Farewell to the Nikon F3, and a New Chapter with the D700 and FA.

After years of faithful service, my Nikon F3 has finally had to bow out. It’s been my main film companion, solid, mechanical, and beautifully balanced, but when the advance and shutter began misbehaving, the repair estimate came in at over £250 with no guarantee that nothing else could go wrong. Much as I’d love to keep it running forever, that’s more than I can justify right now.

Rather than put the money into repairs, I decided to put it towards something that could keep the same spirit alive, a Nikon D700. Rugged, purposeful, and made for photographers who value feel as much as function the D700 has earnt a similar following to the F3…well nearly.

My research pointed towards the D700 for lots of different reasons but mainly I wanted it for its full-frame sensor and low-light performance. Although I prefer mono photography, the quality of the colour files from the D700 are quite special, true to life and natural, so I feel will lend itself well to documentary. Also, the ability to use manual focus lenses on a 35mm size viewfinder was a clincher - as I sometimes struggled with the D2x in this respect.

In fact the D700 is so good I decided to let the D2X go to a new home, it also has been a brilliant camera, but once you have looked through a full frame nikon digital camera and eye balled the files which are slide film quality, its very difficult to ignore - but I would say that the D2x handled better than the D700. I still have the D70s as something lighter to carry and shoot with, but the D700 will be my main digital shooter moving forwards.

I’m not walking away from Nikon film - far from it. I did toy with the idea of picking up another F3 but picked up a faulty Nikon FA that has no metering but mechanically sound as something simple to nikon keep film photography in my regular rotation. I have a healthy collection of film SLRs which Im becoming increasingly proud of, the FA is a really nice camera to use, and aside from its 95% viewfinder and polycarbonate plastic bits, its not far behind the F3 and its shutter is a delight to the ear.

So while it’s sad to see the F3 go, I like to think its legacy will continue, not on a shelf, but in the work I keep creating, with cameras that still carry its spirit.