Nikon F601 Review - Tian_er233's Site

Foreword

I started my grad school life last September with my Nikomat EL and Pen FT took from China. Unfortunately, the lack of reliable metering and the internal flash/commander drives me seeking another Nikon F-mount body. I paid £15 plus postage(2021 GBP).

What is it

As a mid-range 135frame auto SLR in early 90s, F601(aka N6006) features auto winding, auto focus, auto exposure as well as various configurable settings with Nikkor AF lenses. You can also use older lenses* with AE in A and M mode.

When talking about Nikon F, an ancient mount being used from 1958 till now(by 2021), it’s always confusing and complicated. You could barely amazed by the vigorous of this system as you can install the latest AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR on original Nikon F or Nikkor-H Auto f=5cm 1:2 Nippon Kogaku on one-year-old D6.

Not changing lenses mount over 60 years which makes Nikon F became one of the systems with most interchangeable lenses. Also the ultimate compatibility, tasting optiks across decades on a single body. The decision matters when the revolution of AF SLR by late 80s early 90s that nearly all other brands alive in dSLR era had changed their mount to fulfil new criteria in AF revolution.(Specifically Canon EOS, Minolta/Sony Alpha; Olympus, Pentax/Ricoh, Yashica/Contax lost 135FF dSLR market though)For the drawback of not changing comes still the compatibility. Although they have identical hardware, some combinations won’t work and some even damage devices. Or at some point of view, the only thing not changed is the ‘mount’ itself. Aperture ring changed(AI) then diminished(AF-G), AF screwdriver emerged(AF) then replaced by the internal motor(AF-I), aperture coupling pin and lever also abandoned in gen AF-S -E. Thus even though everything called Nikon F, which works or not could never be a problem for us equipment nerds but totally evitable trouble emerged for normal consumers.(like USB 3.1 gen2 lolol)

Back to the F601 topic, as a post-AI body before AF-S and AF-G lenses announced, everything between shall be fine.For short, work with AI, AIs, AI-P, Nikon E series, AF, AF–D and equivalent third-party lenses.Do not work with Auto Nikkor, F3AF, AF-S(Inc AF-S….-D), AF…..-I, –G, –E, DX Nikkor+ and most special lenses#.AI-modified Auto-Nikkor would depend*.

* Except authorized modification, compatibility varies of notch size, height, camera body etc, there’s no guarantee and any damage caused by ‘incompatible’ lenses are by own risk. Be careful, ‘compatible’ lenses should also be installed while setting to appropriate aperture value, normally minimum.+ There are reports saying they fit DX Nikkor on film bodies, still no guarantee.# Detailed compatibility please refer to Original Instruction Manual and Kenrockwell’s page as a detailed and structured resource.

What’s good

• No force rewind at 36, I had shoot till 42 frames.
• Accurate exposure and focus. Spot, Center-weighted and matrix metering(CPU lenses)
• Three points in-focus indicator for all lenses in all AF modes, good for MF lenses.
• DX or Manually set ISO, I use manual EI(Exposure Index) for compensation.
• Internal flash, which means no extra commander for Speedlight off-camera and multiple fill flash, also help camera weight balance. Manually open and collapse, compensatable.
• Robust metal lenses mount, hot-shoe and tripod mount.
• Screwed shutter button, cable release works.
  • I would appreciate it MUCH. Not many AF-SLR offers this. Even professional grade Nikon F4.
  • Nikon gave us a perfect sample of how good and possible it is to have a threaded shutter button on AF-SLR, including half-press for focus.
  • Its just a simple and effective way to reduce camera shake with a universal cable-release for all your cameras. Including my Fuji X-E2 which has bad experience for half-press and the mount would turn with power switch, which is bad. However, it is still appreciated in current era whereas you have to buy costumed, stupid and expensive ‘cable-release’ which literally a $0.1 switch.
  • Self-timer could do alternatively same but cable release could capture the very moment for sport, landscape, etc.
  • The model I used is Nikon AR3 for ¥68(2020RMB) or ~$10(2020USD) on Taobao, the parent company of Aliexpress.
  • Its nothing special but decent to quality and its price. short length(~20cm) was just designed for anti-shake instead of ‘remote control’.
  • Canon had made series of IR remote control which also have great compatibility that one remote controlMost commonly seen RC-6; RC-1 my father bought in 1990s. The RC-1 by the time successfully control film p&s(Autoboy S), f-SLR (EOS10qd, EOS100), early DC(Powershot G3), and even modern dSLR(others tested for 5D2, ref). This’s an alternative way for big company. You can’t imagine how I impressed when I used RC-1 for autoboy, just amazing!!
• Gloves friendly in winter, everything from power-switch, AF selector, main dial, cross-function buttons and meter-mod, self-timer; Not for shift button, exposure compensation and AF-L.
• Can do snapshot with a single hand, left hand is well engaged with focus/aperture and EI.
• Good weight balance and holding experience with prime and small zoom lenses.
• Two-shot self-timer, good for group image.
• Relatively simple and straight forward to use.

What’s bad

• Extravagant CR-P2 battery, £8 one. Lithium-ion rechargeable ones are available but dear either.
• Overall usable-bad AF performance.
  • Only one horizontal AF point, AM200 module, same to F4, F801 and similar to F401(ref) that should have identical behaviour.
  • AF-S usable for street/portrait/landscape, Unusable for moving object and snapshot which I rather go MF.
  • Don’t expect AF-C better than any modern dSLR, or most of CDAF on phone/DC, you’ll lose every moment.
• Shutter speed worked step-less(in A, P) but displayed in Full stop accuracy, that no indication when I stop down aperture half a step. Even early metered SLR with needle or LEDs offer exposure indicate less than a full stop.
• Exposure indication scales ±1EV, only affect M mod users.
• AF-L sucks as you can’t hold the camera stable enough when stick thumb to hold the AF-L switch. I rather half-press shutter in AF-S. (Occasionally fails)
• Self-timer should press shutter while holding the self-timer button down that don’t accompany nearly all conventional design.
• The leader always rewinds in cartridge, Not friendly to home-brewers.
• Relatively simple functions comparing to EOS.Heavy, 650g.
• Noisy winding and rewinding, nor fast(2fps maximum).

What’s plain

• Viewfinder 92% coverage and 0.75x magnification.
• 1/2000″ top shutter, X1/125″ sync speed.
• No TTL-OTF, AE range EV0-EV19, or 1sec f1.4 at EI 100.
• Dim / low-contrast viewfinder display, green LED backlight LCD.
• Build quality
• Film speed window. Get you to know what’s currently in but take care of leakage.
• Limited flash auto exposure. Auto TTL flash may only work when CPU lenses installed and in P mode, neither TTL matrix flash. (To be confirmed.)
• No built-in AF-illuminator.
• No shoulder LCD backlight.

Recommendations

It’s overall a nice body for Nikon users when AF is needed or just want a cheap body to start on one system. Or expand a film body along with your Nikon dSLR(Nor AF-G, see compatibility), go ahead.

It provides everything you basically need from a camera in this era, though don’t work as well as pro-grade bodies, I can’t blame much, its the matter of details which Canon do definitely better.

If no Nikon-F AF lenses in your shelve now nor might you buy a branch later, go EOS. EOS provides you with much more freedom of adapting lenses. (F, M42, MD, OM, LR, AR, PL, T2, etc…) And they’re better built-in similar price range. Minolta also made quite well at the end of the era. I owned a Minolta sweet 𝛼 with two zoom lenses, what I want to say is even with a similar screwdriver design, they still work as well as Nikon though MD and prior lenses not compatible. There is actually a branch of options there for a cheapo body, but good optiks are the dealer at any time.

Image quality is non-matter of the body but optiks, focus err despited. But Nikkors are well built anyway, but none to say about third-party optiks.

For users, Read manual before your purchase. Price depends on markets and condition. Buy bargains should you accept the risk and know what are you buying.

Overall Score

6 out of 9See what score scale means here.

Referenced link & Further reading

https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htmhttps://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20210218062046&SearchText=crp2/http://www.cameramanuals.org/nikon_pdf/nikon_f-601_af.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_F-601https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/camera-lenses/af-s-nikkor-120-300mm-f%252f2.8e-fl-ed-sr-vr.html#tab-ProductDetail-ProductTabs-TechSpecs/https://cameragx.com/2018/05/03/nikon-f4/

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