Durable, versatile, precise. If you use AFS lenses the AF is as fast as the new cameras.

AF is not a problem (use AFS if you need AF speed). A beep is missing for the self timer. Almost impossible to stop the timer, once started.

It is the best 35mm ever built. AF is fast if you use AFS lenses. Best manual focus camera ever used.

Customer Service

never used.

Similar Products Used:

F2,F301,F501,F3,F3HP, D1, Kodak DSC ...

Weight, build quality and construction, excellent styling and ergonomics combine to produce one of the best ever professional bodies from any manufacturer in the 35mm arena.

The ability to take most of Nikons highly impressive line of lenses, from the oldest to the latest is a real advantage as much of Nikon (and Canon, Pentax etc) best glass was made in the pre AF days.

Matrix metering is accurate and works well with all AIS manual focus lenses and AF lenses. Inbuilt spot meter a choice of pentaprisms and focusing screens plus 3 different battery packs make this one versatile body. Inbuilt viewfinder illumination in a lovely shade of green is easy on the eyes though hard on the batteries.

Extensive range of Nikon and 3rd party accessories.

Uses either a mechanical shutter release cable (AR-3) or electronic version such as the MC-30 or MC-20.

Choice of two optional databacks the MF-22 for basic time/date imprinting and the far more useful MF-23 that extends the F4 body with features such as inbuilt intervalometer, long exposure timing, between frame and in frame date/time imprinting, autobracketing for up to 19 frames etc.

AF speed is not as fast as the latest offerings from Nikon. However it's no slouch with AF-S lenses.

When introduced in 1988 the F4 was a truly ground breaking design with many features of the more traditional manual camera coupled with the advances in Auto Focus and automatic camera operation. The F4 is often cited as being a slow performer in the AF stakes, however the reality is that many photographers over value AF speed and don't realise that focusing manually is often faster and more accurate. For the record AF focusing speed is more dependent on the lens used than the body with the Nikon system. An AF-S 600/4 focuses extremely quickly on the F4 body, as does the older 300/2.8 AF-N. Consumer lenses such as the variable aperture zooms tend to focus slower and the difference in focusing speed between the F4 and F5 becomes more noticable.

The 1/250th second flash synch and 1/8000th max shutter speed allow the photographer the option of using very fast glass outdoors in full sun with fast films for catching the action in sports and wildlife.

The other main bi**h by photographers is that the F4s is too heavy.

My only comment is that these folks must be puny weaklings who've never used an F2AS/MD2 combination which weighs in at a nice 1.3kg without batteries or even a humble FE or FE2 with MD-12 which weighs about the same as the F4s. The simple fact is that cameras that use a metal chassis are heavy, however they are also long lived and the weight is actually a blessing in disguise as it acts as a damper against photographer induced camera shake and also shutter and mirror bounce and so on.

In summary, the F4 isn't perfect, but it is one of the most useable bodies Nikon have produced. No fiddling with speedwheels and other Canon inspired crud, coupled with Nikon engineering at its best make the F4 hard to beat for both the working professional and serious amateur.

Customer Service

Yearly CLA from the local Nikon agent. Excellent service, not cheap but thorough and with a fast turn around time.

Similar Products Used:

All Nikon bodies with the exception of the F501. Most Canon and Pentax bodies.

Build Quality,
Meter is very accurate,
Removable Prism, great for low down macro,
6 frames/sec
MLU
Manual and electronic cable release,
Dials instead of funny wheels,
Nikons last classic camera in the F series

I don't see any. I brought it because I do landscape and hyperfocal everything I shoot so AF is not a issue. I do though now have a HSM Sigma lens and it's very fast so I don't know what everyone raves on about.
Some say it's heavy but plastic cameras aren't so maybe they shopuld look at them. I expect build quality so weight isn't a issue.

Very well built camera. The main dials are all on the right hand side so are easy to get to, unless you are lefthanded.
I like MLU for macro and long tele's and it one reason I brought the camera.
It's still the best camera Nikon has made

Customer Service

I serive my camera once a year, just a clean up.

Never needed Nikon's service

Similar Products Used:

Have a F50, and F80, The F80 is so light it feels as though it will break in your hands but it's got great features for the money

Very sturdy feel. Heavyness good for hand holding at low shutter speeds. Have all the needed features of a manual SLR.

Best camera ever made.

The camera strap gets in the way of the film door when laoding film while standing whioch is a pain as a photojournalist where enches and chairs are not common. AF is too slow for action, but is made up for by ultra-mega hyper fast motor drive. No bracketing w/o data-back, or shiftable program mode.

I will never use another camera ever again.

Customer Service

Have not had to use.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta 9000, 2xi, 7000i, Pentax, K1000, ZX5, Cannon, AE1, Nikon N2020.

Superb construction. Superb ergonomy, I love the 100% coverage viewfinder with all information within.

Weaknesses??? well, maybe the weight whith the MB23; but it's also a good thing to shoot with slow speeds.

I only tried a camera that can superates the F4, and it's the F5

Customer Service

In Spain it is not as good as it have to. but the quality of the product compensates that

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F5, Nikon F90X Nikon F801s

Bought it in 1990 for t trip to Africa. Selected it over EOS-1 because of 100% viewfinder, excellent eye-relief. Mirror lock-up, manual rewind. Compatability with older lenses.

Slow autofocus, weight. Sometimes the prism housing has dropped off. (no damage)

I use it with lenses from 20mm to 500mm, and am very pleased with the results. May get an F5 (or F6), someday, just for the better metering and autofocus.

Customer Service

Very good locally. Sometimes, same day.

Similar Products Used:

IIIa & IIIc/f Leicas, Rolleiflex, Old Kodak 35s, Olympus, other misc cameras.

it is very durable i tried it in high humidity conditions
shutter is very strong
my first SLR till now drop it 2 times and still never give me failures in short this baby never gana let you down..

for me i use it for 5 year and two months and you know i DONT KNOW.....

F4 is old right now lets face it but for me for my work it is just perfect to work with what i need is there like the 100 percent view its manual rewind in short its perfect for me ok......

Customer Service

ones, i have just to calibrate my shutter
for maintenance thats all!

Similar Products Used:

FM2
F90

none

every thing.

I had one from new for 2 years and had the following - cracks around the screws on the top left and right of the body,the switch for the different meter meathods was not changing the info in the viewfinder,so i never realy knew what the camera was reading.,The film stoped winding on and every thing in the right hand side of the camera had to be replaced,this took them 6 months to do.,even the lenses i had were not great. The 80-200 2.8 was sharp when i bought it but after a year it went soft.I was told by another pro that this was normal and that they need to be tightened up every now and then. Bought a EOS 1N after that which was 10 times the camera but had the same problems with their zooms.Even the F3 was a better camera.I can't believe it took so long for nikon to bring out the much much better F5 and i also can,t believe it took so long to add a tripod socket to the 80-200

Customer Service

vague.Parts out of Japan took forever.

Similar Products Used:

contax,leica canon

built,
metering,
reliable,
easy to use,
100% view,

heavy

Great camera, quite possibly the best camera Nikon has ever built. In Japan the F4 is tout as the best "manual" Nikon camera ever. People should realize that F4's AF was an after thought, it is really a manual camera. If you want AF, go with Canon, which many did at the time, but other than that, it's a winner.

Similar Products Used:

None

Tough, Solid, Superb Quality!

Later models after about 1994 have better paint and various small upgrades.

A great used camera value!

The MF-23 "Control Back" is basically worthless. I for one don't have hours and days to read a poorly written instruction booklet in trying to figure out pointless features that nobody uses anyway.

The back sticks out about 3/4 of an inch, gets in the way and interfers with handling causing the thumb of the right hand to get cramped. All-in-all, avoid the MF-23 back as it's another piece of expensive and useless junk.

Own and use a Nikon F4E for making 35mm color slides used in auto visual presentations. Acquired this camera three-years ago.

Without reservation - the F4 is a superb high quality unit! This camera is the M1 Garand Rifle of the 35mm photographic realm. If you don't feel like shooting with the thing, then a person can bust down locked doors with it ! Wonderful balance and heavy enough to keep it rock steady.

A fine heavy piece of equipment created for ultra-heavy duty use the F4 is simply "spectacular"! Only a whining weasel or pathetic girlie man complains about the weight of an F4, which does make this wimp's arm somewhat tired now and then after a period of time.

Officially last manufactured in 1996, rumor has it that the Nikon F4 is being made once again to fill consumer demands in the face of collapsed sales for the newer F5 camera. Perhaps Nikon is putting together F4 cameras from components that are on hand. Whatever the reason, new in the box F4 cameras are showing up with high serial numbers in the 1996 year range and the going street price is $1600.00 U.S. It is interesting to note that at the time of this writing 7/15/01, the current "new" Nikon F5 cash price in New York City has dropped to about $1500.00!

Have one of the later F4 series built in 1995 with serial number 2500XXX. This one has the improved features over the earlier version F4 camera.

Owned for a time a Nikon 8008 and dumped it within a short time as it was a piece of cheap plastic junk. Having started out doing Newsphotog work during the 1960's, we used both the Mamiyaflex TLR cameras as well as the Nikon F with and without F36 motordrive. The controls of the F4 are intuitive to anyone who has used any of the previous professional grade Nikon camera like the F series. Cameras like the 8008 and F5 with liquid display screens having dial wheels for controls are simply annoying dilettante nonsense and will no-doubt fail in cold temperatures. Perhaps a reason for the high demand of the old F4 at solid prices while the F5 camera proves a marketing failure is that basic, simple, heavy and rugged are more important to most people than childish excrescent bells n' whistles.

The F4 is no-nonsense and the need to consult an instruction book for any person having basic photography knowledge is not required to start taking pictures at once.

All-in-All, I would highly recommend the Nikon F4 to anyone who's interested in cogitative 35mm photography. My wife, who is Asian and weighs just 130 pounds, loves the chunky F4 camera and I have a hard time getting it away from her for my own use.

Nothing in this world is perfect. Whatever flaws in design that this camera has are very small. The Nikon F4 is a marvelous instrument and I am very happy with mine

Customer Service

Don't do Customer! Never deal with warrantees or any other that nonsense.

Nikons (except for early F2 and all F3) just don't break anyway.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F (all non/meter models), F2 (most meter models), F3, FM, FM2N, N2000, N2020, 6006, 8008, 'ALL' Graflex SPEED GRAPHIC 4x5, Mamiyaflex, Mamiya C2, C3, C33, C330f, C330S, RB67, 645, Bronica 2x2, etc. etc.