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A beautiful camera. Nikon's classic was made from 1988 to 1996. Though its early autofocus system was relatively primitive, it remained compatible with Nikkor manual focus lenses. The camera is just about perfect, if you can cope with its size and weight. Amazingly constructed from over 1500 parts, it's solid and very well engineered. Its shutter mechanism is far more robust that Canon cameras of that era and if you buy a 30 year old model, its much less likely to require servicing. No LCD, just manual dials. Matrix metering and a full information viewfinder and works from 6 x AA batteries. If you buy one, check that the battery chamber and grip have not been affected by battery leakage. Also check the shutter for damage and check that the viewfinder is functioning and that the camera works across all shutter speeds. A truly classic camera, that is a pleasure to hold and use. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Lovely camera, robust (near indestructible) but very heavy and unwieldy because of the MB21 grip. The battery grip is in two parts but in practical terms you can't remove just the bottom plate, which I had expected to be able to do, and use it with just the MB20 grip, which for most photographers is probably far more usable. However, if you are a sports photographer who needs high-speed continuous shooting and you have strong arms, the full 4S version is going to serve your requirements very well. I can't imagine it will ever let you down.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I bought an F4S new, in the late 1980s, as an F3 replacement. I loved everything about it except its weight. The shutter was very fast, great metering options and the AF (new at the time) fun. It is among the last cameras that could take almost any earlier Nikon lens. It also had a mechanical mirror lockup (at a time when I had an ancient fisheye lens that required that). Sadly, it did not age well, with its LCDs bleeding and frequent need to clean the battery contacts. For long trips I switched to an small, light FG. By 2010, though it still looked mint, the F4S had virtually no cash value. I lent it to a friend who promptly lost it (long, dull story). Recently I was able to buy a well-worn, functional, late model F4S (on eBay) for a song. While I shoot mostly heavy Nikon FX DSLRs these days I still use film from time to time and the F4S fits right in. The 21st century economics of film cameras are weird. My replacement F4S came with an "E" focusing screen which just happens to be my favorite. When I looked at the remaining accessories from the original F4S I found its default split-image "K" screen. On eBay a "K" screen by itself can cost more than an entire F4S!Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I recently bought the F4 Nikon. Why a 15 yr old film camera? 1. Wanted a Camera that will last my remaining days. The F4 promises to have longevity as well as a robust spare parts inventory due to qty sold. Camteck - great local repair shop 3 blocks from my house! ;>) (hopefully 10yrs? - If I'd known I'd have lived this long - I'd have taken better care of myself - and my F1's!) 2. I will be using my digital cameras to calibrate my film cameras (via Mac's) therefore using the digitals as previous poloroids could be to nail the exposures prior to shooting film. Ergo gaining superiority of film resolution (with Scan to disk) while avoiding undo expense of multiple bracketing and PPP (post partum pain) I do not enjoy retouching or computer retouching unless I get a real winner. 3. Great old lenses are available at fraction of prices. (they still get the job done if you know what your doing) 4. Believe Film will go same way as turntables (just like records vs CD's - there is a difference) officianoro's will understand and cope with inefficiecies of old school/technologies. Trust this usefull - BITRead full review
Wow - where could I possibly start when doing a review of this camera body? I guess I can only relate my own personal buying decisions with this particular camera. I went from a Nikon FA (which finally gave up the ghost) and I had to make a long and hard decision about where I was going to go from there in terms of a camera body. I had a few requirements. One being that I had grown use to matrix metering with my manual focus glass. That was something that I really, really did not want to give up. My other requirement was that I wanted something that had autofocus capability (certainly not a big priority for me). Thirdly, I wanted something that had mirror lockup. And finally I also wanted spot metering. Basically, it got down to the F4. It's one thing to hear people wax poetic about using one of the F bodies. If you've never used one before, you might think that those people are perhaps influenced by the allure of a "status item". But once you've hit your finger on the shutter release of something like the F4, you will then know what they are talking about. I watched this happen with a friend of mine (who has used a 6006 for years) after he took his first exposure. There is virtually no vibration from mirror-slap. Nikon integrated a shutter balancer device that counter-balances the "shutter bounce" movement of the gears within the shutter system. Plus, the mirror box movement is so well dampened. The viewfinder: A delight. To some photographers who haven't had much experience with using a variety of bodies, they may never know the advantage of a good viewfinder. The finder in the F4 is clear and bright. On manual mode you can see in the range of +2 EV over and -2 EV under the "correct" exposure (which isn't available on other bodies) and the camera also has Aperture Direct Readout (something I also got use to with the manual cameras like my FA) which means you can see the selected aperture even with manual glass. Nikon F finders also have the advantage of being manufactured from a real block of optical glass. That helps immesurably with viewfinder brightness and clarity. The F finders are also free of distortions (in most of the other bodies there is a degree of pincushion distortion put in to compensate for the typical barrel distortion in wideangles) And what is truly unique is that all of the F finders have 100% coverage. So what you see in the viewfinder is exactly how it will be framed on the 35mm negative. The other advantage to this camera over the F5 is that it comes with three seperate power winders. The F4 was sold in the US under the F4s configuration, which had the MB-21 motor drive attachment. The MB-20 battery pack slims down the size of the camera considerably. This camera has a number of other nice touches: DX coding, viewfinder blind, the aforementioned mirror lockup (which is good when you want to take macro shots in the shutter speed area of 1 second to 1/15th of a second) and depth of field preview. Multiple exposure is onboard. You have the choice of manual or auto rewind. There is exposure and autofocus lock switches. Probably the BEST (and least known) aspect of the F4 is that it can used AF-S. Yes - you heard that right, it can use the AF-S suerfast/supersilent focusing. In general, you cannot go wrong with this camera if you're searching for a great manual 35mm camera that can in a pinch provide good (but limited) AF performance.Read full review
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