Nikon F50. Review From The Reader Radozhiva | Happy

Nikon F50 (D) review specifically for Radozhiva prepared Nikita Tomilov.

Nikon F50

The last time I took up film photography was fifteen years ago. However, after reading the article about 'Mirror Full Frame, 28 MP for 240 cu'I wanted to repeat something similar and, at a much more conscious age, try the trademark ™ film ™ color ™. And one day my wish came true - in a photographic equipment store in Gostiny Dvor I found and bought this miracle of champagne color for 2000 rubles or $ 30. Having spent about the same amount on the battery, film, development and scanning, I somehow repeated the above article, and at the same time gained experience for this review.

TTX

Camera type	Mirror, 35mm
First appearance	1994
Directivity	Amateur cam
Bayonet mount	Nikon F mount, metal
Chassis	Partially Metallic, Partially Polycarbonate
Shutter	1/2000 to 30
Auto focus	Manual, automatic with one focus point
Modes	PASM, a set of automatic modes
Food	6V 2CR5 Battery
dimensions	X x 149 96 70 мм
The weight	580 grams

Nikon F50

Chassis

The camera lies in your hand just like any other DSLR, adjusted for the fact that the gum will never come off here - they simply do not. In addition, there are no adjustment wheels either front or rear. Instead, the photographer is encouraged to use the buttons located above the display. On the front panel of the camera, you can find, in addition to the bayonet, a focus mode switch automatic / manual, a flash open button and a red window of a property unknown to me (although this may be the window of the IR receiver of an external control panel). On the door you can find the lever to open it. Below, next to the tripod thread, there is a button for forcibly rewinding the film and a lever for switching to the “panoramic” mode, in which two thin curtains are moved above and below the shutter, designed to create the appearance of a panoramic frame.

Nikon F50

At the back, you can find a window for information on the film, a viewfinder with lost rubber, an AF lock button (and at the same time aperture lock). On the door there is a block imprinting information about the date and time of shooting in the frame, which, together with the panoramic mode, suggests that this is actually a Nikon F50D camera, presented somewhat later than the original F50.

Shooting

As mentioned earlier, the camera has no adjustment wheels, nor does it have a mode dial. Instead, you have to use the buttons located on the top of the camera.

Nikon F50

From left to right: “advanced” and “simple” operating modes switch, on-off switch, hot shoe, mode selection button, four settings buttons, self-timer button. If the switch is set to “advanced” mode, by pressing the button with the “notepad”, you can call up the menu for choosing the usual classic P, A, S, M modes.

Nikon F50

Here, for example, I chose the fully manual mode, so the left two buttons are responsible for shutter speed, the right two buttons for aperture. Not that it was a big inconvenience for me, but at first I really looked for nonexistent tuning wheels. There is no way to manually adjust the ISO of the film, the camera reads the ISO itself, or considers ISO 100 by default.

In addition, there is no aperture rheostat here, therefore, when using AI / AI-S lenses, metering will not work exposure. However, there is a focusing motor and automatic focusing on one point in the center of the frame, and at the same time a light meter with the usual scale in the viewfinder below.

Autofocus when half-pressing the shutter button always works, similar to the mode AF-C, but priority is given to the shutter button, and you cannot change this. However, you can use the AF-L / AE-L button and recompose the frame. According to experience, the exposure meter works well, but autofocus is often lame, on my Tamron 28-75 the focus often went astray. In addition, there is a suspicion of focusing errors specifically with this lens - for some reason, frames with focus at infinity are a bit blurry.

The camera focuses automatically with AF lenses only and does not support auto focus with AF-I, AF-S, and AF-P lenses. At the same time, the aperture on the latter works correctly, and confirmation of manual focus also works. However, there may be problems with the external flash - mine SB-800 does not recognize this camera and TTL does not work, but in manual mode everything is in order. Although, maybe I did something wrong. Also, the stabilizer built into the lens will not work on this camera.

If the switch is set to “simple” mode, you can choose a fully automatic mode or “scene preset” (which, by the way, in P mode is even more).

Nikon F50

In these modes, the camera will do everything on its own, occasionally turning on the flash or reporting a lack / excess of light with Hi and Lo symbols in the viewfinder and on the screen. I can’t say anything more about these modes, since I didn’t use them. I shot almost the entire test film clip in A mode, setting the aperture to either F / 2.8 for flowers or F / 11 for landscapes.

All frames are made with a lens. Tamron 28-75D with some long name, a review of which is also here a site. The film was a Fujicolor C200, developed in a photo lab, scanned there with the highest possible resolution, which yielded the same “full frame 28MP” experiment. No processing was done, so due to some shots I will look like an ominous killer of horizons.

Nikon F50

Conclusion

As a result, for about $ 60 (not counting the lens that I already had) and a few hours of leisurely walking, I got 36 frames of branded ™ film ™ color ™ ™, and I even liked some of them. I also liked the camera, the button control did not bother me much - aperture priority mode, f / 11 and you can forget about these buttons. I think the “repetition” of the experiment was successful.

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here.