Nikon F301 > Reviews (5)

After years of shooting with an autofocus Nikon F60, I wanted to get back to full control using my excellent manual focus Nikon prime lenses.

I had a Nikon FE for many years, but its auto-exposure capabilities had broken. I was very sad to see that old friend start to decline. While the FE continued to have accurate shutter speeds, I didn't want to carry around a separate light meter or guess at exposure using the "sunny 16" rule.

I picked up an F-301/N2000 on eBay for a reasonable price, in excellent condition. Like the Nikon FE, it's built like a tank, but gives me even more capability than my trusty old FE, such as a reasonably brisk motor wind, single or continuous shooting, DX film capabilities, film speed override, exposure compensation, AE-lock, full manual exposure plus two program modes on top of the FE's Aperture priority mode. The only thing missing from my FE is stop-down preview.

I think this will be a camera I'll enjoy for many years to come. I sincerely hope there will always be manufacturers making film as I really like shooting film. There are probably millions of us still out there... are you listening, "analog" film makers?

If you have a number of older non-AF Nikon lenses, this is a great camera to keep that old-style manual feel. To my mind it feels faster, more efficient to shoot manual lenses on a manual camera - there's less fiddling to do and everything falls to hand nicely.

True, lots of AF-capable Nikons are able to work with AI lenses (and many provide an in-focus indicator, which is brilliant) this one feels like you're shooting an FE, FM, FG or similar vintage but with some really useful improvements.

Personally, I don't mind the lack of power rewind as it means less frequent battery changes.

CONS: No stop-down preview option, offbeat placement of tripod screw unless you get the alternative base.