Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to Christmas day now. I think I'll put my seldom used AF-S 50mm f1.4 G on it. I don't tend to use this on my DSLR's anyway, so it can find a new home in "analogue". All I've got to do now is find a friendly supplier of 35mm film (and a processor).

R8R said:
All my AF-S glass works perfectly with my F100. Fantastic camera, can't see any reason to own any other 35mm film camera these days.

However, most DX glass will be useless.

That's the thing with APS-C. It just isn't 35mm, no matter what we all think, it just isn't.

SkintBrit said:
My cheeky but sweet 17 year old son has just let slip that he's bought me an F100 for Christmas (something to do with me being an old codger, and being the only one still alive who would remember film!!!!). After I give him a stern talking too about respecting his elders, I thought I'd just check.....will all my modern full frame AFS G glass work with it, or will I have some reduced functionality?

All full frame AF-S lenses will AF, I have no idea about VR. It should work though.

SkintBrit said:
My cheeky but sweet 17 year old son has just let slip that he's bought me an F100 for Christmas (something to do with me being an old codger, and being the only one still alive who would remember film!!!!). After I give him a stern talking too about respecting his elders, I thought I'd just check.....will all my modern full frame AFS G glass work with it, or will I have some reduced functionality?

All my AF-S glass works perfectly with my F100. Fantastic camera, can't see any reason to own any other 35mm film camera these days.

However, most DX glass will be useless.

Thanks bjrichus, yes I saw that already, but being from Ken I took it with a pich of salt! :-) We'll see. Any quirks on an F100 I should be aware of?

SkintBrit said:I thought I'd just check.....will all my modern full frame AFS G glass work with it, or will I have some reduced functionality?

Dear old Ken has a handy-dandy chart for this kind of thing:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htm

About three quarters of the way down the page are the "mid-price" film SLR's, along with the F100.

If he is correct you will be good, with some metering restrictions.

My cheeky but sweet 17 year old son has just let slip that he's bought me an F100 for Christmas (something to do with me being an old codger, and being the only one still alive who would remember film!!!!). After I give him a stern talking too about respecting his elders, I thought I'd just check.....will all my modern full frame AFS G glass work with it, or will I have some reduced functionality?

I suspected as much. The pro bodies have a hair trigger.

Glad to help!

Hello again, thank-you for all your suggestions. How right you were "msmoto",it was operator error! R8R, you were spot on with with your possible cause. The vertical-shooting shutter release button was NOT locked on both cameras.I never realised that I was bumping the portrait grip shutter release! I have put a roll of film through and no problems at all. Once again,thanks.
Cheers, Pino

P.S. I now have a "problem" with an F4, but that is for my next post!

Possible cause: bumping the portrait grip shutter release. Make sure it's locked when not using it.

About Two-Button Reset on the F5:
Pressing BKT and CSM·buttons simultaneously for more than two seconds resets various modes to their initial settings.

You might also, try to deactivate the autofocus when shutter release is lightly pressed. Use the AF button to get the autofocus prior to shutter release when in this mode.

And, if none of this works... try to determine if somehow pressing the AF button also releases the shutter. If nothing corrects the problem...Nikon Service may be a resource or contact Nikon Support. Both cameras doing the same thing suggests an operator error rather than both malfunctioning identically at the same time.

I'm not sure if it's available on film SLRs, but can you do a factory reset just to make sure your settings aren't causing your shutter issues?

Hi Pino, welcome to NR. I am not familiar with the Nikon film cameras as I was an Olympus user but Can you tell us whether you have a motor-drive on there or just the mechanical button. If it is just the mechanical button, it sounds like some ageing has taken place of something non-metallic somewhere and is causing this.

Whatever, your course of action is clear - send it to Nikon for service.

On a related point - how are your light seals?

Hello my name is Pino and I live in beautiful Tasmania. I own 2 F5s which have the same problem, a hair-trigger shutter. The shutter sometimes fires without my touching the shutter button! It seems to occur randomly especially when I am rolling the camera gently in my hands. I took it to a camera technician and naturally it behaved itself and he could find nothing wrong with it but the problem persists.Has anybody encountered
the same problem with their F5? I put a roll of 24 film today and 7 shots went off without my touching the shutter button! Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Pino.

I have two FM2n bodies and they are great for outdoor photography. My vote however goes to the FM3A - what a beautifully crafted piece of technology. For flash it wins over the FM2 because ttl flash and the fill flsh button are so handy. An F6 is far more advanced technically but too much for my liking, the FM3A does all I need.
Robin

donaldejose asks......

Yes, you can shoot transparency film and then scan it to digital. But really, why do all that extra work?

Yes, everything you say is true; however, (not sure whether this applies to you or not Donald), for anyone that has taken the time to read every reply in this thread, I really think you would have to concede, there are,(or may be), many reasons !

This is quite possibly the single most "interesting", most "illuminating" discussion I have read thus far on NRF; ( I find myself agreeing with "both sides", about equally.)

For me personally, here's a couple of things I miss about my "film days"; unlike many who have replied to this discussion, I have never done photography "professionally"......I've never depended on it to make a living; (fortunately, or I would no doubt be "poorer" now than I already am !)

After buying my first camera (about 1951), it was years and years before I ever "got around" to up-grading to a halfway decent camera. It wasn't until the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. that I finally bought my first truly decent SLR, ( a "refurbished" Canon F-1, a 200mm/f2.8 lens, a 50mm/f1.4 "normal" lens, and a few more "goodies" that Canon Camera had "loaned" to professional sports photographers who were covering the winter games, as a promotional tool; (you will note, we are talking "just before auto-focus" here).

I learned quite a lot with the F-1; (a truly marvelous camera "in it's day"); somewhere along the line, my interest in some of my other many hobbies "exceeded" my interest in taking pictures, and I didn't take a whole lot of pictures for a few years, other than when I went on vacation. ( still forced to work for a living in those days)

Suddenly, everything changed.........after just one phone call; (from my son who was calling from Honolulu) (he: "I'm gonna be out here at least all summer; I just booked you a flight to come out here.....how long do you want to stay?") Me: "three weeks would be fine......never had a desire to go to Hawaii." Two days later I was in sunny Waikiki Beach.

My son works for the U.S. Navy; (as a civilian engineer) his whole group (about 40 people) were sent to Hawaii to "work on" a "project" that had to do with something I know very little about....."SAR" (or synthetic aperture radar) the whole reason behind sending 40 people to Hawaii for 4 or 5 months ? The "sea state"...( apparently the "waves" are somewhat different in Hawaii than they are off of the California coast, and apparently "SAR" is greatly affected by "waves" ?)

Anyway........my son was pretty "into" photography for a few years before he left for Hawaii, so he elected to "upgrade" his "kit", the better to "have more fun, take better pictures" while he's away from home; so he bought a new Nikon F5, about 6 lenses, a new CF Gitzo with an Arca Swiss B-1 ball head, and and a few K worth of "other goodies".

I was greatly surprised by Hawaii.......after my three weeks were about up, I decide to stay "longer" ( about 3 months longer )

Obviously, after shooting with my "then ancient", match-needle Canon F-1 part of the day, then shooting with the new F5 while the son was out flying around in a P-3 Orion, working on "SAR", I realized I also needed to "upgrade"; when I got back to Cincinnati, I spent about 6 months on Ebay, switching from Canon to Nikon, Gitzo, & Arca Swiss.

So.......at this point, I'm now enjoying shooting with what was the "primo" camera among travel and wild life shooters at the time, the Nikon F 5.

The only problem being.........my "timing" sucked ! Digital was just rearing it's ugly head ! ( But I kept right on, shooting Fuji Velvia; ) (for a couple of more years)

A couple of people in this thread have noted that buying film costs "lots of money"; (when you piddle around, shooting 8 fps, it gets VERY expensive, very quickly! ) (At that point in time, I was starting to feel a lot like Pierre !)

It took a few more years before I thought much about going digital; here I am, eye glasses and all, looking through what I consider to be, the single finest view finder ever put on a 35mm camera, and NOW, I'm gonna be obliged to "start all over", at the "bottom" !

Understand, I'm very accustomed to being about 3 years behind everyone else, equipment wise; hey....I'm a poor senior citizen ! how many $$$$ can I "justify", on what are , essentially (for me), "toys"? The quick answer to that is.........not nearly enough to own another Nikon digital body with a view finder half a nice as the F-5 ! If I was about to buy a new body tomorrow, (and I'm not), I'd look for the "best deal" I could find on a "moderately used" D 3s. ( Why not a D 4 you ask ? ) Because, there will be NO "deals" on D 4's for the next few years !

Not EVEN to mention...........in my wildest dreams, I can't even imagine EVER having to take "better pictures" than can be made with the superlative D3s.

I can only speak for one guy........me. I have no idea "how much camera" YOU need, and I have no idea how many $$$$ YOU can "justify" having, (essentially "tied up"), in something that DEPRECIATES about as fast as anything I can think of; (a D SLR body)

I might mention, in Hawaii. the son and I had the extreme pleasure of "playing with" a brand new Nikkor 600mm AF ED/ f4 lens, (which belonged to the U.S.N.) Two things came immediately to mind; anyone trying to shoot with a 600 mm lens, mounted on a ball head, better spend a few more $$$ and get himself a good gimbal head, PLUS, he/she needs to be a hell of a lot "richer" than I am ! (But it WAS a lot of fun !)

Charley

Yes, you can shoot transparency film and then scan it to digital. But really, why do all that extra work? If you love antique cars go buy one and drive it occasionally but really who deals with their inadequacies as a daily driver? Digital has far surpassed film for all but some very specialized uses. Go digital, learn how to manipulate some post processing software if you want to emulate the look of certain films. I am sure you won't once you start learning how to adjust your Picture Controls to get 95% of the look you want right out of the camera. Much post processing, including HDR, can be done in camera before you even view your image on your computer monitor.

I think donaldejose's advice is the best yet ! I can't understand why anyone is willing to put up with all of the hassles of buying and shooting film, then waiting weeks to see what you did...........I still have my F-5, and I still love the camera, but i "miss" film about like I would "miss" a broken leg............

Of course, as we all know, different people like different things..........it seems that a LOT of people "like" to "do drugs", get drunk, watch every stupid "sit com" that TV puts out, ditto for all of the stupid movies Hollywood puts out...........and it's totally inconceivable to me how anyone could derive pleasure from any of these "activities"..............but I suppose many of these morons think I'm "square" because I only listen to classical music, ( rather than all of the noisy crap you hear on the radio and TV ), and I'm sure most of them would think I'm crazy if they knew what some of my "hobbies" are !

While the topic here is about shooting film............I read something recently on the "controversial" Ken Rockwell's website that kind of got me thinking about shooting a roll of film occasionally; He was making the point that what with all of these great film cameras available now, for pennies on the dollar, as compared to what they cost new, that you could pick up a great camera, (such as an F-5, F-6, F-100, etc., take advantage of the capabilities such bodies afford one, ( such as high FPS rates, dynamic AF, etc etc, then process the film, digitize the slides to get all of this data onto your hard drive, than "have a ball" doing all of the things digital photography allows one to do; ( you never know what Ken is gonna come up with next; almost made me think about emailing B&H and ordering a few rolls of Velvia !)

When I started my film photography class, I picked the F5 over the F100. I didn't want to go without a 100% viewfinder.

Maybe the reasons one would continue on film would be interesting to hear. NZnikon has not been on the forum for over nine months..... So, My question is to whom are we talking?

So, here is the "Film vs Digital" thread

http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=22&page=5

Ditto on the F100. Got a used one for 150 a month ago. The best bang for your buck film camera you can get.

BTW - read Thom Hogan's review of the F100, it will let you know what you might be giving up that the F5 has. If the F5 has features you can't live without, then go right ahead and get one. Shop around though, I've seen them as low as $300, barely used.

Should one buy a used F5 for $450 these days?

NO.

Buy a used F100 for $100-$150 max. I see them on Craig's List all the time. I paid $100 and it came in the original box with 17 rolls of film.

Then you will own what is basically the baby F5 (kinda what the D700 is to the D3) which, in this day and age, is more film camera than you will ever need.

KZnikon: go to digital, it as so left film behind.

Nothing like replying to a 9 month old thread.............

It's kinda hard to compare the F-5 with other cameras; to begin with, Nikon developed the F-5 to be a "do-anything" body, and "aimed" it at the top guys in the business; (such as Moose Peterson and Franz Lanting) There were a few years when you could look through an issue of Nat Geo, and it was a safe bet that 3/4 of the images in the whole magazine were taken with an F-5. The thing has "things" that no other camera of it's day, had; like 5 different "very hefty" motors, probably the ruggedest shutter mechanism ever made, more individual focusing screens, (for every conceivable situation, (and a few that were "inconceivable"!) It was built for people who routinely "drag" their photo gear through humid rain forests, aired deserts, and sub zero places such as Antarctica.

For quite a time, the "thing" was so "tall", (bottom to top of penta prism ), that no one made a back pack deep enough to get the "top" closed and zipped up over the thing; (People like "Kinesis Gear" solved that problem very nicely, with their great "holster-pac").......the F-5 with my big 80-200 / f2.8 AF ED zoom fit the Kinesis Gear holster-pac perfectly, (and with the pac attached to Kinesis great "big padded belt", you could carry the big body and lens all day and all night (if need be) without undue fatigue.

I'm not at all familiar with the F-6, but it was introduced "too late" (as digital was "coming on", so I really don't think the F-6 ever sold enough units to even begin to gain the popularity that the F-5 had for so long.

Another thing about the F-5.........if you wear eye glasses, their has NEVER been a camera that is (or was) as easy to "see" through, as the F-5; IMHO, the all time BEST view finder I have EVER looked through or used.

( If only someone would figure out a "scheme" to convert an F-5 body to shoot digital ! I would "sign up" right now ! )

To answer the question, "is there a large difference in accuracy between the F-5 and the F90X"...........I would say there is a huge difference in EVERTHING between the two !

Yeah, the F-6 is a bit "newer"...........but if you are still determined to shoot film, I really think paying upwards of $1,500 for a F-6, when you can score an F-5 for from $300 to $500, would be a bit like inserting one's own foot, into one's own "arse" ! (financially speaking)