I've had the F-3 for almost a week now, and am almost through my first roll of film with it.
I am impressed by the bright and clear viewfinder. The HP finder, despite it's slightly reduced magnification is a good one. I don't have to scrunch up against the rubber stop ring when I'm wearing my glasses.
The camera takes power from the MD-4 motor drive when it's mounted. Otherwise, 2 sr-44's must be loaded into the battery sleeve for the camera to function.
The camera will function barely at a mechanical shutter speed of 1/60~1/90th sec. by tripping the mechanical release located on the front of the camera body, when there is no drive or batteries present. It is quite awkwardly located below the depth of field preview button/mirror lock lever.
Personally, they should have went the route of the Fe/Fe-2/Fg/Fa etc. by placing the mechanical shutter speed selection setting on the shutter speed dial where it belongs, and utilizing the shutter release already on the top of the camera. Might be a minor design fault, but still makes zero sense to me to incorporate all this extra expense to the manufacture of the body.
Flash sync is at 1/60 sec. Really? C'mon Nikon, you're kidding me. After the 1/250 sync of the FM-2 you turn out a turd like this?
Seriously though, if you're gonna have an interchangeable view finder, you are going to have to put up with a horizontally travelling shutter, and it's slow sync. There's just no escaping it....
The LCD display in the viewfinder is easy to get along with. I actually prefer the quartz display over l.e.d.'s , which still weird me out in a camera body. The swinging needle metering system of the nikkormats and FE series is still my favorite.
The rest of it I'm pretty well ambivalent on. Flash mounting is a pita. I've done a couple of flash pictures with the flash coupler and SC-17 cord and tiny Nikon flash. Again, you give something up for the interchangeable viewfinder. The strobo-frame flash grip is gonna see a lot of use on this camera.
They put extra effort into damping the mirror and muffling the shutter. This is the quietest focal plane shutter camera that I have ever used. I don't see myself spooking the local wild life with the shutter tripping.
The MD-4 motor drive is the quietest motor drive I've heard. It makes a "Freep" sound in operation, and lacks the clunk-thud-kaching of the MD-12 (which is actually a pretty good drive in it's own right). The only fly in this ointment is that removing the drive with film in the camera will fog the film.
I have to decide whether I want the drive on the camera, or not, before I load film. Will probably try one roll of film with drive off, just for the heck of it. The extra heavy weight of the drive is actually quite nice for steady hold picture making, whether the drive is turned on or not.
So far, I'm quite favorably impressed with the camera, despite it's odd-ball design. Things like this grow on you after awhile. Would I give it up in favor of something else? Not on your life! I is already hooked!
Regards,
Doc Sharptail
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