Nikon announces new flagship **FILM** SLR – the F6!

Here's the link to Nikon's press release:

http://nikonimaging.com/global/news/2004/0916_02.htm


- Peter

 

Thanks for posting. Nikon make a great sales pitch about reducing noise,
and then forget to put a figure in the specifications against which we might
do some checks!

 

The specs seem almost identical to the F5......I really don't see anything
that warrants a new model.....Perhaps quieter, and perhaps better flash
control, but an F6?

 

perhaps its smaller than the F5 . I never liked the intgrated battery pack
of the F5
Nikon has got it right to to keep at the forefront of film too
B

 

I dont like the batery CR123A but Guess it has to have a fault.
I suspect all the digital people are asking Why.. have nikon done this
thought film was dead.
Gues ther is a market for the F6 .

B #
When My F3 /F90x break down I will conside a F6

 

They're bonkers.

But they did announce the D2X. Finally made the switch to CMOS - with
12.4 megapixels I don't think the CCD would cut it in terms of noise.

 

Now that the new F6 is out, would the F100 be no more? Or would there be
no more direct successor to the F100 (esp. given the F6's design)?

Also, would official support for another previous generation of F-series
cameras (esp. the F4-series) be discontinued (given Nikon's 10-year
spare parts policy)?

 

The specs seem to imply that it comes with a "data back" as standard.

 

No, I suspect the limitation is readout speed. Though the reason you
can't just keep increasing the clock speed on a CCD is the noise
increase.

I wonder if the F6 was derived from the D2 series. More probably, they
were developed together, and the degree to which they share technology
made it economical to do two cameras rather than just one.

 

Hmm. The prism is now permanently mounted, so they lost at least one
F5 feature. I suspect that the improvements in size, weight,
alignment, and dust sealing were just too tempting...

 

I suspect not--the F100 will continue to sell for ~$900, and the new F6 for
$2000, with the F5 being discontinued.

I don't believe there is a discontinuance of "official" support for Nikon
cameras, other than the spare parts policy you cite. For instance, Nikon
USA will service my Nikon F, but only if they can bring it up to 100%
factory specs. Which is to say, if it needs new parts, they won't work on
it, because there aren't any, and therefore they would be unable to bring it
up to 100% factory specs.
This I know from experience.

 

Glad to hear it. As William says, so what, it's an F5... but it
looks more compact and up to date ... has some questionable bells
and whistles ("Shutter Monitor"?)...

Didn't mention viewfinder options ... have they gone fixed VF?

Cheers,
Alan

 

If this is what I'm thinking it is, the F5 has the shutter monitor, too. It
checks the speed of the shutter against the speed set by the camera--if the
shutter is off, it compensates. Rather than quesitonable, this sounds like
a must for a working pro who can't afford to miss the shot.

 

Also I didn't see if there was an eyepiece shutter or not. Certainly hope
so, as I thought that was a glaring omission on the F100 (considering the
N90 came so equipped). Shame about the loss of interchangeable finders, but
perhaps there just wasn't much of a market for such; and as you said,
probably easier sealing. Glad to see the manual rewind option and mirror
lock-up.

 

The F6 and D2 are the products of a Nikon development program that has
been running for three years with the aim of marketing a convertible
film/digital SLR that would have succeeded both the F5 and D1X. The
rationale for this hybrid camera was questioned - and abandoned - in
early 2003 when it became apparent that Nikon's target market's move
from film to digital was becoming so rapid and so total that it made
such a hybrid obsolete even before it hit the camera dealers' shelves.

The result was that Nikon used the technology to develop two separate
cameras, one film and one digital, that share many common features.
In fact they share just about as many features as it is possible for a
film and a digital SLR to share. Metering, autofocus, even the
shutters share similar technology.

Leica's R Digital Back for the R9 is aimed at a different market; one
that is still firmly wedded to film but is slowly and cautiously
moving into digital. Leica don't expect large production volumes for
their digital back, but loyal Leica fans wishing to embrace digital
while continuing to use Leica optics will no doubt support Leica's
efforts to the extent Leica need.

 

Thanks for sharing. It almost seems like more of an update to the F100,
than a change in the F5. This is the first F single digit camera from
Nikon to not allow changing the viewfinder. :-(

I am not surprised that the flash control feature of the latest digital
SLRs has made it to the film line, though I wonder if only the F6 will
have that capability in the film SLR line.

Nice to see they have cut some weight off the F5, the F6 is at 975 g. It
is close to the lightest F4 configuration which is 1090 g.

Also interesting to see Giugiaro listed as the body designer. This
Italian firm was responsible for the F3 body design as well. With some
possibility that this might be the last new flagship film SLR design
from Nikon (industry analysts expect no new film SLRs at all by 2008
from Japanese companies), it might become a future classic. Looks like a
nice package, though somewhat like an F100.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio
<http://www.allgstudio.com/gallery.html> Updated!

 

Yes....I think TP's post is the key....The two engineering departments at
Nikon saw a chance to profit from each other's work, so they came out with
the F6 along with the D2X.....They wouldn't have normally replaced the F5
with so few improvements otherwise......

 

"Fixed eyelevel pentaprism". Shame....

.... means the used F5 will be even cheaper, though!!!

 

*gasp!*

 

.... and the chance to make an Nikon 1v.