( 6 reviews )
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Posted: 03-09-2009
Japanese companies, for all their huge size and consensus decision making, sometimes display more soul than their US corporate counterparts. In creating the F6 masterpiece, Nikon knew they would probably not recover their development cost; film is over. But profit was not the point. The F6 is a love letter and an expression of gratitude for Nikon's rise to success through 35 mm SLR photography. The F6, almost certainly the end of the F line, is a parting gift from Nikon; the emphasis is on mechanical beauty and ergonomic perfection. Get one while you can; there will never ever be a more superb 35 mm single lens reflex film camera.
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( 0 of 12 found this review helpful ) Posted: 06-01-2007
I purchased a Nikon F6 ( right after I purchased a Nikon D200 ) a couple of months ago. Although this film camera obviously does not have the many additional options and settings that the digital Nikon D200 has, it does have a a similar software-human interface. The extremely unfortunately consequence of this systematically defective design is that it is essentially unusable by people with photosensitive / pattern sensitive epilepsy. If you are at the least annoyed by idiot and unnecessary blinking or, as I do have seizures because of them, the entire Nikon line might as well be avoided. ( Unfortunately, this trait seems common with Canon, too. At least the Digital Rebel XTi, which I purchased and was inaccessible ( After getting clobbered by it, I stopped using it ). I later downloaded the manual for their highest end DSLR and one look and it was obvious I could not use it, either. ) I just received a Nikon 200-400mm lens and wanted to check it out indoors ( the incident light was somewhat less than 5 EV with a Gossen StarLite light meter ). The newer Nikon camera line, as I have said, seems to be designed to induce as many seizures in sensitive people as they possibly can. I passed my hand in front of the lens and, guess what, it started blinking and on the first blink I had a bad ( not grand mal ) seizure. I still have not recovered after 15 minutes. ( I am trying to be coherent after this ) I wish someone would tell me why the analog exposure display on the right side of the viewfindeer has to madly BLINK whenever the metering range is exceeded? This is a PROFESSIONAL camera yet the interface is, ala Nikon, another idiot camera software design. It is impossible to avoid the blinking in any way using these Nikon cameras. The full user's guide is not online so there is no way that you can know if this thing is accessible. It is not. If you purchase this camera, and you are concerned with this obnoxious blinking almost everywhere you try to use the camera, then carefully read the entire user's guide so you know what you are getting into and so you have time to return it if you so desire. BTW, the Gossen StarLite is just about the only newer light meter that is even slightly usable by epileptics. And even then, you can only use about 10% of it's features. What is so nice about it is that it displays an "Err" message when the light level is outside of the meter's measuring range. Maybe Nikon could get a clue and make their cameras usable and accessible. ( The Sekonics are all write-offs in this respect, unfortunately ) Nikon has been told about this total inaccessibility ( and that their products are dangerous to epileptics ) but I am not holding my breath that they will provide any accessibility ( or usability ) Hence the 1 rating. ( One reason I am writing these reviews is so that people like me don't have to throw almost $8,000 down the Nikon bad-design drain )
