Nikon F4: Unsung Cameras Of Yesteryear
Ғылым және технология
The Nikon F4 was Nikon's flagship film camera in the late 80s and early 90s. Disappointing for many pros, it has an often maligned place in Nikon's history. However, Chris Niccolls loved his F4 and he tells you why in our latest instalment of Unsung Camera of Yesteryear!
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Special thanks to Todd Korol and John Dean
Shot handheld on the Olympus OM-D E-M1 MK II
Shot and Edited By Jordan Drake
Пікірлер: 497
Nikon was popular amongst pros for its reliability and ruggedness - I don't remember many photographers in Vietnam running round with a Canon. NASA chose Nikon to take into space for the same reasons. I have used Nikon for over 50 years, shot thousands of rolls of film yet never had one in the repair shop. I cannot say the same for several buddies who preferred Canon, they were let down more than once and a body would often be out for repair. The F4 was an amazing leap forward and the layout and many of its features were the foundation of modern DSLRs today.
@dmac8247
2 жыл бұрын
Agreed.
@marcp.1752
Жыл бұрын
Just right, John. And Nikon 35mm SLRs with either Af or MF, are for my taste much better designed, cuter, more ergonomical, than Canon - always, especially with their silly "thumbwheel". I am used to it, but still... i hate it, ever since..for decades. ;-)
@revisionist3824
Жыл бұрын
Totally agree.....
@efreutel
9 ай бұрын
Nikon borrowed NASA aerospace construction techniques for the camera electronics- beginning with the F3, because Nikon knew the camera electronics had to be dead-on reliable over many years to win over skeptical pros. 👍👍👍
I think the F4's biggest failing was the video quality. The EM1 mkii did well though.
@milesian1
4 жыл бұрын
Only one film slot.
@mauromini1022
4 жыл бұрын
@@milesian1 AHAHAH
@jas_bataille
4 жыл бұрын
AHAHAHAHAA
@omphileneo
3 жыл бұрын
Haha.
Wide angle lens, super steady movement...I guess Jordan saw The Revenant recently.
@TheCameraStoreTV
7 жыл бұрын
I've been a Lubezki fan since Y Tu Mama Tambien! The Olympus stabilizer just lets me ape that look with less effort. Jordan @ TCSTV
@kiwipics
7 жыл бұрын
TheCameraStoreTV .... how about a review of the classic EOS 1.
@Ohnonomomono
7 жыл бұрын
It's great to see the EM1 MkII in action it truly looks like an in-body-gimbal. May I ask how you kept the focus in the walk-n-talk section around around 8:00?
@sambphillips959
7 жыл бұрын
John Taylor YES that is a brilliant idea!
@andreik3096
5 жыл бұрын
yep, helmut newton's one :-)
Holy shit this is GREAT. I've always wanted you to do videos about film but never got around to asking you so this is me pleading you to PLEASE make more videos about film and film cameras. I mean, just looked at how good most of the shots came out! Those portraits at the end were *amazing*. Even Chris' puddle shot was surprisingly epic looking. Everything just looks better on film imo So please, guys, consider making videos about film photography because it's not dead yet. Not even close.
This was my favorite video that you guys have done and helped remind me why I used to love my old Nikons back in the day. More segments like this, please.
best pics i've seen made by you. this camera inspires you.
I sold a bunch of Nikon equipment and bought an EOS1 along with several lenses and was happy with it until I tried using it in low light. The autofocus was dismal and my daughter's Nikon N-8008s would out-focus it every time. Our local Canon rep admitted that was a known problem but that they were working to fix it. Not the answer I wanted to hear, so I sold the EOS and switched back to Nikon. I've had my 2 F-4's for a lot of years and never had a problem. And I love the fact that they will take all of my Nikkors all the back to my original F lenses. I still have my Canon F! original model, and love it!
@JefferyAHoward
4 жыл бұрын
That is a great comment. I agree 100 percent.
I loved how the pictures turned out! That black and white look is perfect. I think your photos taken with this camera are probably the most beautiful ones I've seen you take in a video.
I am a camera salesperson, and totally digital professional for over 20 years........I played with this camera a while back and indeed it did make me want to shoot film again.
Neat video! I picked up an F4 years after they became obsolete and fell in love with shooting it. The feel of it in the hand is second to none.
There's something about film grain that makes everyday images look special.. Great video guys! I think your entire videos are getting good enough to merit your own TV show!
Love the portraits the best. They are incredible! Thanks for this step back in time for reflecting on how "easy" and we have with the modern digital cameras. Not to say they are better, but the experience is much different.
That was a fantastic blast from the past. I too had an F4, purchased on its beautiful looks alone. Saw that body and the money flew from my wallet, I was shooting a pair of F3's at the time. My first auto focus Nikon I don't recall being disappointed by the AF performance, but of course I continued to use the MF lens in my collection adding just a few autos so I had nothing to compare it to. The only thing off putting was the plastic wrap so when the opportunity presented itself I moved onto the F5, a great camera which I still own but it sure isn't the sexy supermodel the F4 was. Wish I had that beauty back... Thanks for the trip down memory lane and sharing those terrific B&W's, the portraits at the end make me want to re-fire the F5, a feeling long gone from me. Cheers brother!!
Yup. Those B&W portraits at the end were definitely the money shot! NICE
I had two F4's. Loved every pound of them. At the time I used them mainly with Nikkor Ai MF lenses and also the 80-200 f2.8 AF first version which was deadly sharp. Later I found the F4's were a killer sharp combo with the 300 f2.8 AF-I which I STILL own and use with my D2x! The F4's AF focus confirmation light worked well for MF lenses. Also the power rewind was nice. Battery life was forever with the add-on grip. Interchangeable focusing screens was great to have also. Metering was also excellent. These F4 cameras were indestructible and super-reliable.
Great photos Chris! Keep the classic camera reviews coming.
loved this video! The handheld video had an awesome feel. Loved the editing to include moments with no dialogue or music, just the background noise.
WOW!!!, Just, WOW!!! Probably your best video ever! Video quality, production, stills, the whole kit and kaboodle!!! Thanks for the trip down memory lane that I continue to live today! I still use my film cameras quite frequently. It still is a passion most people don't understand, it's wonderful to see that Chris still "Get's it", and damn if it doesn't show in his shots!! I've graduated to a F6 now which permits me my passions with a healthy dose of technology thrown in for good measure!! Maybe you guys would do another video show casing the F6; trust me it's a current day wonder camera, marvelous is barely enough to describe its capabilities or its technological perfection! Thanks for the video!!
Awesome Video... This video took me back twenty five years ago where I used F2, F3, F4, F90X, FA, FM2, FG and FG20. I had Canon AE1 and A1 which I gave to my friend as I always loved to work with Nikons. Thank you so much for this video. I truly appreciate it.
LOVED my F2! Sold it in the 80s for peanuts. So wish I'd kept it.
6:37 . Simply fantastic. The composition, lighting and post processing. Even the nature of the grain. Good stuff Chris!
Awesome video!!! I love these old school cam reviews. Keep them coming!
I used to own the F4s (like you have there) and took many of my best images with it in the mid 90's. The use of large, easy to use buttons and nobs (rather than LCD displays) made it much more useable while wearing gloves. I (stupidly) traded it for a Canon EOS5, one of the most dumb things I ever did.
I love F4, too!!
holly sh*. Best shots EVER!!
@LennyG2006
7 жыл бұрын
Igor Serra Got to agree! Some great shots there. And now I know where Chris's dodgy British accent comes from ;)
@misterr2359
7 жыл бұрын
Igor Serra I just commented that and scrolled down to see if anyone would've agreed with me. I too think these pictures are the best he's taken! They are gorgeous.
@paulboccuzzi9160
7 жыл бұрын
Rutgers
@MuchoBe
7 жыл бұрын
Those three portraits though! Guess now Jordan is officially the handsome part of the duo
@Smaug1
7 жыл бұрын
Yes! We can tell ol' Chris was feeling inspired that day, ay?!
Where's the part where Jordan talks about the video features??
@SMGJohn
7 жыл бұрын
Funny thing is that you can in fact shoot videos on 35mm film cameras. You get these CCD sensors on a film cartridge and basically it goes in like a film cartridge but instead of shooting film its a digital sensor that shoots pictures and some even do video.
@yashwinning
6 жыл бұрын
Holy shit I've never heard of that. Do you have any links that could show how that works?
@user-he8hx4mv4f
6 жыл бұрын
NikoBellic921 funny
@alex1movies
4 жыл бұрын
Too busy massaging his ego
I have been following this channel for a while now. The photos taken look the best I have seen here. Excellent review and nice job in ever way.
Thanks for doing this. The F4 takes me back to a good place and time. It is hard to believe that 1988 was almost 30 years ago.
Beautiful episode from you Chris and Jordan. For sure it recalls me a lot of memories using professionally and personally the Nikon F4 and I fully agree with Chris about its perception and use of the camera at the time in avoiding autofocus dis-ability of the model and its preference for the MB-20 version (compact). Thank you for sharing your nice B&W pictures. Yes film photography at the time was a different challenge with deep concerns about the final output resulting of our photo sessions. It was really nice to revive all this!
Awesome review Chris, it sounds like you truly love this camera. Not to mention the pictures, wow! Arguably the best pictures I've seen on this channel. Thank you guys for this video.
Love that you're shooting film!
A great video not just about the camera or film shooting. It shows the importance of AUDIO QUALITY. Worst few seconds of the video was the absence of Audio. Reminds me the effort that you guys spend for editing and sharing all your footage. Thanks Camera Store, cheers from as cold, as friendly country; Finland.
Enjoyed living this with you.
I started out with the Minolta x-700, then the Minolta maxxum 9000. years later, I switched to Nikon and got the f4e then the f5. I moved to Europe and started publishing for a magazine. more than two decades later when I switched to digital. I've owned the d100, d200, d3, d3s, and finally the d4s. I still consider the f4 one of the sexiest of the cameras I've owned. I still have it. it still makes the same sexy sound as 20 yrs ago.
In college, my roommate Dave Politi had an F4 and I am still jealous a decade later, even though I could probably get one for pennies now. I'll put the Canon Élan 7 or there is one of the best film cameras out there. Still love mine today
@patricklynons5426
2 жыл бұрын
Bbc
Those portraits were fantastic! Great video Chris and crew.
Chris, thanks for sharing your love of the F4 and your Tri-X photos... beautiful work. Watching this video brought back memories of shooting with my first Nikon camera, a used, rough around the edges F3.
Wow those images were awesome, especially the portraits! Hope you do more of these videos.
I have been using the F4 as my main film body for the past 2 years and I could not be happier. Especially with the addition of the MB-23 multi-control back and a K-type focusing screen. It doesn't matter where or what my day of photography throws at me, because all the F4 does is give me answers to any problems I may come across. Most of the time I use mine for documentary photography in which I use both MF and AF lens. I have never had a major problem with the AF system on the F4, always seems to be spot on; especially when used in conjunction with the AF-L button. I could talk about it for a long while, so I will end it here. Hot, cold, rain, snow, and not yet used as a blunt object the Nikon F4 does it all!
Lovely!
Wow, the video quality from the E-M1 in this video is incredible. Also, really got me interested in pursuing film photography again. Great review guys!
What an amazing set of shots. Dear lord! Wow, I'd love a portrait from you Chris Nichols!
Those portraits are absolutely stunning!
This is one of the cameras that made it into the movie Jurassic Park, used by Vince Vaughn who played the roll of a photographer. He was holding a few different cameras throughout the movie, but the Nikon F4 with grip was one of them. :)
Great vid and great shots!
Please more stories with classic photo cameras! Please! I love it!
More Film camera yesteryear videos , love this channel :)
Love these yesteryear videos, very informative and entertaining.
More Cameras of Yesteryear segments please!!!
I used to shoot with the F3 back in the day then a colleague bought the F4 and we were just blown away with the physical size and design, it was a thing of beauty (to us anyway!). Looking at your results, wow the grain and feel of the b+w analogue images, I love it!
I love this camera, in fact back in the day it was my dream camera and I've alway promised myself I would eventually own one, I haven't yet but this video has spurred me on to get one before the end of the year, superb video, love you guys and thank you.
High Chris, Nice to see your enthusiasm for one of my favourite cameras. After years of shooting for the press and as a photojournalist with Nikon F's, I bought 2 F4's in 1989 and fell in love with them. Finally moving on to Nikon Digital with the D2. However, I still own and for a weekend every year pull out my F4's and have great pleasure shooting processing and printing black and white. Those cameras are built to go on forever, classics in every way.
Thanks for a great video. I really like the ones of the analog camera's. I know you guys are busy, but I would love more of them.
The Nikon F4 was truly the BEST and most advanced Manual Focus camera Nikon ever made. Folks only hated it when they expected it to be an AUTO Focus camera.
Absolutely fantastic!
Whoa! I genuinely thought the opening shot was on a gimbal until you mentioned it was handheld! Olympus is rocking the IBIS. Great video as always!
Chris, I LOVE these videos. I know so many of us appreciate them. Cool.
Great review and some excellent shots
Those shots were fantastic! Seeing the film container instantly struck a nostalgic, childhood chord, bringing back darkroom memories under the red bulb at school! And those portraits at the end were god damn beautiful.. impossible to replicate with digital. Also the F4, my photography teacher had one and I used it maybe a couple times and good god it seemed like a tank back then! Nikon has done so much over the years in terms of innovation, people tend to either forget or just don't even know about it. Would love to see an episode on the revolutionary Nikonos!
Really nice portraits. Great shots.
I LOVED my Nikon F4S !!!! bought new and kept for many years
This are the best videos of your channel by far. I know TCS is a modern camera store, but we love this old camera reviews. Just look the likes: 63 vs 0! Also this videos bring people than normally don't see TCSTV modern videos. So everybody wins here!
I love my f4! Like you, I saw it in a magazine as a teenager and instantly fell in love. Of course, I couldn't afford one back then, but eventually I was able to get one for nostalgia's sake. At first, I didn't really enjoy using it because of the weight with the mb-21, so it was mostly a shelf queen, but last year, I got an mb-20 (small grip) and it made all the difference. I've used it quite a bit since, sometimes even preferring it over my M6.. I've really grown to love it. I'm pretty sure it's my favorite SLR.
I love these videos... I watch a shit ton of KZread and these are some of my favorites... keep them up!
your photography has gotten a lot better I feel like. good work
Great review. Many thanks!
I still LOVE the Nikon F4S. Perhaps my favourite camera ever. It's a design object of desire.
Very well done and great pictures! Hopefully to see the Contax RTSIII some day!
Jordan's videography in this was absolutely wonderful! Inspired me to order a few rolls of film :)
It was so interesting to see you shoot with Nikon's flagship camera. Thank you for showing us this beautiful camera.
This is the second time that I watch this video... and because of it I watch it now with a F4S in my hands. I had to get it again after I sold my first one about 15 years ago. This is still the most exciting camera I have had in decades. Glad it´s back home and can´t wait to shoot with Fujifilm Neopan Across 100 and Kodak Ektar 100. Thanks for inciting me into spending my money in awesome stuff!
Nice this kind of video with old cameras.... thanks for sharing
Incredibly enjoyable video! I can alway's count on 10-20 minutes of fun, where I can forget my troubles, when I watch your videos. Love you guys! Would love to come by and say hello the next time you are in NYC. Cheers!
Lovely images Chris! I would really love to see more film based episodes!
My favorite Nikon body with the FA. Bringing back so many memories .
Loved the video!
Cris, this will be my first comment in my years of being subscribed and watching all your videos, but i REALLY love the pictures you came up with in this review!
When this video started, I thought it looked better than usual in terms of stability and color. Checked the description and sure enough you're shooting on the em1 mkii. I'm pretty impressed with the quality of this camera. Thanks for the video! Great film shots too!
Excellent video! Very informative. Thanks a lot.😃
Those portraits are stunning.
I`m still using my Nikon F4s since 1990 without any issues and I `ve no real problems with the AF system of this camera :-)
Thanks so much for the video. I loved my F4. Beautiful camera.
In 1975 I went to the camera store to get my first SLR. I wanted a Nikon but my mom's budget said Pentax. I got a black MX. A 50 and 135 lens. Worked great. Used it a few years then got Pentax MEsuper. With auto exposure! Started buying digital cameras 1998. Went to Nikon DSLR's 2005-June 2016. Now Sony A7R2. Which is about the size of my old MX. Always curious to use the F4. There is a famous street photographer on YT that uses F4. One benefit is if it's stolen, easier to replace than most DSLR's.
I really enjoy these series!
Fantastic images! I love analog. Thanks for doing these videos! Your digital videos are great too btw.
Hi Chris, thank you for a wonderful film. The F4 was the best camera I never had. Great work!
My father used a F3 back then and he brought a catalog to up grade. I saw the F4 and I fell in love with it.
I owned and used both F4e and F5.. Both are very very good sturdy cameras and fail-safe too. The heft and feel was wonderful...
The most beautiful camera ever made. I'm still in love.
Really awesome video.
The Camera Store does The Best reviews and easy-going camera related ephemera videos on youtube. Great pics from that F4!
Great camera. I use the F4 and F6 along with my digital cameras. This is definitely a refreshing video. Thank you.
great shots ! esp. the portrait shots..
For casual shooting, some of your photos were excellent both in composition and technically. The portraits were excellent and I really enjoyed the pic with the eclipsed modern car in the lower right hand corner. You certainly proved why you a pro.
Great images Chris.
I echo your comments and sentiments: the F4 is the most ergonomically correct designed camera I’ve ever experienced. A beast of a build, but as you pointed out that also helped provide a rock steady focusing platform. And the design, with it’s brilliantly positioned knobs, dials and buttons taught me the basics of photography like no other piece of equipment has since - not even my Leica’s. My original F4 was stolen from my car in Philadelphia. But nearly 20+ years later I tracked down a new body out of Japan and holding it again today only reinforces and underscores my original belief that the F4 may be the finest 35mm SLR’s ever made. For me, it was and still is. I am glad to see it is finally receiving the accolades it has long deserved.
I love this camera. I love all the F series by Nikon anyway. My favorite will always be the F. My Uncle had one, and I just have a sentimental attachment to that camera. Nice video Chris, and thank you for the great memory you kindled for me.
the portraits look great and the look of olympus 4k video looks phenomenal.
I've never shot film but this was a great video to watch. Great shots and it really makes you realise how easy it is with digital, perhaps to a fault. There's no "use it sparingly" with a digital camera, and perhaps that leads to less consideration to things like composition and subject. Great to watch, really makes me want to pick up a film camera. Loved the 3 shots left and 3 great portraits, summarises everything I said above perfectly.
I had an F4..... and I loved it. If there was a digital back for it, it would be a great camera. Thanks for this nice video.