arhphotographic

Biggest, Heaviest, Fastest are just some of the words associated with the Nikon F5. But were these superlatives misplaced. This is what I wanted to find out. Soooo

Looking at the first, the BIGGEST.

The F4 is clearly the biggest camera! Wait a minute my F4 has the MB21 high speed battery grip which technically makes my F4 an F4s. So if we take the MB21 off ..

The F5 does indeed become the biggest Nikon of the professional models I have, unless you include the F4s in which case the F4s takes that superlative crown.

After a couple of hours out with the F5, with no shoulder strap, I can testify to the fact that it is hea..vy. But is it the HEAVIEST? Along with batteries, a lens is going to be attached when using this camera so I included one of my favourite lenses the Nikkor AF 28mm f2.8 in weighing the cameras.

Nikon F – 2lbs 3oz or 1kg; F2 – 2lbs 3oz or 1kg; F3- 2lbs or 900Kg; F4 – 3lbs 5 oz or 1.5Kg; F5 – 3lbs 5 oz or 1.5Kg

So the F5 shares this superlative with the F4. Its worth noting that the F4 takes only 6 AA batteries while the F5 takes 8, so technically the F4 is the heaviest. However in the real world you won’t notice any difference.

Finally the >>> fastest>>>. Only one way to find out. Time to video them both. Click on the images below to be taken to a video on my flickr account

First the F4

I make that approximately 7 seconds to get through 36 exposures, pretty good if you need the camera to do that! The F4 can rewind the film itself, but I wanted to reuse the test film for the F5, which was next.

I make that approximately 5 seconds to get through 36 exposures, outstanding and truly the fastest Nikon I have. Like the F4 the F5 too can rewind the film back into the cannister equally as fast.

However there is no point in being the fastest if all you get are blurred images that are over/under exposed. In the brief time I have owned the camera and whatever the lighing condition and auto focus lenses I used, the F5 almost instantly achieved focus. I thought the F4 was swift when it came to focusing, then I met the F5. In fact I would contend that it was as good as my newest(another superlative but not applicable to the F5) D500 in that regard. Perhaps this is testimony to the Nikon F5’s 1,005 pixel 3D color matrix meter making its first appearence in a Nikon camera.

One of the features worth mentioning is that lenses with VR work with the Nikon F5. I used the 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 G lens for the photo below and was grateful to have the VR to enable me to hand hold the camera and get the water to blur.

So the Nikon F5 may not be worthy of all the superlatives heaped upon it after all.

In its December 1999 issue, Popular photography offered this observation:

“After three months of the most extensive field and lab tests ever conducted by POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY on any camera, we concluded that the F5 has achieved a cutting edge triumph. It is certainly the most advanced, sturdiest pro camera ever.”

So we can add to the list of superlatives… “sturdiest pro camera ever” and “cutting edge triumph” sounds like one too.😉

While the F5 retains many of the dials and buttons that it’s predecessor the F4 had, it moves away with more menu driven functions. I will be diving into those and the other features of the camera on another occasion.

There is at least one more question to ask. Is it the bestest? (yes, I know its not a proper word) That is more of a subjective question. However from my brief time with it I would say it has the potential to be 🤔