Nikon F4s

Our Nikon F4s was purchased by Lea at a university surplus store for an amazingly low $35. It's an enormous and incredibly powerful camera, and everyone who's interested in film photography should try and get their hands on an F4 at some point. Our model bears the ā€œsā€ suffix because it has a vertical grip attached that allows for extra batteries which power the high speed drive motor. Overall it takes 6 AA batteries and can fire at about 6 frames per second (when in high speed mode) - meaning that if you were to hold down the shutter button, you could use up the entire roll of film in just a few seconds; provided each exposure was like 1/250 and there's no AF delay.

The F4s offers much of the digital precision that the F80 offers, but in a very different way. The F80 has an LCD display and easy to use dials; the F4s has a myriad of levers and knobs and buttons. When we first got it, we were entirely unable to turn it on, open the back, or even take a picture. The F4 certainly has an incredibly steep learning curve. Once mastered, however, it is an amazing camera and one can clearly see how it would have cost $2,500 when it was new in the late 80s. Using the F4s is akin to driving a similarly aged muscle car. Useless unless you know what you're doing and maintain it.

Main con? The F4s is heavy. Not only does it take 6 AAs, it is entirely made of very dense metal. The body alone weighs about a pound and a half, and then you have to add a lens on top of that. If you don't mind the weight or the steep learning curve, it's an incredible camera with many fantastic features.