Nikon F601

I wood like to now what is your opinion regarding the F601 camera.

Absolutely wonderful camera that I use and love. I bought mine

in 1994 and it's still going strong. It's been all over the

world with me in less than ideal conditions and has proven to

be tough as nails.

 

My favorite features are the ability to meter with MF lenses

and the spot meter. Most of the new Nikons won't meter at

all with MF lenses.

 

Why do you ask?

Accurate but slow AF. Very very loud. Very lightweight. Nice built-in flash. Exceptionally good matrix metering, centre-weighted metering plus spot. Functions well with manual Nikkors (AI/AI'd/AI-S/E/AI-P but not non-AI). Reasonable 2 fps film advance. Excellent TTL flash control with basic TTL flashes, unlike many Nikons (e.g. F100). If the noisiness and the relatively slow autofocus don't bother you, it's an exceptionally good camera.

 

There is a trick with the battery that you should learn (it has to hook under a lip, otherwise you lose about half the battery's capacity).

I had mine since 1991 - I love and use it regularly.

I had the US version, the 6006, and gave it to my daughter. I agree with all of the above comments, and wish I still had it. I learned about the battery trick the hard way! You have to push it completely into the battery holder until it clicks. It is a great camera to take on trips or hikes when weight is a consideration. It is not the camera to have if you want fast AF. Also I believe it has certain flash compensation functions not available on many of the more expensive an current Nikon cameras. Its built in flash is excellent. If you have certain features you want more info on, just let us know and we can provide other comments. Joe smith

I have the MF version of the F601, the F601M, and the only thing I dislike is the noise and the vibration. It's a very noisy camera, and the vibration caused by the shutter release it's considerable. If you hold your camera with one hand, you can see your hand moving when the shutter goes off. I don't know if the F601 does the same, but I figure it does. Apart from that, it's a wonderfull camera: small, lightweight, and very accurate mettering. If your not looking for a fast, quiet, smooth camera, that's a very good camera.

I agree with all the above answers, the F601 is a great camera (other than the AF being slow and noisy). I would highly recommend it over any of the newer cameras (such as F50, F65, etc.) I think the F601 has better build quality and metering (among other above mentioned things)

Good luck.

I owned a 6006 for about a year and like Joe, passed it on to my son. It was a very well built little machine. It handled very nicely and took good pictures. But the noise and mirror vibration were a problem for me. With no mirror lock-up, it wasn't well suited for my purposes. Slow auto-focus wasn't a real problem for me. What are you plannig to take pictures of? For snap shots it's great and the built in flash works very well for fill. You should get the manual for it though to learn all the camera will do.

My F50 feels better made then my F601 did, but the F601 was an easier camera to use and much faster. Then again I got the F50 for a hundred bucks so I don't mind.

I forgot to mention, the camera won't matrix meter with MF lenses, but you still have center weigthed and spot metering.

A great camera, I would say. Ibougt mine in 1991 and it served me well under hard conditions (it made some 100tkm of travel with me). It is a fullfeatured body from various exposure modes over meterings (including matrix and spot) to full manual operation. It offers also an override to all automatics an builtin (flash)bracketing (which I missed on my F90x untill MF26).

 

One should not complain on the "slow" 15 year old AF, even the then top model F4 din't do much better. The one thing draging me to the F90x (rather than a F80) is the noise it makes at shutter release and film advance. But if this is no issue... I use it with joy.

 

Once again a great camera an all one nees to get into photography, in fact a lot more IMO.

I got mine way back in 1992 and still has it. It is still a very strong camera. This camera is well build and in my own opinion, it is better feel than any other Nikon in its class. Today Nikon it is more on the cheaper light plastic.

Like many other people mention on the AF noise and slow. Well, you have to remember it is a 10 years old machine. Like 10 years from today, there will be even better cameras than today.

Even thought I got quite a few cameras, I will never give this one away.