strength, relaibility, system versatility, overall handling and quality, availabilty and current price

some fiddly controls, flash short comings

I purchased a basic F3 with its' standard split image focusing screen 6 montrhs ago, to be part of a collection of old slr cameras I am building up. I will say now that this is not my favourite camera -that accolade goes to either my Pentax ME Super or Minolta XE1, but it has become my go to camera for most photographic situations I plan. A happy state of affairs I never intended for it at the time of purchase. Let me explain:-
With a standard or wide angle lens the camera sits comfortably in the hand, without a motordrive attached. It is easy to adjust the shutterspeed whilst your eye is at the veiwfinder. There is a brilliant verical shutter release built into the body for portrait shots. The wind on lever is smooth. It has depth of field preview and mirror lock up. There is enough heft in the body to make it ok to use with a zoom or short telephoto. It is very easy to use on a tripod. All of these virtues apply to many old slrs except the vertical shutter release, but the real reason for using the F3 is the lens and system back up. I rarely nowadays use a film camera for snap or holiday photography, digital is more convenient and cheaper, but if I want a special shot - that church where the tower is not falling backwards, that wide skyscape or a macro shot of funghi I like to use film and the nikon system provides me with readily available,top quality, not too expensive kit to do the job. As a consequence the F3 has lead me into also acquiring 28mm shift and 20mm wide angle lenses which have revolutionised the type of shots I can take. To do this with a DSLR would be way beyond my budget. So much has this camera expanded my capabillities I have ordered a grid focus screen and motordrive at quite small expense and eagerly await their arrival.

There are a few for me minor criticisms of the F3 -
The flash sync is slow only 80th second so fill in can be problematic
You would need a special flash unit to use flash as there is no standard hotshoe
The film speed dial is stiff and fiddly to change
The wind on lever although smooth has quite a long throw which I haven't got used to yet

So would I recommend this camera to anyone? Absolutely unless flash is your thing.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta X700, Minolta SRT101, Minolta XD7, Minolta XE1, Minolta XK, Minolta CLE, Pentax MX, Pentax ME Super, Olympus OM1, Olympus OM4, Contax RTS, Nikon FM2, Nikon F4

Heavy
Well Built
Smooth Action (film advance)
Easy to manipulate the settings
Works with modern AF Nikkor D type glass really well

Light meter display a little hard to read.

Where to start...the F3 is a beautiful piece of equipment that is an absolute joy to use. I had only first heard of this camera spoken in the words of legends of the 135 format. So when someone at my church offered me their father's old camera, which he had used as a press photographer. I immediately asked what sort of camera it was...to which they replied "It's a Nikon..F3 I think..."

"Yes please." was my near instant response.

This camera is a tank, I mean the k1000 is a solid camera, but the F3 brings a whole new meaning to tank. Heavy, yet easy to carry and use on a regular basis, good solid shutter, smooth film advance.

This camera helps me remember what it was like to shoot with 35mm again. In fact recently I caught myself going for the film advance lever on my D300...wait a minute...

Similar Products Used:

Minolta SRT-102
Pentax K1000
Minolta X-7a

Build like a tank, very solid build.
80/20 Center-weight metering is really good.
Easy to use, and very smooth to advance the film.
Motor drive attached to this camera will make it performed like a machine gun, very fast.

No hot shoe adapter.

I started using this F3/F3HP in the early 90's, working at a photo studio. Years later, I had been buying/collecting from one body to four bodies since then. It is the greatest MF camera I have used. Perfect for all type of photo assignments. Build like a tank, easy to use. It doesn't have the hot shoe adapter on top of the camera, so you'll have to find the adapter for it.

If you are in the market for the classic, beautiful designed camera body, go for this one. You won't regret it!

Customer Service

Excellent!

Similar Products Used:

Nikon FM2, F8008s, N90S, F100, F4s, and F5.

Everything except that weird illumination button on the finder. Hit and miss on reliability on that button.

None really.

Wow, I can't believe I'm the first to rate this camera on this site. That's a first!!
I'm not even sure where to start. IMHO this is the "cadillac" of Nikon manual cameras and always will be. It's rugged, it's been through wars, it's been in space and has always come through. My favorite of my cameras. I would take it anywhere and have the confidence of reliability. Two things I really like. 1) The titanium shutter and 2) the 80% reading in the viewfinder. Sort of a mini spot light meter. It's accuracy is unsurpassed. After all it had a 20+ year run on the production lines. That should tell you something. Nikon did well when this camera was created. Of this I have no doubt!! This camera deserves a 10 star rating...

Customer Service

None Needed.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkormats, FE2, FM2N, Nikon EL-2, FE.