where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
Best Film Camera was the F4. I refused to get rid of it. It is like a hammer and saw in my tool box. I skipped the F5 the only pro body that I never used professionally. I do have the F6 which is sweet but I still love the feel of that F4 in my hands.
framer
Only one I ever had was an old Nikon F. (Wasn't very old when I had it.) So, for me, that was the best one. :-)
I say the F4 for it's monstrous backwards compatibility with just about every single f-mount lens ever made.
F3 for just being rock solid.
I honestly love all my Nikon 35mm bodies, but those two are the ones that are absolutely indispensable for me. My Nikkormat is great, too.
There's something to be said for the Nikon S2 and SP as well. They rival Leicas of the same time period without question.
Wow, "Analog Chris" never posted to this thread before?!? We've been discussing it for over a year :^) For shame! son, For shame!
I want to put a vote in for the F100. Its the best camera I have ever used digital or otherwise. Its supposed to be a backup to my D700, but its "awsomeness" prevents this from happening^^ It just feels right in my hand and I love its 4 sensor points in the big bright 96% coverage viewfinder. It even has a longer life shutter cycle at 100,000 than the F6, which is surprisingly 50,000.
By the way, is Analog Chris referring to Mr.Lange Nikodoby? Just curious^^
yes i seem to have picked up the nickname of analog chris around these parts, kanuck :)
I am one of those whacked out people that, if I had to choose between essentially any DSLR or a Rolleiflex 4.0 FW or Hasselblad 503CW, the digital nonsense would be hitting a brick wall as fast as I could flip the focusing hood open on the Rollei or the Hass.
Tri-X and D-76 or death, I say.
I should ban you Chris for always coming to a Nikon forum and talking smack about your Hassy :^)
My dog's name is Rollei Rex by the way :^)
Yeah I know it's not "The Google" :^)
NikoDoby said:
I should ban you Chris for always coming to a Nikon forum and talking smack about your Hassy :^)My dog's name is Rollei Rex by the way :^)
you can ban me the second nikon makes a 6x6 camera with lenses that have the character and personality of medium format zeiss optics, niko :)
i've got love for Nikon too, i was raised with an F4 in one hand and a Hasselblad 553 ELX in the other. my dad has a photo of me hoisting one of his hasselblads over my head, and another of me playing with one of his FE2's.
Oh yeah! Well my parents named me Niko after my father's Nikon and I've been shooting film cameras long before you born-in-the-digital-age youngsters thought it was "cool".
I was high roll'n photoshoots at a very early age just like this kid :^)
I can't speak much about the nikon film cameras, having only shot with a few, but I love my nikkormat ftn more than any other camera I own.
I will never get tired of hearing that shutter crunch down at about 1/60th, so beautiful.
NikoDoby said:
Oh yeah! Well my parents named me Niko after my father's Nikon and I've been shooting film cameras long before you born-in-the-digital-age youngsters thought it was "cool".I was high roll'n photoshoots at a very early age just like this kid :^)
Kids these days are spoiled with the instant results of digital. For those of us who grew up with film, life was different. I remember waiting months after an extended summer vacation to get my 20+ rolls of film developed because it cost so much, for me as a lowly paper boy.
As for the best film camera, I like the function and control and size of the older manual cameras like the FE, and FM2n.
The only film camera I bought was the Nikon EM. Could not afford the FM. I will buy a digital FM2, even if it doesn't have the LCD back or AF.
I like the exposure needle on the FE but the FM2 is a great solid camera.
I am very tempted to get a used one, so cheap now. But I hate to think about the processing and scanning. Furthermore, slides are out of the question where I live (Borneo).
Yeah, I like the exposure needle too. My dream F3 was never realised.:D Now using D300.
haha I was wondering about that name Chris^^ Thanks for helping me to choose film for my trip this past month to some national parks. I dropped off the film and just have to wait for the results. You gave me some great ideas especially for black and white rolls.
NikoDoby said:
Oh yeah! Well my parents named me Niko after my father's Nikon and I've been shooting film cameras long before you born-in-the-digital-age youngsters thought it was "cool".I was high roll'n photoshoots at a very early age just like this kid :^)
psh i was shooting polaroids for my dad's clients before I could fully talk.
I had a fisher Price and then graduated to the delux Mickey Mouse funtime camera when I was 8^^ Both worked better than my first sony point and shoot swear to god!
I still have and use a F3HP with MD4.
can someone advise is this was the longest running Nikon?
casperwb said:
I still have and use a F3HP with MD4.can someone advise is this was the longest running Nikon?
Not sure about that, but I know the FM2 ran for a good 20 years.
Still my favorite camera.
I developed a roll from a Mamiya DSX1000 and although the lens performed really nicely, I still prefer the feel of the FM2.
A much more solidly built camera. The FM2 is smaller, slightly heavier, but much better in build quality. The mount on the Mamiya is even plastic. The film advance lever is flimsy on the Mamiya, and I can go on.
Just love the FM2.
ChrisLange said:
Tri-X and D-76 or death, I say.
Wow! That's truely inspirational! I've always admired your film work here, Chris. I'm just dying to go out and shoot a brick of Tri-X on my new (used) film body!
NikoDoby said:
I like the exposure needle on the FE . . .
Me too! Ahh . . . the memories!
NSXType-R said:
Just love the FM2.
Gosh, you're all making me feel so nostalgic! The original FM/FE bodies were my very first Nikons. I traded them in to buy a Mamiya RB67 system, and later bought an FM2/FE2, which I still have somewhere. Now, I wanna get them both out and play with them!
I've never owned an 'F' body. I know it's not the "best" Nikon body, but I bought a like-new, used N90s a few months ago, and I love it. I know the F100 is a better body, but I always wanted an N90s when I was struggling through my transition to AF bodies with only two N6006 refurbs (which I also still have somewhere).
Hi,
I think there are several. "Best" can mean 'to get you into the game', 'that kept you in the game', 'that was the most fun', or a bunch of other things, like 'got you the most girls or guys' (depending upon you are, obviously).
I've owned every 'F' body from 'F to F4', and the most meaningful to me was the F, hands down. I knew that photography would be in my life with that camera. I had an F2 phototomic that I used to put me through college and postgraduate school, and 4 years of media work before I returned to active duty. One of the F2 bodies was reworked to be pin registered to do simple animation for commercial work. One F2 shot lighting fixture catalogs, shoe ads, and more - it was a tough sumabitch.
On active duty, I went into a camera store to get some supplies for our shop and wasted some time looking at some new Nikons and bought a FE2 for myself and fell in love with automated metering. (What is match needle metering but automated metering that is done by hand? ;-) ) The FE2 made + or - exposures easy. It was a champ camera. I carried it with me for years. I must have taken far more pictures with it than any the F2(s), F3(s) or F4(s), simply because it was with me.
I was one of the guys who ended up getting the retro 35Ti Cameras, too. Really took some great pictures. (Looked cooler than hell, too.) I was going to get the wider model, too. Just never got around to it. It was stolen in Barcelona.
My best,
Mike
You must log in to post.
