Nikon F4 question?

stradibarrius · Nov 19, 2010

With all of my medium format gear that I love so much, it seems my better photgraphs are made with my 35mm gear????

I have a Nikon F100 and was curious what if anything would I gain with an F4?

chriscrawfordphoto · Nov 19, 2010

The F4 won't improve your work. Its bigger, heavier, and older than your F100 and has crappy autofocus. The only advantage is if you prefer old-style controls. The F4 has a real shutter speed dial and uses the aperture ring on the lens (but that means newer Nikkor lenses with no aperture ring won't work on the F4).

tzillman · Nov 19, 2010

An advantage to the F4 is that you can use matrix metering with AI and AIS manual focus lenses. The F100 can only use the center weighted and spot metering with these lenses. Of coure this is not much of an advantage if you only use autofocus lenses. The only other film cameras that allow the use of matrix metering with manual lenses are the FA and the F6

jp498 · Nov 19, 2010

And you get the vertical grip and release. The autofocus works fine as long as you don't expect more than one focus spot. You get 5.7 fps instead of 5. The batteries in the f4s last about a year and lots of film. You can rewind the film manualy in the f4 if you want to conserve battery or be quiet. Of course the F100 has a handful of feature the F4s doesn't; you choose. I've had a f4s for 20 years now and I like it. I would probably get an F5 to replace it if needed.

zk-cessnaguy · Nov 19, 2010

chriscrawfordphoto said:
(but that means newer Nikkor lenses with no aperture ring won't work on the F4).

Not exactly correct. The F4 works fine with G lenses in Shutter priority and Program modes.

Pinholemaster · Nov 19, 2010

I got rid of my F4 bodies for the F5 only to get rid of their excessive weight for my F100 bodies. Never looked back.

Ihmemies · Nov 19, 2010

F4 is Nikon's most technically advanced manual focus camera. I especially liked the metering. Pity the film transport broke and I didn't bother to get it fixed with current camera/repair prices...

djacobox372 · Nov 20, 2010

The F4 is a better self defense weapon if your attacked while shooting photos, the F100 is better at everything else.

cluttered · Nov 20, 2010

stradibarrius said:
With all of my medium format gear that I love so much, it seems my better photgraphs are made with my 35mm gear????

Interesting. For me, I find that my MF gear suits only particular types of photographs due to its bulk and I use 35mm for everything else (the majority).

I have a Nikon F100 and was curious what if anything would I gain with an F4?

In my opinion, I don't think it's worth bothering. It's taking a step back in technology from the F100 but you're not really gaining anything. If you want to have a more manual camera I'd go another step back to the F3, for my taste that's a much nicer camera to use. The F4 has more battery life and shutter speed, but you can add a battery grip to your F100 (or to an F3) for the same result.

I'm probably going to sell my F4s, I don't think it really adds anything to the equipment I've got. Although I do like the look and feel of it.

stradibarrius · Nov 20, 2010

I have had an F3 and an F3HP and liked those. The one thing I don't like about my F100 and appeals to me on the F4 is the lack of menus. I hate scrolling through menus and custom stuff.
anyway I bought the F4 and if I don't like it I can sell it.

RMP-NikonPro · Nov 30, 2010

I've an F100 and the F4.
I love them both!!
also a FM3a which is adorable !!

What else could I wish for?

sepiareverb · Nov 30, 2010

I much preferred the F4 for tripod work over the F100 because you can just see what every setting is nice and easily. The F100 turned itself off too quickly for me too.

23mjm · Nov 30, 2010

sepiareverb said:
I much preferred the F4 for tripod work over the F100 because you can just see what every setting is nice and easily. The F100 turned itself off too quickly for me too.

Just curious---did you change the custom setting #15? stock meter off time is 6 sec. but with the CS15 you can change it to 16 sec. That might fix your problem. You can also still download a PDF of the manual form Nikon USA.

Nikon F4 question?

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