...all you have to do on the F4 is mount a lens.
Kurz vor Toresschluss hier noch eine pointierte kleine Zusammenfassung für die noch Unentschlossenen über die wesentlichen Charakterzüge der Professionellen "Fs" aus berufenem Munde:
Ken Rockwell (
www.kenrockwell.com) sieht es (treffender weise)so:
Nikon's first rangefinders were merely massaged copies of the Contax and Leica.
Nikon's first SLR, the F, was just an SP rangefinder with an added prism. The F was mostly what other companies, like Exacta, had done decades before.
The Nikon F2 was just a reworked F.
The Nikon F3 was an electronic F2, still merely evolution, not revolution.
The Nikon F4, introduced in 1988 and still used daily by many photographers today, was a breakthrough in that:
The F4 is the world's first professional autofocus camera.
The F4 is the world's first professional camera with a built-in motor drive. (Previous cameras had to use klunky external screw-on motors.)
The F4 is the world's first professional camera with modern Matrix (intelligent) light metering.
The F5 was simply the F4 in a tougher package, but with knobs replaced by buttons and menus. The F4 has dedicated knobs for everything. The F5's meter is worse than the F4's when used with manual focus lenses.
The F6 is a lighter-duty F5, but at least one can get Matrix metering with manual focus lenses on the F6, which the F5 can't. You have to program menus to get matrix metering with manual lenses on the F6; all you have to do on the F4 is mount a lens.
[...] The Nikon F4 remains relevant today, as it works great with every lens made from 1959 through today's G and AFS lenses. The Nikon F4 is Nikon's most flexible camera because it's compatible with the widest range of lenses of any 35mm camera. Older cameras can't autofocus, and newer cameras don't usually meter well with manual lenses, or work at all with most lenses older than 1977. Canon cameras have no compatibility between auto and manual focus systems [...] The F4 does it all with professional élan.
Ciao
Christian
