My first two rolls with my F4

[luisarguelles]

Well, as promised a week ago, it is a pleasure for me to write here my experiences after buying a second hand F4. In short: Lovely camera and incredible photo experience. Without doubt is now my preferred camera together with my Leica M2.

 

I went with my wife for a relaxing weekend about 300 km from home. Good food, good hotel and, sadly, horrible weather, but who needs cloudless skies for taking pictures?. I used the F4 with Nikkors 20mm f/2.8 AF-D and 35mm AF-D (later at home I ended the FP4 roll with a Nikkor 24-50mm AF). Development was D76, 8 minutes at 20C, while scanning was made with a Minolta 5400. You can see the results here (sorry, I do not know how to write a direct link):

 

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=828163

 

Bottom line: The camera is heavy, but not so much as one could imagine from the technical data alone.

 

Autofocus and metering are clearly from 1990, but we must take into account that it was state of the art in its time and it still work great. By the way, the metering system works wonderfully, and it only need a bit of AE lock in the worst lighting conditions (all the picture were taken using matrix metering but one of the portraits of my wife, where I used the spot system). I hope you enjoy the pictures! (hey, if you leave a comment or two they will be really welcomed :)

[luisarguelles]

Oops, I forgot: The pictures in "large" version do really a difference!

[steve_levine]

Long live FP4 and D76! Nice job of shooting, "souping" & scanning. The F4 was indeed brought out in those awkward manual to auto focus transition years. During this time Canon, Minolta and others had better AF than Nikon. At first of course the pros shunned the F4 due to it's battery dependancy. But once the camera's metering and flash capabilities became known it's legend was born.

 

 

The F4 is really a much better manual focus camera than an AF one. It is a joy to use with all of the older AI Nikkors. Enjoy your camera.

[rick_gerbehy1]

Nice photos. FP4 was a film I had some success with when I used film and worked in the darkroom. The Nikon F4 was a remarkable camera for its time. It was priced out of my budget so I purchased the 8008 when I went to auto-focus. I still use it once in a while because of the 1/250th flash synch. We thought those first auto focus cameras were fine.....much better then my eyes could focus even though they were slow by today's standards.

[juan_parm_nides]

Beatiful photos, Luis. Some years ago, I had a girlfriend, veterinarian student in Leon, and I travelled many times from Canarias to Leon. Magnificent views from Barrios de Luna and around.

 

Saludos.

[luisarguelles]

Hola Juan. Yes, the Barrios de Luna area has lovely landscapes. While they are not my

speciality in photography, I always try to do my best. By the way, frequent trips from

Canary Islands to Leon should have been expensive!.<p>

Rick, my first Nikon camera was the F801s (N8008s) that I bought back in 1990, a lovely

camera that I sold about a year ago to my sister-in-law. I miss it a lot, so probably I will

end up buying another one.</p>

<P>

Steve, you are right: yesterday I was playing with the Nikkor 45mm AI-P and manual

focusing with the F4 was a joy.

</P>

[janvanlaethem]

Great pictures, I especially like the one called "Relax".

 

I have a similar experience with Nikon as Luis and Rick: my first autofocus camera, and my first Nikon for that matter, was an F801s, the F4 was way out of my league at the time. I have fond memories using a friend's F4 though, I may be tempted one of these days to get one myself...

[luisarguelles]

Jan, I was in your shoes a month ago. Do yourself a favor an get a F4. Despite all the digital

buzz these days, the feelings while using this camera are something like being in seventh

heaven. And remember that for amateur photographers, still even more important than

images is the concept of 'satisfaction'. By the way, "Relax" is also my preferred one in the

series :)

[janvanlaethem]

Just what I needed, another camera for my own private little Nikon museum. Got an F3 a couple of years ago, if I do get the F4, I'll probably want an F and F2 as well. Oh boy, I'm in trouble...

 

How do you find the F4 compared to the F801s in terms of size and weight? I guess it must be perfect for handholding in low light with a fast prime lens. Interesting note about the 45mm AI-P, I couldn't resist getting one, it hasn't come off the F3 since I got it. It must be a perfect match for the F4.

[janvanlaethem]

"Despite all the digital buzz these days". What do you mean? I haven't noticed anything. Are you referring to those cameras that store data on a sensor and don't eat film?

[luisarguelles]

Oh, I was only referring to those strange cameras that you need to upgrade every year or two

and make everybody a worse photographer :)

[luisarguelles]

Jan, I've sent you an e-mail.