If you dont like to twiddle knobs (Nikon F5)

Member Name: baldeagle

Product:	Nikon F5
Date:	04/09/00 (612 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: State of the art Nikon

Disadvantages: At a price

In the good old days, a pro Nikon would be for sale for about ten years before it was up-dated, a bit like BMW motorbikes and Mercedes cars. Nikon realised that many traditional photographers preferred twiddling knobs, so the manual focus F3 was replaced with the auto everything F4, but it still retained mostly moving parts in the knobs and button areas, and the high speed bit for the motor drive had to be bolted on.

Alas, sales suffered as the new generation of professional photographers were more used to lap tops than wet processing, so the sexy Canon EOS1 started to erode Nikon's sales. The EOS had a LCD display and nothing much to twiddle, plus a superb quick and quite range of lenses, so Nikon had to think again.

The F5 became a much more tactile, sculpted unit, with an integrated motor, rubber covered body, much better auto focus system, and all the other stuff new technology can bring to photography, plus the mandatory massive price tag , a large LCD screen, and button pressing operating system.

Is it worth buying one? Probably not, because at the end of the day the results will be no better than a more humble second-hand Nikon FM or F3, but your street cred at the camera club might move up a notch!

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