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You have to aim precisely at it, right at the center of the focusing screen, let the system focus on it, then keep the shutter release button half pressed (to lock the focus) and re-frame your picture. You can not simply point the camera loosely towards the subject, and expect the auto-focus system to locate it somewhere in the central area of the frame. It’s that the AF zone is so narrow that you really have to pay attention to what part of the scene the AF sensor is pointed at. Its biggest weakness in my opinion is not its slowness, or that it tends to hunt if the scene is poorly lit. Today, nobody would use a F4 to shoot sporting events with long tele-zooms, but in all fairness, with lenses of shorter focal distance, the auto-focus is reactive and accurate. The F4 was famously launched at the Seoul Summer Olympic games. Note how small it is compared to the overall surface of the screen. the auto-focus zone indicator is etched into the glass. The markers of AF area are very difficult to see if the subject is poorly lit, and it can be difficult to visualize exactly where the camera is focusing (on modern cameras the active auto-focus zone is often surrounded by red LEDs.
Nikon f90x vs f3 manual#
On the viewfinder’s focusing screen, at the place where the split image rangefinder would be on a manual focus camera, the AF zone is signaled by two small brackets engraved on the glass of the focusing screen. The module is shared with other Nikon auto-focus SLR bodies of the same period (F801/N8008, F601/N6006 for instance) but the F4’s auto-focus motor is stronger and the use of a 8 bit microprocessor makes the whole setup faster than on lesser cameras. Its single horizontal AF zone is composed of 200 CCD sensors, and the focus zone is very small (probably 3mm wide and 1mm high – if the engraving on the viewfinder’s focusing screen is any indication). The F4 is built around Nikon’s second generation auto-focus module, the “Advanced AM200”. Nikon F4 – an analog user interface with an incredible number of locks (counting 5 just in this pictures)
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Nikon f90x vs f3 professional#
The F4 was the first implementation of auto-focus on a professional SLR.Ĭompared to what was available in 1988, the F4’s auto-focus was not bad at all, but the arrival of the Canon EOS-1 one year later made it look slow and primitive, and today, the performance of its auto-focus system is what makes photographers think twice before using or buying an old F4. Minolta had launched the Maxxum 7000 in 1985, and Nikon had followed with their first auto-focus SLR, the F501 (N2002 in the US) one year later. In 1988, auto-focus was still in its infancy. It was also the last Nikon camera to enjoy (for a few years) an undisputed supremacy on the professional market. The F4 is at the same time the last Nikon pro-camera with conventional/analog controls, and the first offering most of the functions that modern bodies have made us familiar with (auto-focus, matrix metering, PASM multi-automatism, motorized film advance and rewind). Follow CamerAgX – a new life for old gear on Top Posts & Pages If you’re in the same frame of mind, welcome. I love taking pictures, I love old cameras, and that’s all it is about. And they will still be shooting film 10 years from now. People paint, ride horses, wear mechanical watches and play vinyl records for a multitude of reasons, some of them unsuspected 150 or 20 years ago. In the nineteen eighties digital watches did not kill mechanical watches, and vinyl records are making a comeback 20 years after CDs were launched. In the nineteenth century, photography did not kill watercolor painting and cars did not drive horses to extinction. But there is such an ample supply of nice second hand cameras that finding one you like is not a problem.įilm cameras are now extraordinarily cheap, and as long as you’re in no hurry to see your images and don’t take too many pictures, using SLRs or rangefinder cameras from yesteryear is a rewarding experience. It’s a different experience, and using different tools make you see the world differently. But I also love shooting with film cameras. Like anybody else, I use digital cameras. About old film cameras, and the pictures you can still make with them.