Nikon F5
Life is change, since the beginning of the year (2021), I have a new favorite analog 35mm AF camera. And it’s not a Canon!
I never thought this would happen to me, let alone that I’d actually write these words and find myself heading out to shoot with this camera more and more often. It’s a Nikon F5, the last analog 35mm flagship camera from the major manufacturers to feature interchangeable viewfinders.
So, what happened to me? Of course, I’ve dabbled with Nikon cameras from time to time. A good friend of mine, who was also a former coworker of mine back in the last millennium at Foto Brell in Bonn, is a dedicated Nikonian.
And then, this happened: My partner was cleaning up and found a camera bag she had been searching for forever. Maja asked me if I wanted the old gear; otherwise, it was going straight into the trash. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN MURDER! Naturally, I had to rescue the equipment. The first thing I unearthed from the bag was a Minolta 7xi with a 28-80mm lens. Well... not exactly my cup of tea.
Nikon F5
Then I discovered a Tokina AF AT-X 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 (screw-drive) for Nikon. Mint condition! Oh, nice :-)
Next, a Nikkor AF 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 (screw-drive) emerged. Mint condition! It just keeps getting better :-)
And then, I found the real crown jewel in this unassuming bag—a Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 (screw-drive, push-pull zoom), also in near-mint condition! Finally, at the very bottom of the bag, I spotted a Sigma 18mm f/3.5 (screw-drive).
All of this was headed for the trash? Seriously? But why did my girlfriend own gear like this in the first place? What dark secret was she trying to hide from me? The mystery was solved quickly and rather unspectacularly: a trip around the world in the last millennium after graduating high school, and for a minor course during her college studies in the US. Today, Maja just shoots with a smartphone
Nikon F5
But my Nikon camera saw the light of the 21st century for the first time after years of obscurity, trapped in that nondescript camera bag.
Slowly, it was supposed to go. Nikon - a no-go for me in my youth. But now, of course, these lenses had to refocus light, burn it into silver, and thus be put to their intended use.
In the first step, I bought a Nikon F501 at auction - its design appealed to me even back then as an apprentice at Foto Brell.
Nikon F5
A couple of lenses were added:
Nikkor AF 2.8 35-70mm
My standard lens on the F5.
Nikkor AF 1.8 50mm
High light intensity for just a few euros.
Nikkor AF 3.3-4.5 28-70mm D.
Just bought it for 20 euros.
If at some point I could still get a light shaft finder cheaply ...
Nikon F5
You can download the Nikon F5 instruction manual here - just click on the picture and go to the link ...
Nikon F5
After a while I wanted MORE - GIVE ME MORE: MORE CAMERA - MORE AUTOFOCUS - AND ABOVE ALL MORE SEEKERS!
F4s or F5 - I was torn.
But I discovered an almost perfect F5 for less than 300 euros - that was the case and I adopted my F5.
The DW31 magnifying glass viewfinder for the Nikon F5 is shown here.
It is especially suitable for working in the macro area or for reproduction work because of its 6x magnification and allows precise manual focusing. Of course, it offers all of the camera's automatic functions, including AF. There is one small limitation: the viewfinder does not offer any Color matrix measurement. This is surely to be gotten over.
It enlarges the entire viewfinder image by a factor of 6 and has a built-in diopter correction of +3 to -5 dpt. - ideal for people who wear glasses.
Nikon F5
In the gallery at the bottom of this page you can see some pictures that I have recently taken with the F5.
I didn't scan the black and white negatives myself; I sent the film to a very good photo lab on the island, in Great Britain. This laboratory also fulfills unusual requests and so I always add black and white negative films to the package as an encore - to the chagrin of my account.
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