viewfinder puzzles me. It’s now on the film winder, also where the ISO is. And because of that it can’t take conventional speedlights. Sucks.

• Using the Nikon F3 at night is somewhat tricky because the button you need to push to turn the LED lights on, (so you can know what aperture and what shutter it is) is really puny. It takes a hard squeeze with your fingernail and even then, for all that effort all you get is a puny source of light.

It even gets good exposure at night! i was blown away when it turned out just right

So what if the Nikon is cumbersome at times, so what if it doesn’t have auto focus or all the fancy mumbo-jumbo that comes with today’s cameras. In the end it was reliability that won the hearts of photographers worldwide, generation after generation for nearly two decades. The Nikon F3 is a timeless piece of photographic ingenuity. And it has proven that besides not having advanced multi segment focussing and not knowing how your photo will turn up, it’s got a character, a certain charm to it. Something that only people who actually used it will know and acknowledge. For that Nikon F3, I know you got soul.

For more reviews on the Nikon F3 you may want to check this site out. You can also read other reviews from other people about the camera. Or you might find other useful SLR camera. Happy hunting!

You got soul..nikon F3

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