NIKON F3 : A Legend
In 1983… Michael Jackson and The Police dominated the Billboard charts, “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Valley Girl” are in the theaters, but George Lucas has hinted … Ewoks. Reagan and other Western political leaders are still wearing brown suits half the time. Everyone is legitimately worried about nuclear war. Good times!!. But most importantly 😉 Nikon releases the F3, one of three pro SLR’s released in the f-series line up.
The F3 is an amazing piece of machinery and if you own one or ever used one in the 80’s or present time you will understand the quality! I was very fortunate to have purchased mine from a friend who only used it a few times during his film classes which he had purchased from an individual that kept the camera in its original box in the garage for almost 15 years! It belonged to that person’s father who had unfortunately passed away before getting a chance to experience this marvel masterpiece. It was truly a diamond in the rough type-of-find! and in some way or another it made it into my hands. This F3 is in its most pristine condition and I’d like to keep it that way which is why I don’t use it as often as I would like; it has history.
In shooting film I’ve learned so much which allowed me to expand my creativity with the D-SLR . In talking with several photographers, they would also agree that there is something different about shooting with film. To this day some have never moved to the digital age and still produce/process their film in a dark room, that in itself is truly an art form…. PHOTOSHOP WHAT? LIGHTROOM WHO?
There is definitely nothing automatic about the nikon F-3 it’s all manual. When you take your shot you better be sure that your light f-stop and exposure are all where they need to be, there is no deleting and no turning back on film.
I love the last description on Wikipedia, it truly says it best ”The lasting appeal of the F3 remains the same as it was at its inception – a precision tool for those who prefer a less complex, extremely well-made camera for continual use in extreme environments.”
attached to the F3- is Nikon’s 50mm 1.8 manual focus pancake lens, check out the following video on the lens from the folks at Nikon Help online.
MVA Life | Photography 