Nikon

As I pointed-out in my review of the Nikon F4, I’ve said many times over the years that, “I’m just not a Nikon guy.” I also pointed-out that I was walking those words back a bit at that point. And now, as I sit down to write this review, I’m forced the reckon with an inconvenient truth: I am, now, indisputably, “a Nikon guy.” I didn’t see it coming, really, but the acquisition of a Nikon F5 professional SLR is the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. What else did I not see coming? How very much I could actually love a modern, highly electronic camera from what I refer to as the “new school” of SLR camera design.

Over the years, I’ve uttered these exact words, multiple times: “I’m just not a Nikon guy.” But these days, I find myself walking those words back a bit. I wouldn’t necessarily define myself as a “Nikon guy” even now, but I have definitely carved-out a spot in my photographic heart for the beloved Japanese camera and optical brand, having now, with the Nikon F4, discovered for myself what others have apparently long known.

Last year, I surpassed the 200 camera mark in my film camera collection, and out of those, only one camera sported the name Nikon: My mother’s mid-1980s N2000 (known as the F-301 outside of North America), which I inherited when she passed a few years ago. It had been a gift to her from my father, and despite its simplicity, it was a little too much camera for her, and saw very little use. When I finally got around to using it, I came away relatively unimpressed. That was a few years ago, and while I need to give it a second chance, my sour opinion of it left me wondering why so many people are so enamored of Nikon cameras, and haven’t ever been able to shake the feeling that I was simply missing something. Recently, I seem to have gotten a glimpse of the reasons for all that Nikon Love among a certain subset of film camera enthusiasts.