Nikon F3 HP

This camera has been in the family for many years. I did not get much use after the release of the Nikon D70s but is getting back to service now. I have just done a bit of cleaning to remove some dust from it and everything works perfectly as it should. The shutter speeds seem perfectly accurate and the light meter and aperture priority mode perfectly work as well. It is a great camera to use and the best part is that I can use pretty much all my Nikon lenses on it with the exception the the most recent ones which do not have an aperture ring.

Lenses

All lenses with a Nikon F mount and an aperture ring can be used on the Nikon F3. Typically I am using Nikon manual focus lenses. The main ones I use are the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 and Nikkor 200mm f/4. I have also played a little with the Samyang 14mm f/2.8, the Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 and I recently got an old Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 which I am probably going to use as well.

Sample images

Here are just a few images captured with the Nikon F3 and different lenses. Most of the time I shoot in aperture priority mode and trust the meter for the exposure. For the picture with snow I might have used 1 stop of exposure compensation.

Conclusion

This is probably one of the most reliable film camera ever made. The only down side of it is its weight. It is a rather large and heavy camera which you cannot really carry in a pocket but it is not much bigger than any recent DSLR. It is much tougher though! I recently bought a Nikon FE which I am currently testing out, we will see how it compares with the F3. So far I prefer the meter on the FE which has a needle instead of the LCD on the F3 but is it going to be as accurate as the F3 meter? We will see.