Nikon F4 - F4S

Dangermouse

Dangermouse

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I am trying to date my F4 but all the searches point me in the direction of Nikon F which isn't much help, does anyone have a link to a reliable website that may help or if you have a personal database, the serial is 2524879 which as far as I can see is an early one, any help greatly appreciated.
 
Found it, or at least I think I have 25xxxxxxx which is 1995 so its an F4S not F4 and has all the latest (1995) updates, so its one of the last as they were not made after 1996
 
The F4 was big, tough and had just about the best screen I ever used on a film SLR.

However, it was H-E-A-V-Y! I ran a pair for a few years and just about survived carrying that much weight around ;) The auto-everything mode is amazing for the time and turned it into just about the fastest camera I'd used up to that time. The F4 made it a doddle to capture any transient event, such as a cat deciding to chew up one of the garden plants...

Nikon F4 0808.jpg


By the way, there was only one model of the F4 and the different suffixes indicated how the camera was set up...

  • F4: the basic unit with the small battery pack in the side handle.
  • F4s: the camera with the larger base mounted power pack.
  • F4e: the camera with the biggest base mounted power pack.
All bodies, so far as I know, could take any of the battery packs. I used both the basic and the base mounted packs.
 
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Thanks for that info Andrew, I was thinking the F4 was the base with add ons, mine has the MB-21 battery grip and MF-23 control back, as for the weight, I am booked in the gym later
 
just lost the last few frames on my F4.......open lever R1 the same for R2 light blinking thought it was rewinding, open back and film still there :headbang: So put the camera in a changing bag and wound the film in by hand.....put a test film in to see what I was doing wrong and it's the R1 lever you have to full open (not half) to rewind. Why didn't Nikon copy Canon for easier rewind and why I'm at it.......exp and shutter speed readout in viewfinder in nice easy to read in red, and be able to fire shutter etc with the back open. :rolleyes:
 
Dangermouse said:
Thanks for that info Andrew, I was thinking the F4 was the base with add ons, mine has the MB-21 battery grip and MF-23 control back, as for the weight, I am booked in the gym later
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In price terms, you are quite right.

Why Nikon thought that changing the name, depending on the supplied battery holder, is too sophisticated for me! ;)
 
angelpaaul said:
Quite. It’s not the sort of camera you take on a long trek. Having said that I enjoy using mine even though it’s heavy.

Is this a new purchase?
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Yes I have been using film again for a few months and do prefer it over digital, we do have digital should we need it but film is my go to choice now, with the Nikon, it is heavy but I do carry it all day without it getting too heavy, moving it about is key I think, and although I have a 70-210 f4D and 35-70 f2.8D I am thinking of the 1.6 converter as that will give the extra reach for the 70-210 as I have read it does actually work with this lens
 
excalibur2 said:
just lost the last few frames on my F4.......open lever R1 the same for R2 light blinking thought it was rewinding, open back and film still there :headbang: So put the camera in a changing bag and wound the film in by hand.....put a test film in to see what I was doing wrong and it's the R1 lever you have to full open (not half) to rewind. Why didn't Nikon copy Canon for easier rewind and why I'm at it.......exp and shutter speed readout in viewfinder in nice easy to read in red, and be able to fire shutter etc with the back open. :rolleyes:
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Nearly did this myself.
 
Nikon F4 with MB-20 takes 4 batteries and is your “basic” camera
Nikon F4 with MB-21 takes 6 batteries and is your F4S
Nikon F4 with MB-23 takes 6 or MN-20 Ni-Cad batteries is the biggest of the series the F4E. Main difference is that it allows connection to a 250 film bulk back, which never seen used.

Overall it’s only the battery packs that make the camera different and allows a faster FPS @ 4 for F4 and 5.7 for the others.
 
Dangermouse said:
Nearly did this myself.
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Comparing the Canon T90 and nikon F4 set to use manual focus lenses and it's annoying compared to the T90. if only the T90 was an AF camera that could take manual focus lenses I would never have bought the F4, but then the T90 is not perfect as a fault with the T90 was:- you can't leave it in a drawer not used for ages as the shutter magnets could stop working and also some rubber? parts (around shutter) could be sticky over time, that's why so many are on ebay going cheap as guys who switched to digi dug out their T90 and found them not working. But there are things you can try to get them working for those who buy them for peanuts.
Canon designers should have been kicked up the #### for this fault.....well it seems Canon learnt something as my two film EF cameras, left unused, still work .......come to think of it can you leave a F4 in a drawer for ages not used and don't have any problems with shutters.
 
Dangermouse said:
Yes I have been using film again for a few months and do prefer it over digital, we do have digital should we need it but film is my go to choice now, with the Nikon, it is heavy but I do carry it all day without it getting too heavy, moving it about is key I think, and although I have a 70-210 f4D and 35-70 f2.8D I am thinking of the 1.6 converter as that will give the extra reach for the 70-210 as I have read it does actually work with this
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I’ve not used either of those zooms so I can’t comment how the converter wouldn’t work. I use primes on my film cameras. It’d be interesting to see how you get on with them.
 
I have had 2 or is it 3 F4, bodies (not all at the same time) and lenses and have developed 'Nikon stoop' as a result! I was made aware of a mint boxed F6 shortly after my last one and as the price asked was - well very good that is how I left the F4 following. That said, I miss the F4, it inspires more confidence than the F6 and the batteries are AA's which means they can be found almost anywhere.

I also have a very nice F2a which is superb and that is only used for B&W. To compare the F2a and the F6 is difficult and one of the drawbacks with the f6 is the handbook. There are so many variables that it has as many modes as a digital camera, infact you could say it is a digital camera that takes films. The F2a hand book has 46 pages while the F6 has a handbook that runs into the hundreds of pages. If I could find an F4 in as good condition as the F6 I would change it without a 2nd thought.
 
angelpaaul said:
I’ve not used either of those zooms so I can’t comment how the converter wouldn’t work. I use primes on my film cameras. It’d be interesting to see how you get on with them.
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I have used a 1.6 converter with a 300/f4 and the drop off in quality is very little, but I have always believed that using a converter on a zoom lens can give mixed results with changes in performance becoming apparent at different focal lengths and can ruin a perfectly good picture with indifference resolution/distortion.

A zoom lens is a good compromise but they are far from being the friendly agent to nirvana
 
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