Nikon Cameras

It would probably be fair to say that Nikon still maintains the top notch in the world media equipment stakes. One of the reasons for this is that the larger news agencies and many provincial and national newspaper groups have invested huge sums of money into Nikon equipment over the years. Many freelances are committed for similar reasons. Switching allegiance would cost most an arm and a leg. Consequently, there are hundreds of middle aged paunchy hacks who still carry an F2 as backup and thousands more for whom it is the corepiece of an impressive armoury of lenses.

The F2 was not the last of Nikon's all metal cameras - the compact FM2 continues to carry the flame for the company - nor, contrary to legend, was it the most produced slr from Nikon; the F still holds that distinction. The F2 does however, have a certain timeless aesthetic appeal which its predecessor and the later F3 lack, and of course, it was the last purely mechanical camera having the option of removeable metering and non metering heads.

The standard pentaprism bodied F2 was first introduced in 1971. Horror of horrors! Those hard nosed corners of the trusty F had disappeared, bits of black plastic tipped the wind-on lever, the mechanism of which had also changed, adorned the delayed action lever, the depth of field prview button and the lens release lock. But nostalgia sometimes has a short life. The F2 was about as ergonomically perfect as one could get in those days and once the sophisticated MD1 motor drive became available there was no turning back. The F2 reigned supreme. It became the stuff of which great picture legends are made.......

Read more of the F2 review at :www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com