Nikon F

To go with my purchase of a Nikon F4 (paid for with my sales of some used mobile phones), I also bought a Nikon F.

The Nikon F was introduced in 1959 and remained in production until 1973. While it wasn’t the first SLR, nor did it introduce any great innovation, the Nikon F was the first SLR to combine all of the advanced features in one camera found piecemeal in other SLRs.

For more than a decade, most professionals carried Nikon F SLRs.

That’s why, when I decided to spend some money on film cameras, I knew a Nikon F had to be the fully manual camera in my collection.

I spent more than three weeks watching Nikon F auctions on Ebay.  There are an amazing number of dealers that will price these cameras at $500, $800, $1,000, even $3,000 for these cameras.

I bought mine for $165.

Unless you want a mint Nikon F to sit on a shelf, I can’t see paying more than $200 for one of these cameras. They’re just not that uncommon and there aren’t that many film shooters left in the world.

Below are shots from my first roll of film through the camera (Kodak BW400cn).  My primary goal was to blast of a roll in a day or two just to ensure the camera still worked properly.  I’m pleased with the results, though I find, at least so far, the camera meter seems to encourage a bit of over exposure (exposure on these shots corrected in PhotoShop).

Wayne Fuller, Batavia's legendary broadcaster.

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