Nikon N65 Test/Reviews

I have read two wonderful reviews of the new Nikon N65 at the Epinions.com site. Any other tests/reviews available for the N65

Popular Photography (October 2000 issue) made a good review of N65.

Respected British magazine Practical Photography made an average

review of the N65 saying its a "near miss" of Nikon and pointed out

all the weaknesses. I think you are better off buying N80. Much

better camera for $100 more.

I am on the verge of buying either Nikon f/n 80 or the 65. Having read

a lot of the stuff on this forum I am not sure if similar Canons are

better.

 

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I currently have a Nikon 401 which struggles to focus under low light

low contrast situations.

I previously had a canon t70 and the nikon 401 was a massive

improvement on it. Hence the hesitancy to move to canon.

 

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Any ideas would be helpful and Thanks in advance.

Hi Nalin,

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You've posted questions on several threads. Do you mind if I post all

my responses on this one thread? Since you seem to be primarily

considering the Nikon N65, N80 and N90s this looks like the best place

for the discussion.

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When talking of these three cameras, I call the N65/F65 a "family

camera", the N80/F80 an "enthusiast's camera", and the N90s/F90x "an

advanced amateur's camera". Canon competes head-to-head with Nikon in

each of these three market segments, with the Rebel/EOS 300, the Elan

7/EOS 30, and the A2E/EOS 5. So do Minolta and Pentax, though I don't

know the model names.

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Oversimplifying horribly -- because I don't know a lot about what you

want to use the cameras for -- if you intend to be serious about

photography, you will quickly find the family cameras too limiting.

If on the other hand, you want a very high quality point-and-shoot for

family events and portraits, then you don't need the expense of an

advanced amateur's camera.

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Whichever you buy, I would urge you NOT to buy a kit with basic-grade

lenses in it. Buying a mid-range zoom -- such as the 28-105mm in the

case of Nikon and Canon -- makes a bigger difference than buying a

slightly better camera body.

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If you are looking for an advanced amateur's camera, then there is an

added complication. Both the N90s/F90x and the A2E/EOS 5 have been

around a long time, and look as though they are due to be replaced, by

the F100 and the EOS 3 respectively. This makes them good value for

money at the moment, but means that they don't support all the latest

goodies (VR lenses in the case of the N90/F09x, and E-TTL flash in the

case of the A2E/EOS 5).

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All of the cameras mentioned so far should be more convenient to use

than the F401. As to which level you need to buy, that's up to you.

So is the brand to choose. If you have much Nikon kit (say, three

lenses or more) then stay with Nikon. The brand differences are not

great enough to justify a change (gross oversimplification :-)

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Later

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Dr Owl

If you think about photography more ceriously, consider buying a

different camera than F65. There are various things that I found that

are good for amateur photographer, but not for advance.

 

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here are some disadvantages of F65

you cannot preset the ASA of the film manually, it means that it

works automaticly, you cannot do the push and pull process by the

ASA, you can olny push and pull by EV, for instance I do push and

pull Ilford HP 5 by ASA, because it is the only way I can judge the

developing times following the Ilford instructions - Microphen

(400ASA push 1800)

 

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the second thing is that the lens mounting of the 28-80 mm set lens

has different material then the mounting ring on the body of the

camery, it is a combination of plastic and metal, it doesnt go

together very well, so you might see after a while a huge srabs in

it, you can wear it out very easily, look for lenses and bodies that

uses the same material for the mounting rings!

 

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you cannot you the infra film because the film is moved not by a

manual wheel, but by a infra red sensors which do not allow to use

infra red film, it can be a disadvante if you are using or planing to

use this kind of film

 

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you cannot use all kinds of various lenses from Nikon, it allows you

to use only new Nikon lenses, if you want to use old manual Nikon

lenses the TTL exposure meter wont work

 

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well that is all I wanted to say about F65, it doenst mean that I

would be against F65, I only wanted to say what is not writen in

regular reviews and what minght be usefull for the photographers that

are considering buying F65

 

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Jan Jedlicka

Czech Republic

 

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PS sorry for my English