Hello! How are we all doing? It feels like a long time since I wrote my last blog (and it is) it also feels that in this time of global pandemic and upheaval that the world is crying out for something - and obviously in this moment I feel that that something is….. a completely subjective review of the Nikon F3!! Of course! I hear you cry!! Just what the world has been waiting for! ;)
Well well well, here’s a turn up for the books… gone and bought myself ANOTHER Nikon F3, in fact I’ve owned it for about a year now but you may recall that a couple of years ago I sold the F3 I owned at that time because it was literally giving me a headache when looking through the viewfinder and that kickstarted my love affair with the glorious F2.
I’ve always felt like I had some unfinished business with the F3 and so in November 2019 I bought another one - the small matter of a global pandemic has definitely put a dent in the amount of use the F3 has seen in the last year but I have been shooting with it quite a bit lately and really enjoying the experience - so much so that I decided I needed to do an updated review of this camera one which explains why I now own another one and how I managed to get over the issues that caused me to sell my previous one.
Charlie - in space no can hear you scream!! Portra 400 @ 1600 Nikon F3 / 85mm 1.4
First things first I am not above just being drawn back to this thing because of how it looks - I mean LOOK AT IT - a thing of beauty! It’s a fantastic piece of industrial design, penned by the genius Giorgetto Giugiaro! I recently got hold of the MD4 battery grip for the camera which I really just bought on a whim, but I love it! I haven’t taken it off the camera since - it makes it heavier but it’s very well balanced in the hand.
I was drawn back to the F3 almost by a process of elimination - I tried an F4… too big, too bulky and festooned with features that I wouldn’t use… F5 too modern (I don’t own any AF lenses) F6… too expensive… I bought an F90X for a cheap auto wind on body and I like using it but I was still looking for something… I considered the original F body but I wasn't feeling that so if I wanted another top spec Nikon body that only left the F3…. and here we are! (it still amazes me that I can write a paragraph like that and not even question myself as to WHY i would want ANOTHER camera…. we humans are complex creatures aren’t we?!
In my original blog post about the F3 I named it the best camera I’d ever used at that point but my main issue was the viewfinder, specifically the (to me) awkward placement of the shutter speed LCD readout - and it can’t just have been me because Nikon released an updated viewfinder the HP (High Point) which was designed ostensibly for people who wear glasses but I have always wondered if this HP viewfinder would solve the issue I had, turns out - it has… a bit…
Isiasha - Nikon F3 / 85mm 1.4 Portra 400 @ 1600
Truth be told i still find the placement of the meter / shutter read out awkward - but I found a great work around…. just ignore it! :) My main passion is portrait photography and for portraits I always use a handheld meter anyway, so now it matters not that the read out display of the F3 is in a stupidly awkward position as I just my handheld meter, set the controls on the camera accordingly and happy days!! It does mean that I’m unlikely to choose the F3 as the camera I’ll use for casual / day to day / travel photography when having an onboard meter is pretty helpful but I have other cameras for that anyway (Hurrah!! at last a valid reason for owning the F3 AND the F2)!!
Functionally the experience of the F3 is a bit more slick and sophisticated than the F2 (Im sorry fellow F2 fans - but it’s true) The F3 feels slightly more refined all round from the shutter sound to the film advance action - plus the MD4 motor drive can be had for a very low price giving you super fast fps should you require it (you probably won’t but hey… details schmetails).
Enough of this babble! I hear you cry! Very well compadres this concludes my rambling on the Nikon F3 I think you can tell I like it very much and I can say for certain that this time it’s for keeps! All of the shots here were taken with the F3 using a Nikkor 85mm 1.4 AIS lens and all shot on Portra 400 .