Nikon F3 Reviews

Rating
Reviewed by:

Axle
( Intermediate)

Review Date
November 17, 2008

Overall Rating
5 of 5

Value Rating
5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5,
3 votes

Review 1 of 3

Price Paid: $0.00 from Gift

Summary:

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...

Strengths:

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

Weaknesses:

Light meter display a little hard to read.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta SRT-102
Pentax K1000
Minolta X-7a

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Rating
Reviewed by: Ket K.
(Professional)

Review Date
December 19, 2007

Overall Rating
5 of 5

Value Rating
5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
1 votes

Review 2 of 3

Price Paid: $500.00 from Private owner(s)

Summary:

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!

Strengths:

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.

Weaknesses:

No hot shoe adapter.

Similar Products Used:

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

Customer Service:

Excellent!

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Rating
Reviewed by:

mohawk51
( Expert)

Review Date
October 16, 2007

Overall Rating
5 of 5

Value Rating
5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
1 votes

Review 3 of 3

Price Paid: $550.00 from B&H

Summary:

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...

Strengths:

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

Weaknesses:

None really.

Similar Products Used:

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

Customer Service:

None Needed.

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