Throwback Anyday
To be honest I have never liked Nikon cameras, I prefer Olympus and Canon. I don’t think there is anything wrong with Nikons, they are just not my cup of tea. But when I saw this Nikon body in the junk bin I thought I would see if there was a lens there also. Then I could try it out for the sake of this blog. I have yet to see a Nikon lens in a junk bin so I didn’t think I would have to go through with my purchase. But there, deep down was a Tamron lens with a Nikon mount. So for less than $20, I bought my very first Nikon.
Nothing seemed to be wrong with this camera or lens. It was very clean through and through. It even had a working battery inside, but how to use it?? Usually, I can pick up a camera, load a film and fire away. Not with this camera. I had to download the manual and study it, really study it. The interface seemed unnecessarily difficult to navigate. The F70 was originally sold around 1994 well before digital cameras, but the interface and functions will immediately connect you to the digital cameras of today. There are settings for different scenes such as sports, panoramic, portrait, landscape etc. You can even set your own preferred settings. For a 35mm camera, it is quite advanced. Once I got used to the interface I realised it wasn’t really difficult, just slow to navigate. You have to look at what you are doing, you can’t make quick changes.
As for the lens, it was clean and sharp. The autofocus worked very well and the 28-200mm zoom was very handy. I am really surprised to find this combination in a junk bin, with nothing wrong with either component it really did seem to be too much of a good thing.
Once I figured out how to use it I loaded a Kodak T-Max 400 and hopped on a train to Nikko, which seemed to go well with a Nikon. Oh, and I had a couple of shots left over for Yokohama’s China Town the following week.
I was impressed by the quality of the lens and camera on the whole, but it wasn’t enough to change my love from Olympus to Nikon. Sometimes you don’t know why you prefer something, you just do. Like supporting a football team, sometimes that team is the one for you and nothing will make you change your allegiances.
I would like to add that after using the Nikon FE I have changed my opinion and love Nikon. I even bought a Nikon D7000 as my main camera. I love it…..so wish I had kept this lens
I worked in camera retail when the F70 was new and it was a difficult sell. There was nothing wrong with the camera itself. The quality was good, the features were good and the lenses Nikon had always produced worked well. The problem was that Nikon users were often a more conservative type and the new user interface was not immediately familiar. I think that Nikon did not enjoy the level of sales the camera deserved for that reason.
I looked at the date on this post and how things change. I have a Nikon F90x that I love, plus a F2 and a d750…so I can say I have change my views on Nikon. Maybe not about this interface though.