In this year the search engine Google was incorporated; the iMac is released; the winter Olympics take place in Japan and Nikon release the F60. What was the year?
The F60, also known as the N60 is an average camera. Features include Program, shutter priority, aperture priority manual and auto modes along with 5 vari-program modes. Matrix metering is set by default, however center weighted metering can be selected in manual mode or when the auto exposure lock is employed. It has one central focus point. However, according to the manual:
“The N60/N60QD’s new Auto-Servo AF is so advanced that it can detect whether a subject is stationary or moving, and also detects direction. According to the detected information, it automatically chooses to lock focus or activate focus tracking-either way, you’re assured autofocusing that works fast, accurately, and easily.”
This should be interesting to test.🤓
A limitation of the camera is that it only works with AF D/G and AI-P type lenses. I tried my 80-200mm f4.5 Nikkor lens and was greeted by F– , I had also lost all metering even in manual mode.😥
The camera has a solid feel about it despite its plastic construction, and is very comfortable to hold. It is a Nikon after all! With the 28-100mm f3.5-5.6 AF Nikkor G lens on, the camera weighs 1 3/4 lbs or 800grams.
I don’t normally use flash, but since the F60 comes with one I thought I would use it principally as fill in flash, and to see if it worked. When the flash is used it defaults to matrix balanced fill-flash. There is also red-eye reduction, slow sync and , you guessed it, re-eye reduction with slow sync modes available.
I already own one F60 so why did I get another? When I saw this camera in a local charity shop it had a roll of Kodak Gold 200 36 exposure film in it. When I got it home I discovered that it was on frame 11, so I had 25 exposures left and I had only paid the price of the film for the camera and the film. 🥳 But how long had the film been in the camera and under what conditions? Would it be any good? Only one way to find out. I visited one of my favourite royal parks in search of some images. The camera has DX coding so the camera automatically sets the film speed. However there is an exposure compensation feature. So I dialled in +1 exposure compensation to try to compensate for not knowing how old the film was.
Evidence of a little colour shift due to the age of the film.
This little chick approached very quickly as I was kneeling down, giving me an opportunity to try out the Auto servo AF and one focus point. Not bad🤔
The next few images I was able to try out the pop up flash and add some matrix fill flash
The fill in flash has helped to created good seperation of the main subjects and their backgrounds
What about the images that were already on the film?
There were a number of photos like the one below. Perhaps a village gathering? Nothing in the photo to place the time, other than not too long ago.
This camera is an average workhorse. I took it out with an average lens and I got average well exposed looking shots. It would be interesting to try it with some better prime AF lenses to see if these make any difference.
I don’t think I will be keeping this camera as I already have one. I can’t find a compelling reason to do so. But hey, I got to try out a 24+ exposures on a roll of expired Kodak Gold 200 and the camera came free. What’s not to like?
The year, if you haven’y already guessed , is 1998
arhphotographic 