Nikon F100
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| Pro | Build Quality
Speed Size/Ergonomics Flash/Exposure Control Nikon System PC connectivity | ||
| Contra | Clumsy AF control
Lack of full Data Back available Lack of Mirror Lockup | ||
| Thoughts | Though I've been a fan of many higher end 35mm SLRs, like the EOS 3, Maxxum 7, and MZ-S, among others.
But the F100 really brings it all together in a sizeable package. It's body is very sturdy and comfortable to hold--compared with the EOS 3, it feels a bit smaller and more maneuverable in the hand and utilizes more dedicated dials and buttons--one for each function. I'm quite imressed with Nikon's 3D-TTL flash system (though the D lens doesn't make much of a difference). Like the Matrix metering system, it's very accurate without intervention. On the other hand, the AF system, while INCREDIBLY fast, is a little awkward in regards to setting the AF points, but with practice, becomes second nature. Unlike the F4, 5 and 6 models and other cameras at a similar user level, the F100 is only available with an optional date back. the PC uplink program makes up for this, provided you have a compatible application. This camera was what motivated me to go back to the Nikon system from the EOS system. It's a very sturdy camera and certainly worth a look if you can find one new. | ||
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| Pro | A pro camera, without the price.
It's early days I'll see. | ||
| Contra | Is there a way to re-wind film and leave out a leader mid roll? | ||
| Thoughts | I wanted a replacement for my old SLR that didn't feel like it had come out of a cracker, The 100 fits the hand perfectly. As my first results start coming back I find out if the pictures sit comfortable. | ||
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| Pro | Tiene un viewfinder completamente iluminado, sus botones de comando pueden ser utilizados a ciegas, su ensamble con cuero rugoso le oprime fuerza y confiablidad, persistente. el AF funciona RAPIDO una tecnologia alta que no debe ni puede de nionguna manera envidiar a una f5. | ||
| Contra | Tiene detalles que aparentemente demuestran frajilidad , pero a la hora de exponer responde como un monstruo. | ||
| Thoughts | La f100, , es una maquina de sensaciones profesionales, y es perfecto para trabajar. Sus mecanismos inspiran ese algo que te permite hacer fotos excelentes. Es muy distinta cuando viene cargado de su mb15, y demuestra todo su poder. Una maquina con todo excelente. Desde su cuerpo hasta la capacidad de encuentro con un sb80 dx, por ejemplo. | ||
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| Pro | Very solid.
Extremely quick to focus, establish f stop and take the shot with zero delay between trigger and shutter opening. Great feel | ||
| Contra | Some buttons are poorly located and commands are not as intuitive as they could be. | ||
| Thoughts | I resisted getting a new 35mm camera since getting my F2 (F3 was said to be no better than 2, F4 was better but heavy, F5 was said to be heavy and pricy) but the F100 is definitelly taking over and replacing my F2 in an instant. It's not too heavy, relaitvelly easy to use and, with a good lens (I use a 24-85) used properly, the right combo of metering, apperture and speed, the shots that are created are amazing. | ||
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| Pro | Friends: The endangered spieces of film faithfuls | ||
| Contra | Foe: the digital Juggernaut | ||
| Thoughts | Belatedly I noticed that I posted my message on a long dead forum. Just one last thought: the F100 might well be the last great film SLR, since photogs already are going digital in droves. Pitty, on both counts. | ||
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| Pro | A baby F5, in size & weight, with most but not all a pro needs. Controls are in all the right places; in hand, the camera feels at home. Excellent spot, average, "matrix" metering, AF quite fast. Nicely designed, an obvious pro job, and a joy to use. | ||
| Contra | Fixed Finder covers only 96% of image; no blind, er, there is, or was, a small plastic thing, not seen since the camera was bought. Tiny (beats 1 cent euro coin) plastic screw-on cap for remote control contact (not used, not lost, yet). A few plastic parts for those who care. Noisy electromagnetic DOF preview---fires like a kalashnikov. Those 22 custom functions hard to remember; I put the camera in a "F3 mode" and forgot the rest. | ||
| Thoughts | Should check each and every function in store before buying, which is impossible. Too bad: back at home, the mirror of my brand new F100 turned out to be of the "instant NO-return variety" with the camera in aperture priority mode. Could the camera be replaced? No, said my dealer, Nikon's policy is to send it in for repair. After a month of haggling, the dealer, an old acquaintance, finally agreed to give me a new body, and I've been happy ever since. | ||
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| Pro | 1. Build quality (magnesium alloy body with weather protectin) 2. Ergonomics. The body feels and works just right 3. Excellent viewfinder. No eye strain whatsoever 4. Superb metering (both ambient and flash) 5. Very soft mirror/shutter operation 6. Very agile AF | ||
| Contra | 1. Compromised quality control 2. Eats batteries for breakfast, dinner and lunch 3. No viewfinder blinds and mirror lock-up - a real bummer for macro photography 4. No default leader-out option | ||
| Thoughts | Personally I haven't had any reliability problems with this body, but my friend has. AF thumb pad in his F100 locked on the outmost left AF sensor -a $150 repair. Anyway, I've shot with this camera only briefly, so probably I just did not have enough time to discover any "surprises". Camera worked like charm with 28-70 AF-S and Sigma 70-200 EX HSM and I was really thinking about how to make some quick money to get the F100. This camera fits very well defined niche - a great all-around shooter, however you should be aware of its limitations (look up in Contra section). | ||
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| Pro | Solid tough body. Handles very well. Excellent metering. | ||
| Contra | Suspect QC. Mine has had problems. No mirror lockup. MF-29 is useless. | ||
| Thoughts | My 3 month old F100 stared going crazy last month. Even with fresh batteries, the LCD will suddenly show an error message and the camera simply freezes. Only way out was to remove batteries and load it back. After this it wouldnt respond and I have to rewind the film each time and load in a fresh roll. Off late, it suddenly rewinds midway through a roll. These are not bulk rolled films either - regular store bought Kodak E100VS and Kodachrome 200. Nikon has had it for over 2 weeks and nothing has happened. Ive never seen anything like this from my old F90x. Makes me feel Nikon is going down the tubes. What happened to QC? Nikon sauys they wont replace the body since it is within warranty period and it should be repaired. | ||
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| Pro | Rugged construction. Ergonomic interface. Fast autofocus and film advance. Lots of metering and focus options for creativity. Customizable for user preferences. Accurate meter. | ||
| Contra | No mirror lock up - a definite problem with certain lenses and shutter speeds. Lack of eyepiece shutter. Interval timer and focus priority shutter would have been nice. Accessories are far too expensive (photo secretary, PC cable, cable release, etc.) | ||
| Thoughts | Overall, a great camera. Myriad of focus options somewhat difficult to master. Lithium batteries good for about 30 rolls of film. | ||
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| Pro | AF is fast! As fast as the F5. Light-weight, yet rebust. Strong, dependable and a pleasure to use with logical and friendly lay-out buttons. The five AF area selections light up in red is a plus vs. the F5's black/gray. Also these five AF areas are a plus---ease in composition vs. N90s. Very comfortable to handle---"fits like a glove" | ||
| Contra | If Nikon calls this their Professional camera, why don't they make it 100% view? Mirror lock, a custom setting with rewind to leave film leader out? Lastly (not so important as I don't often use, but nice to have) it should have a Multi-Control back, not just a simple data back MF-29 (which I think is useless). (I think I know why, Nikon does not want this to out sell their F5, so they did not produce the multi-control back). The focus selection switch is too small. | ||
| Thoughts | My complaints are very minor. When I first own only one camera body (which is the F100), I often change film in mid-roll. So the "leave-the-film-leader-out is important to me. Plus the 96% viewfinder is good already, because with print film part of the photographs have been cut out from the frame already. Despite my complaints, I think this is truely the best camera for the money! I never regret replacing my N90s with this one. I have used N90s before the F100, and I can assure you I can tell the difference in performance, handling and capabilities (of course when N90s is without its powerful MF-26). One thing for sure, in contrast to my ex-N90s, I can carry the F100 without worrying it might slam on my tripod or a tree or a log. If you want a camera that is as close as the F5, this is it. This is a camera...performance! | ||
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| Pro | everything. | ||
| Contra | at each release, it shows error message in any Mode , at all apertures except 2.8......the real problem is that it underexposes by at least 2.5 stops all the ambient pictures(not the flash ones ) is there a cure ??? help. (I don't have the manual) | ||
| Thoughts | almost half the price of the superb F5, I think it is more than enough for taking great pictures at all times. | ||
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| Pro | When it's working it is good! | ||
| Contra | Hello, This is a desperate request for help on how to extract justice from the Nikon Corp. regarding my F100. I bought this lemon less than two years ago and it arrived with a faulty rewind mechanism. First, it would not rewind halfway through a roll, second it was rewinding VERY slowly. I sent it back under warranty and the said they fixed it. Now I am out of warrantee, It started to just rewind spontaneously with no warning and finally quit rewinding all together. I sent it back again. They want $266.00 to "overhaul" it. I have been shooting Nikon for 16 years and have never had a problem that is such a blatant manufacturing flaw as this. I am a professional and make my living from my equipment. I am already loosing $ from this inconvenience. Any recommendations on how to proceed? I wrote a letter to some guy named Rick Houghton 3 weeks ago and have not heard back. Please respond if you have suggestions. Thanks, Paul B. Richer [email protected] www.richerimages.com PH#801-328-9094 | ||
| Thoughts | Faulty rewind mechanism and crap customer service!!! | ||
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| Pro | Great build. Excellent handling. Fast AF. Very good 3D matrix meter. Auto rewind (saved me a more then once). Logical controls placement. Light weight (compared to F5). Excellent AF start button which saves me the hassle to press the shutter half way. SB28 combination works excellent. | ||
| Contra | Mo MLU. Bracketing limited to 2-3. I really need 5 which I could do on my F90X+MF26. 96% frame coverage. No audible warning beeps (e.g. self timer, rewind). Plastic back cover. MF29 is worthless (MF26 is much better). No eyepiece shutter (had it on my F90X). No focus priority (had on my F90X+MF26). No interval timer (had on my F90X+MF26). No Auto-sequence shot (had on my F90X+MF26). Long time exposures requires MC-20 which is expensive. Plastic rewind fork. I think that F5 is the only camera with a metal one. Even EOS1v is plastic. Brass (not stainless) Lens Mount Flange. To hard to remember 22 custom functions. Minolta did a great job with their new camera in this area. | ||
| Thoughts | Despite my complaints this is a great camera. Some of the features I had with my F90X+MF26 I rarely used them so I do not really missed them. Do yourself a favour and buy Lithium batteries ! DOF is noisy but you can save some film with it when someone which wants to be filmed (and you never saw before) just press the DOF button. | ||
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| Pro | GREAT feel, great options. No battery problems really. | ||
| Contra | Unable to time multiple, or bracketed exposures, and re-setting exposure mode requires (my) eye to be removed from the camera. A manual rewind like the F5 would have been nice. Still dubious about the survivability of all the electronic wizardry in hot/tropical weather. My manuals have never complained. | ||
| Thoughts | I returned the first one I had, and have yet to test the second one again in the heat. It lasted only 4 1/2 weeks in Africa before the heat, continuous dust, and vibration got to it, and it began failing intermittantly (humitity maybe, as it failed again in Spain during one HOT day, but never in the evening). The German and Swiss Nikon dealers wanted it back so badly to examine it, they actually they called the place I purchased it and told them I was coming for a replacement. I wonder if they appreciated the smell of raw Nile Perch which I was unable to remove from it after I let some El Molo children shoot a few pictures with it around their village by Lake Turkana-nothern Kenya - oh, they also gave it 2 (fishy) thumbs up. | ||
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| Pro | - | ||
| Contra | - | ||
| Thoughts | OK, let's have a serious review about this camera now. A review of me, someone who really have some experience in using this camera. Since april 2000 I am an owner of the Nikon F100. I buyed this camera together with the AF-Nikkor 35-70 2.8, the AF-Nikkor 80-200 2.8 and the SB-28 Flash unit. That was to replace my previous equipment, consisting of an F50 body, AF-Nikkor 35-80 4-5.6, AF-Nikkor 80-200 4.5-5.6 and the Sigma 18-35 3.3-4. After three years of using an F50 I really felt like grown out of this camera. My F50 could serve as the second body in my new equipment. Firstly I didn't want to replace my wide-angle-zoom, because it would get so expensive. But when I saw my first photos taken with my new equipment, the lack of quality of the Sigma-zoom was too clear to maintain this. In compare to my previous Nikkor-lenses the quality of the Sigma was always a bit fewer. But in compare to my new lenses the lack of quality became really dramatical in color rendition and sharpness. After having discovered this, I had the Sigma in my bag, but avoided the use of it as a useless lens. But for the coming summer I needed something for the wide-angle range. I didn't want to spend much money for it, so I could forget something like the AF-Nikkor 20-35 2.8 or the AF-Nikkor 17-35 2.8. But it was possible to solve this problem in a cheaper way. I buyed an AF-Nikkor 28 2.8 and an AF Nikkor 24 2.8. And my equipment was complete enough for good use again. OK, that was more than f10.000,- in some months. Pooh! The quality of the photo's taken with this equipment is really great! Excelent sharpness in combination with Kodak Gold 100 films, and marvellous beautiful colours. The colour nuances I can depict now, with the previous equipment I could only think or dream about it. I even wonder how many professional photographers would have a miniature camera equipment which can give such a color rendition. Several times when I saw some professional photos, I thought by myself: I can do it better! Although the Nikon F100 is a complete camera capable to do everything you want, its handling is very easy. Much easier than the F50. I hardly use the motor drive. If you use this, pay attention if you have enough films in your bag! It is nice to use in football-matches for making a little story, for example of a penalty. For such hectic situations as a football game, the five-point auto focus is indispensable. In other situations it is handy. Flashing with my F100 and the SB-28 is a good thing. If I have to use the flash light as the main light in a room with a white ceiling, I turn the light upwards to get beautiful results. And the results are beautiful! Really perfect, always the right dose of light. With my previous equipment it was even impossible to get good results in this situations, because I had only the pop-up flash of my F50, which could only flash forward. Also fill-in flash is really perfectly dosed with this camera. Once a made a portrait photo of a boy in a bus with fill-in flash. I thought it would be very easy to flash with a little too few or too much light. The margins were very critical. But the dose of the light was so extremely accurate, that is was exactly right. Very beautiful! An other nice thing is the weight of the camera. Together with my AF-Nikkor 35-70 2.8 I have about 1,5 kilograms in my hands. With this combination I have taken sharp pictures with ISO 100 film in darkness when it was snowing, without tripod or flash!! With shutter times of around 1/4 seconds. With the Nikon F100, together with the rest of my equipment, photography has become really nice for me. Now I nothing have to do with "oh, I would like to do this or that, but it is not possible". I can do everything I want, with marvellous beautiful results. Outside taking unequalled sharp pictures by using low sensitive film, and when I step into a beautiful church where it is forbidden to take pictures with flash, I simply take my second body with high sensitive film, and I am happily going on taking beautiful pictures. | ||
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| Pro | - | ||
| Contra | - | ||
| Thoughts | I use the Nikon F100 as my main camera for shooting weddings,and always carry a back up camera my F5 just in case the camel trader nicks the F100. | ||
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| Pro | - | ||
| Contra | - | ||
| Thoughts | this is one great camera!!!!!!! i never have any problem with the exposure.98%of my pics are very well exposed by her,the 2% out of 100% are the situation which i think it's too hard for a camera.i love the feeling when she's in my hand.she fits me like a glove!!!!!!the body was very well builded,and she's solid as a rock!!!!the af is a snap!!! but every camera have it's own problem.once the joy stick just wouldn't work,but after i took the film out and adjust the back a little... it comes alive again!!!!and i never have that problem again. anothe thing is i can't use the timer when shooting multiple exposure. but any way it worth every $ i'd paid!!!!!!!!! | ||
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| Pro |
fast auto focus quality built good handling light weight f5 excellent flash interface with sb28 & d lenses | ||
| Contra |
no mirror lock up poor location of manual,auto body switch | ||
| Thoughts | pro level but expensive. quality does cost. whish it had the f5 metering system. probably the best in its class.< | ||
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| Pro | - | ||
| Contra | - | ||
| Thoughts | A great camera which I have owned for the past 6 months. Great metering, autofocus system, well constructed and reliable with consistant results. | ||
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| Pro | A very good camera: + works very good in combination with the SB 28 when it concerns fill-in flash;Is very accurate with flash even with spot-flash.A good matrix metering that can be used in situations without backlight. Very fast autofocus; accepts all lenses -old and new- without problems! Is a very creative camera that has all possibilities you can imagine except multiexposure in combination with timer beacause it is the same knob. | ||
| Contra |
- consumes far to much batteries! (sometimes up to 4 batteries on 4 films)
Is not always fast in handling in fast changing light situations - for instance changing spot to matrix-metering takes up far too much time and the timer shutter does not jump back after the shot! Sometimes the finder information disappears so you have to restart the camera to get it back- The batterie-level indicator is worthless: What happens is that hte camera just stops and indicates that it is done with youre electricity | ||
| Thoughts | Logical controls, good exposure compensation facilities (this was an add on for the F90x) and a useful electronically operated
depth of field preview which is a joy to use!
My only quibbles: 1) It has a plastic back (the rest is a light magnesium alloy) 2) No eyepiece shutter for timed exposures (there is a workaround for this, you can lock the exposure and then do the timed release) 3) No mirror lock up (I don't use this but a Pro camera should have this function; I'm guessing that Nikon can change the software for a workaround on this - eg, mirror fires 1 second before shutter release!) Apart from that it's a real cracker of a camera with more features than you'll ever need! 9/10 | ||