Camera Review: Nikon F (1959)

Now, before I get to the back story on how I actually got my hands on the camera, I wanna talk a little about the history of the camera first. The Nikon F was first introduced in 1959, as Nikon's first SLR. It was manufactured until 1973 when it was replaced by it's almost identical successor the Nikon F2. At the time, it was one of the most advanced SLRs, although most features were present in other cameras, the F was the first to combine them all into a single camera. The camera also featured several different view finders, the stock viewfinder, the Photomic FTn, and the waist level. Now that's over with, let's get into why and how I have one. My grandfather passed away in June of 2017, after breaking his hip, and getting very ill afterwards. I had attended his funeral later that month after school had finished, and returned later the next month. After I left, my uncle and grandmother were looking through some of his things, in attempt to clean things up, and found a Nikon F, with a Photomic FTn viewfinder, as well as a vareity of different lenses, and had thought of me, as she knew I was very much passionate about film photography, and photography in general. My uncle had contacted me later that day and asked if I'd like to have them, and of course I said yes. At the time I was actually going on a trip to Glacier National Park for the upcoming weekend, and upon return, the camera arrived. Anyways, enough about how I got the camera, and more about performence etc.

To begin, loading it with film, is an absolute pleasure. Although because of it's solid construction, the whole back plate has to be removed to load it, once you get the hang of it, it's no harder than loading any other 35 mm camera. The lens I use with it although I have many others, is the 50mm 1:1.4 lens. It's focal length is perfect for street photography, so I have no complaints. There is a slight learning curve to having a fixed focal length, as I'm used to using wide angle lenses with an adjustable focal length, but you get used to it quickly, and it's actually quite nice. As I use Ilford HP5+ 400, I use a relatively slow shutter speed at 1/500, although I could push it faster. I like slightly more exposure than the average street photographer. The only problem I had with the camera, was it's weight, although it doesn't hurt to have around your neck or anything, it sure can be heavy when you're lifting it to your face. To reduce wieght I would suggest using either the stock eye level viewfinder, or the waist level viewfinder. The shutter release is a pleasure to push, and although brief the crank to advance the film is smooth and sweet. I'll probably invest in getting a soft shutter release for it in the future. The way you release the film to roll it back up is a little strange, although I don't have any problem with it. You actually rotate a piece of metal that surrounds the shutter, to either advance or release the film, and of course the good ol' re rolling handle is where it is on almost all 35mm cameras. Overall, I would definitely say that this is a beautiful SLR, that works incredibley well, and will be one of my main cameras for my street photography.

Cheers,

Kai

P.S. Keep your eye out on the sight, because I'll hopefully be camera hunting in Japan while I'm there, and may be buying and reviewing a Leica M series camera, not too sure which on yet though.