Almost a perfect fusion between my F5 and D300. Suddenly everything made sense on the look, feel, and even the layout of the controls. Upon first picking up the F6, the first thing I noticed is how familiar it felt, and I’m not just talking about shooting my F5, but rather my D300. And despite film-based photography being niche the F6 continues to be made today and can be purchased new. The one thing that Nikon did re-introduce was the removable battery grip, with users choosing to purchase the optional MB-40 grip. Of all the single-digit F’s the F6 would be the least modifiable. The F6 would not be marketed to professionals but rather the luxury market who still wanted to shoot film and take advantage of all the new offerings that came with Nikon’s digital cameras. But as the world went digital, the F5 was dropped in 2004 replaced instead with the Nikon F6.
But the F5 set the standard for Nikon first professional digital SLRs, and that design carried on even into today with the D6. Compared to all the previous versions lacked a certain level of customisation, users were limited to a few backs and prisms. The F4 was a brick, big, bulky, and took a while for photographers to pick up on the new camera. The F4 would be a radical departure in both philosophy and design. But Nikon learned from all that rolled everything into 1988s Nikon F4. Then there was the autofocus revolution, Nikon had tried to break into that with the F3AF which flopped. Nikon R&D had been working overtime producing faster shutters (found in the FE2 and FM2(n)), automatic exposure (in the FG) and Matrix metering (in the FA, one of Nikon’s shorter-lived model but not the shortest). The F3 was long-lived (production running from 1981-2001). It also introduced the ‘red strip’ a feature all future Nikon bodies would have in some form. The F3 was a sleek black aperture priority camera that also leveraged the new AI and then AI-S lens system that did away with the mechanical coupling claw that was on the earlier Nikon F, and F2 lines (save the F2AS). Rather than release just another take on the F2, Nikon hired noted industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to design their new camera. The next step in the line came in 1981, but the world had changed, and the semi-automatic electronic camera revolution had taken place in the 1970s. The F2 proved just a modifiable as the F, and photographers took to the new camera. The F took the world by storm, and Nikon took all the concerns that users had about the F and rolled it into the equally popular successor the F2 in 1971. Soon photographers from around the world took their Nikon F cameras into every situation from metropolitan newspapers to the jungles of Vietnam. This included metered and un-metered finders, focusing screens, motor drives, and different backs. That being that the photographer could customise the camera to their personal needs. The F took all the major milestones in the history of photography from the first half of the 20th Century and rolled it into a modular camera system.
Nikon introduced the world to their first professional SLR, the Nikon F. The history of the Nikon F6 is traced back to 1959. The Nikon F6 complete with the optional MB-40 grip and 85mm f/1.4G lens used in the review A special thanks to James Lee for loaning out his kitted out F6 for the special 100th review. While the F6 was produced in the age when most professional photographers were shooting digital regularly, the F6 turned into a camera more aimed at the advanced amateur who wanted that professional level kit and had the coin to spare. It is also worth a note that this particular F6 is the final one to be sold by Nikon Canada. And while the Nikon FM10 is still produced, it is in fact, made by Cosina rather than Nikon itself. The F6 is the last film camera to be produced by Nikon. It is only fitting to round out the first 100 reviews with the final single digit film camera from Nikon, the mighty F6.