Nikon F4 Review, The Perfect Pairing of Old and New Nikon
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- I should have written this review two years ago. In fact, I sat down, worked on it, wrote it, revised it, threw it out, and started over a dozen times or more since then. The Nikon F4 is one of those cameras that’s had as much written about it as needs to be said; however, here are some key takeaways for you: The F4 is reliable, robust, capable, and in the views of most reviewers the perfect pairing of old- and new- Nikon, a middle-ground hybrid as at home with a 1960s lens as a 2020s lens. The F lineage before it could not say that, nor could the F lineage after, at least not out of the box. The F4 was the last Nikon F camera that could natively accept the old NAI lenses as well as the modern AI-G lenses.
The F4 retained the older dial-based control system later scrapped in the F5 in favor of menus and buttons. The F4 also had the best light meter of the F lineage, especially as that applies to manual-focus lenses. And for those reasons and others, the F4 today is often the favorite F body of Nikon film photographers, even more so than the F5 and F6. That, I think, is a perfectly understandable, well-reasoned, and generally appropriate stance. In fact, the only significant detraction most people make of the F4 is that, when loaded down with AA batteries, it is a heavy, heavy camera.
I had the good fortune to shoot three Nikon F4 cameras to take the photos in this video. The one that did the most work was also the one in the worst condition. A retired U.S. Navy camera, it had seen abuse, made manifest in a missing strap lug, a frame counter that stopped at 20, and a cracked diffuser cover in the meter illumination pane. Many other small chips, scratches, and dings hinted at a lengthy career of being ridden hard, put away wet, and generally being abused for service. And it still worked, meter properly, functioned as designed, and has relatively few issues. This, I think, is as high a praise as can be levied for a camera: despite exceptionally rough treatment, it kept working.
When I began shooting the Nikon F4, back around 2015, I didn’t really understand why people liked it so much. However, with years of use and experience, I do understand. The camera gives the photographer a logical and easily-accessed layout with features and functions that can be reached and adjusted without ever looking away from the viewfinder. The Nikon F4 feels, much more so than most every camera made after it, like it was designed by photographers dedicated to making a camera for photographers. And to that end, if the F4 is your favorite camera, or even just your favorite Nikon camera, good choice.
But the F4 is not perfect. The weight is significant, but we can look past that. The use of AA batteries, though great and something that makes this camera highly usable, pre-dated rechargeables and led to a lot of battery waste. Also, on the subject of batteries, the propensity of AA alkaline batteries to leak with time led to all three of the F4 bodies I owned having some amount of alkaline battery leakage and, in one case, some electronic quirks due to alkaline corrosion following the electric wiring into the camera’s circuitry. That the camera in question still worked generally well, however, attests to its otherwise stunning build quality.
Ultimately, is the F4 a camera I will miss using? No, not really. I sold my last one a few months ago, the one that took most of the photos in this video, and never looked back. The F4’s technical wizardry allows it to do some fantastic and amazing things with the Nikon system’s components, and that also represents something about cameras in general. The F4 highlights this in stark relief: Cameras in the 1950s and 1960s could do about 98% of what any photographer could need. By the 1970s, a solid case exists that more than 99% of photographic needs were addressed by most cameras. The refinements, complexity, added features, and tools added to cameras in the decades that followed, and this continues to be true today, simply met the needs of an increasingly small number of users while providing savvy marketing teams with things they could use to help sell more cameras with more features to people who would never use them. The F4 is very much one of those cameras. It is decidedly capable, decidedly well made, over-built, exceptionally designed and conceived, and for most of us, if we owned one and used it exclusively for our entire lives, then still 90% of what it can do, it never would do.
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David, I have two Nikon F4s and will never let them go. They have been my go to 35mm camera for the last 15 years. I used this camera for my submission's to stock library's back in the day. Shooting Fuji Velvia 50 and Provia 100. Awesome camera.
Nice and that's fantastic! Shooting stock is way harder than most people think.
have had my F4 for about a month now, can’t even count how many rolls of film i’ve already put through it, absolutely love the entire shooting experience with the F4, no plans to trade/sell anytime soon
Nice!
Love your videos, David! I have F "Apollo", F2AS, F5 and F6, but F3 and F4 in my collection are still missing. Hope I'll add one to the family sooner than later.
Thank you and very nice!
Thanks for that, David. I see you were in my neck of the woods recently. Love my F4’s. The beat up one’s for parts down the road. They feel so good in hand, so engaging and intimate that a kind of bonding takes place when I use it. Not all cameras feel that way. I’m upping my game to a full frame digital soon, but a part of me gets turned off with screens and menu’s especially when learning a new system. Something about the F4 feels just right. Thanks again.
May have been, or not. The photos in this were taken over about five years. I didn't have enough when my first F4 was stolen to finish the video then so I had to pick up another and I held off on that for about two years. So some of the photos in here are from 2017.
I concur about the screens, menus, and overall complexity of digital now. It's honestly not fun to look through a camera and feel like I only understand about 15% of it really well, and to know I'm paying for a few hundred features and settings that I'll never use.
Previously F4 I had an F801 and I must say this upgrade also make wonders to my film photography meaning to allow me to use my old and new lenses and after so many years from it was built the light meter remained sharp. And a final note: the weight that so many points as a problem for me is perfect, fits the way I like cameras. Thank you for this rewiew. Regards from Brazil.
Thank you and yes, this is a big step up from the F801 (also a good camera for its design.)
Love the Nikon F series! I’ve got one original F, couple of F2’s. Reluctant to go with the electronic versions (F3 and after), but the F4 is a nice machine when the electronics are intact. Thanks.
Nice collection and thank you!
I bought an f4 as my main film camera a few months ago, I haven't really had the time to dedicate to using film, but it's my intention. It feels like a good pairing to my digitals which are a Nikon d810 and a Fujifilm X-H1 that I use mainly with manual Nikon lenses, pre Ai, Ai/Ais and a few D and G lenses as well. Choosing the f4 seemed right being that it was one that could use any Nikon lenses I own.
Good choice. This will work well in that linekup.
Love my F4S and sometimes just an F4, have both configurations. I collect everything F4, I have quite a collection. Cheers!
Nice!
Just got my first copy of an F4, and in perfect condition!
Nice!
More than 13 years ago I broke my F4s viewfinder, keeping it as a collection piece of my Nikon period while I was moving to Lumix. Last month I signed my back in The Nikon system buying a Df and Voigtlander lenses. What did happened ? I just picked up my good old F4, bought a new DP20 and some Agfa b&w films, just used it this afternoon. I simply love this camera coupled with the Df it’s a great duo of machines to make photos. Now I’m thinking about buying a second one for backup.
Nice!
Great vid. Love my F4. Matrix metering on all my manual focus Nikon ais lenses. Can use modern G lenses as well. Can us my pre Ai lenses as well. Built like the proverbial. AF is great apart from AF tracking which I don't use film for. Digital for that. The only thing I don't like is how loud it is especially with its auto advance. I have an FM3A in the post.
Yes! Matrix metering with the manual-focus lenses was amazing.
F4 is an amazing camera, robust and well designed. I had two of them but decided to stick with my F2. I like the all mechanical feeling and never used the F4 advanced features anyway, and don't shoot a whole lot of 35mm any more.
Thank you! Similar feeling here. I'm finishing up with my F2 before I sell it but will keep my F3. The smaller weight is much nicer on long hikes.
@@DavidHancock I debated f2 vs f3 for a while, but fell on the f2 side. It feels more mechanical and does not rely on electronics. I have the AS finders and also eye level ones in case the electronics give up.
I love mine so much, but I just wish the autofocus was a little better.
Yeah, it's a bit slow and can be imprecise with some lenses. For the time, it was top-notch. Incredible how far we've come technologically.
'90% of what the camera could do; it never would do'.. I realised that about my digital cameras a few years back... So I got rid of digital and I now have an immaculate Nikon F4 which I'm loving.. No more scrolling through menus of endless features that I'll never use... While the F4 might have been complex in its day, it is so simple now when compared to the average modern feature overloaded digital camera.
I completely concur. I used to absolutely dread making videos about the 90s film cameras because they were so much more complex than the 60s cameras. And then I started making videos about DSLRs, and the early DSLRs were so much more complicated that cameras like the F4 became easy to make videos about. And then I started making videos about new digital cameras and the ancient ones are so simple they're easy to make videos about. The amount of complexity in modern cameras is nuts to me since there are only about fours features I use in them (for still imagery) that aren't available in my oldest film cameras.
Nice
I use my F4 almost exclusively for slide films. Excellent representation of one of the world''s best SLR ever made.
Thank you!
just purchased an F4 and waiting for it to arrive. curious if this is a decent deal... Nikon F4S (MB21), Nikon Speedlight SB-28, AF-S DX ED 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 GIINikon F4S (MB21), Nikon Speedlight SB-28, AF-S DX ED 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 GII, shipped for $240
link to item i.imgur.com/CXU6JEO.jpg
That's a good deal.
@@DavidHancock thanks. sorry for the repeating of words on my comment.
a TH-camr mentioned that the DX lens is a crop lens so they're not ideal on full frame cameras.
i mentioned that to the seller so i ended up getting it for $200 with shipping included.
everything is pretty awesome shape and everything seems to be working. running a roll of Fujicolor 200 thru it now.