My Nikon F3 is the best camera ever. In fact it’s one of those things that has achieved the ststus of family member. After all it’s been through during 20 years of shooting it’s still solid and it’s never let me down. I’ve carried it up mountains, around cities, to Stockholm, London, across the USA on a train trip and many road trips, in rain and cold, and it’s been dropped and smashed into numerous hard surfaces and objects. It’s never been my only camera, but always my favorite. Its current companion is an even older silver Nikon FM (that actually has a bunch of problems and may become a hood ornament on my car).
Back in the day (like on that train trip) I’d carry one Nikon with Tri-X black and white film (the F3) and another with color slide film of some kind (for a long time it was a Nikon FA, which had a great metering system that worked well with the less-forgiving exposure range of slide film), and 24mm, 50mm, and 105mm lenses. So basically I’d be ready for just about anything.
I sold the FA in maybe 1999, when it was still worth something and bought a Nikon F5. I have to say I loved the F5 and the auto-focus with a 55mm macro lens was a real luxury. Many good shots with the Nikon F5, but I sold it in about 2002, feeling that since I was not a professional photographer it was hard to justify tying up that much money in cameras, and it funded a Mac laptop, which WAS a professionally-justifiable expenditure.
I’m never happier (camera or photo-experience-wise) than when shooting with the old F3. (OK, Polaroids are a close second). These days I shoot more digital than anything now. But I still feel there’s nothing like shooting a roll of film. And there’s nothing like the discipline of having to shoot with the knowledge that every time you press the shutter release you’re spending 50ยข and you may only have 24 or 36 frames to work with and you won’t see the results for a few hours or days. Yes. I like the demands of film. It sharpens your focus. (I know…pun, etc.) But it really does.
Aside from the experience of working whit film, it’s the user experience of the Nikon F3 that I really treasure. The weight, the layout of the controls, the feel. The experience of pressing that shutter release when the motor drive is connected. It’s thrilling every time. There’s a visceral and mechanical quality that you don’t get even with a top-of-the-line Nikon digital SLR. Something that says, “I am a machine, you are in control, but don’t take me for granted.”
