26 Mar 00

My Nikon F5

Wow... That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of my F5. By far it's the most expensive camera I've ever bought. It far exceeds the 1980 dollars of my Leica M4-P. But, the F5 is worth every penny. There are a lot of detractors out there that don't like this little thing or that. In my book they're missing the point of having a camera of that caliber in your hands. It's designed to work under the most miserable conditions, whether environment or photographic, and still come out singing.

If you haven't read my comments on my F90x, this'll update you as to why I got into the market for the F5. Beyond most men's (some women as well) equipment envy, my F90x was satisfying all of my photographic needs. Occasionally I wished for another body to have a different film available but there weren't any capability reasons to invest almost $2,000 dollars into a F5. Everything was great until I got into big lenses and fast action nature photography. The F90x auto-focus system simply wasn't accurate, flexible, or fast enough for my needs. I routinely got slightly out of focus images and was restricted to putting the main subject in the view-finder's focus sensor smack in the middle of my view-finder. My photographic needs weren't being satisfied with long lenses (300mm and bigger) with a F90x. So began the quest for the F5.

Right from the start I knew I had my hands full when I picked up the box from the post office. It weighed a lot and the eight batteries weren't even in it yet. The whole camera was fairly easy to understand with many of the controls similar to the F90x. I didn't have to relearn too much. But, there were a lot more things on the F5 that the F90x didn't have. That meant life was going to be a bit more complicated learning to use the more capable camera.

Another reason I purchased the F5 was because of its 3D matrix metering. Touted as knowing the color of the situation, it would therefore diminished the need for exposure compensation. Some professionals have been known to say they don't use exposure compensation under any circumstances due to the F5's excellent meter. After using the F5 extensively I can safely say that statement doesn't apply to me. I'll address more of the F5's meter at this location but let me say this. The F5 is perhaps the most accurate meter in a SLR. All that really means is it's less wrong than any other meter. You still need to know what's going on and you still need to compensate for light as the situation requires.

Okay, now for the things that water my eyes.

First thing I noticed about this camera was the view through the view-finder. The F5 was my first 100% view-finder. The size was an imperceptible improvement. Eye relief most people expect is still there so if you wear glasses, the F5 still is friendly. The screen brightness and sharpness was outstanding. The contrast differences between my F90x and the F5 was incredible. Though I only have qualitative comments on it's "viewability" the F5 stood on the shoulders of the F90x. Wow...

Next, the auto-focus technology was incredible. Combined with an AF-S lens, the camera's incredible. Though the F5 occasionally "hunts" for focus in low light/low contrast situations, it focuses almost as fast as my eye can. Like I said, Wow. It's got five auto-focus sensors and you can designate one with your thumb as the primary/start-up sensor. The concept works great especially if you set it up with Dynamic Auto-Focus where if the subject leaves the primary sensor, the next sensor becomes active and begins to track the subject. This works especially well under circumstances where the background was non-existent or very, very far away. This sounds a lot like most in-flight bird situations. However, if your bird was flying through the trees, the camera could get confused with branches near-by. But, if your bird gets blocked by a object like a close by tree trunk (far from the bird) the camera goes into memory mode while you pan through the trunk and reacquire the bird when it begins focusing again. Once I figured out how to set my priority sensor, things became very simple. The most difficult process was composing your shot which was the whole point of having the camera. I love this technology.

There are a few custom features that really can improved the number of successful pics I got. In terms of auto-focus, the camera defaults to shooter-priority. In this context that means that no matter how in-focus your subject is, the camera will shoot because you commanded it to shoot. I prefer to use focus-priority. That restricts the camera from shooting until it registers the okay from the focus sensors. Theoretically, I never can take another out of focus photo with this set. Unfortunately it doesn't work quite as well as expected but it does much better than not having it. The camera is designed to measure subject rate changes and predict where the subject will be at the instant the shutter opens. This means that it figures out how fast the subject is approaching the camera and then continues to adjust the focus as the shutter is released and the mirror raises itself. As it tracks the subject longer and more photos are taken in succession, the camera's auto-focus accuracy becomes spot on. So, the system was designed to point the camera and hold the shutter down. If the first one or two were off slightly, the next images would be spot on. At eight frames a second, that's a lot of pictures being taken with all but the first couple guaranteed to be in focus.

How do I use this setup?

I do not like to be "heavy" fingered. I prefer to compose my photos and shoot as the image materializes. That means I do a lot more editing in the view-finder than on the light table. I prefer this approach for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is the savings in resources. Still, I keep my index finger on the shutter partially depressed to command auto-focus and squeeze on and off the shutter when the images materialize. Because of this technique, I probably don't have that many duplicates or choices when I'm at the editing table. But, I've spent less money and I still have challenged myself to situations verses letting the technology do everything for me. Even though I have the worlds most advanced 35mm camera, I still prefer to make decisions in the field, real-time instead of the comfort of home. In the long run, I think it makes me a better photographer. You can see this kind philosophy in most of my images.

Batteries, batteries, batteries... where are they all going. That's probably what most people say when they first use the Nikon F5. Not only does it take eight AA's, I don't think they last as long as the four AA's in my F90x. I got my F5 in the winter and as expected of anyone with a new toy, I went out first thing to shoot. Three rolls at -20 deg C weather with alkaline AA's was all I could get. I could just see the dollar signs going by. What was I going to do. Based on recommendations from Photo.net, I bought some lithium batteries. They're a lot more expensive--almost three or four times more--but they last four or five times longer. I shot almost 15 rolls on my first set of lithium's and the weather was never above -25 deg C. Now that the temperature has warmed considerably, I'm expecting to get between 60 and 80 rolls on a set of lithium's. Can you image what the great land-fill monitors are thinking? Now I say "Lithiums, Lithiums, Lithiums..."

Like my F90x, I usually walk through the woods with my 300 F4 ED-IF attached and the combo slung over my right shoulder. The F5 isn't as easy to turn on. The power switch requires pushing an additional button to allow it to move to the on position. As a result, I tend to leave my F5 on longer than the F90x. Like I mentioned early, I haven't seen too much battery usage as a result. I normally have the center auto-focus sensor set at primary when it's over my shoulder. Recently, I've been experimenting with presetting one of the lateral sensors to force me to take off center images instead of relying on the central sensor. I've had a bit of success and I'll keep you posted if I permanently go that way. I always have the camera ready to shoot eight frames per second and just remember to go light on the trigger. Unfortunately, I've shot the occasionally extra image from laying too long on the shutter release. Oh well, I guess I'd rather have the duplicate than totally miss a situation for not having the motor winder set fast enough.

Most of the time, I use a camera's self-timer whenever I shoot landscapes. Fortunately I'm not depending on my F5 because the self-timer is much more inconvenient than the F90x. Once you set the it on the F5, it's active for all shots until you physically turn it off. I wondered through half of my first roll what was going on with my camera. I'd press the shutter release and the shutter wouldn't fire for 4 seconds. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I noticed the self-timer. I promptly turned it off and haven't really used it again. Hopefully, they fixed that little inconvenience on the F100.

Well, that's about all for now on the Nikon F5. There's a long discussion about the camera's 3D matrix meter that will add to your knowledge of how I operate this tool. I'm clear the F5 isn't perfect but it's very impressive for an imperfect tool.