Just recently I decided to hunt down and buy all the early models of Nikon F that I started out with as a young professional in the early 1970s. As a penniless freelancer I was forced to sell one to upgrade to the next, getting rid of some real gems along the way is it turned out!
I got a 1969 Nikon F, my first almost new body in 1971, but then I got sucked into nostalgia in a big way. Now, some thirty Nikon Fs later, I find that I've added six Nikon Motor Drives (F-36 and F-250) ranging from 1962 to 1972, Photomic finders from the earliest through to the FTn, standard prism finders of all sorts, twenty-five early NIKKOR lenses and tons of spare parts. My earliest F is a September 1959 production version, whilst the latest is an April 1973 model. All have been totally overhauled where required and all work perfectly, including all the Photomic finders apart from my Flag Switch Type 2 that has corroded beyond belief.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the six Nikkormat FT, FTn and FT2 bodies, along with a Nikon F2A Photomic, a Nikon F3 HP & MD-4 and a Nikonos III that I added to my existing Nikon F4S, Nikon F5 and F801 and F90 bodies!
The point of all this is really to say that there is still a place for great film cameras that are still used - mine are - and cherished. Whilst I don't think that I would ever go back to film cameras in my working life, I love to use film for recreational photography. I find that it forces me to slow down and really evaluate the subject, a little like shooting 5x4 did.
A few of my examples can be found here<Link Removed>
Long live the Nikon F and its variants. In my humble opinion the Nikon F2 is really only an F with the rough points smoothed off. I owned many Nikon F2s and loved them for their reliability and ease of use, but they never really had the soul, and perhaps the quirkiness of a Nikon F!
