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Home >> Photography >> Film Equipment Nikon F100
The Nikon F100 has generated an enormous amount of buzz since it’s release in 1999. Numerous accolades and awards have been heaped upon it and in an unusually beneficial year for photography and photographers, 1999 saw not only the release of the F100 but also of the Canon EOS 3 and the Minolta Maxxum 9 (or Dynax 9 depending upon which market you live in). Three highly capable, pro-level bodies released by three of the top 35mm manufacturers, each with its own set of attributes and each with its own set of cheerleaders in the highly competitive and very often neurotic world of 35mm photography. Of the three offerings the Minolta Maxxum 9 seemed to have garnered the quiet praise and dark horse moniker as Minolta makes its first serious attempt at capturing back some of its lost pro market since the demise of the Maxxum 9000. A utilitarian build and ergonomics reveal it to the sum of all of Minolta’s technology and expertise rather then the more high tech, revolutionary EOS 3. The Canon offering continues Canon’s style of wowing the photo world with whiz-bang technology and innovations that bring the future to the present. Eye Control Focus that has been improved along with a 45 point autofocus system make for a technological marvel while the EOS flash system has been revamped for improved control over artificial lighting. The Nikon F100 took the middle route with cues from the other two companies. Like the Minolta, the F100 is more evolutionary then revolutionary as it takes its styling and controls from the Nikon F5 (very revolutionary in its own right when first introduced in 1996) with enough whiz bang technology of its own to keep pace with Canon. Canon users will say that the F100 is simply a long overdue acknowledgement that Nikon has had to borrow features from previous and present Canon EOS bodies. To a certain extent this is true but more on that later. Be that as it may the F100 is an unqualified success and was in short supply when introduced. I don’t know how well the Minolta Maxxum 9 sells in my local market of Vancouver but the F100 outsells the Canon EOS 3 by a factor of 10:1. The EOS 3 is a decent enough body but its sales have been of such concern that Canon authorized a sale at my main camera shop recently in an attempt to sell more EOS 3 bodies and L series zoom lenses. The products were at such excellent price points that even I had to do some quick math in my head to see what a basic kit would sell for. In the end I decided that it wasn’t worth changing over after all. The F100 is so highly regarded that Photo Technique Magazine chose it as the best of its yearly (1999) top 25 bodies, which includes all formats of cameras from APS to 8x10. The editor felt the F100 to be nearly perfect in form and function and while the EOS 3 also made the list it was a bit behind (I can’t remember which spot exactly). So why is the F100 so highly regarded that it has taken a bit of the luster away from the top Nikon F5 body among others? I’ll try to answer the question for myself as I type up this user review of the camera in question. Through the kind generosity and benevolence of my shooting buddy Wilson, I’ve had access to the F100 for a few weeks to try out. This was especially of benefit to me as I was trying to decide if the rather high cost of the F100 would justify itself for an upgrade from my F90x and F70 based kit. I was happy as a pig in mud to try out the F100 and put it through its paces. Unfortunately I’ve been in a dry spell as far as wedding work is concerned so I couldn’t try the F100 out for one of the main duties I would buy it for. My only encounter with the F100 before had been in the store and the brief moments trying it out left me impressed with its smoother operation over the F90x and even the F5. But other aspects of the F100 gave me some pause for concern, mostly having to do with the Nintendo Gamepad-like control of the autofocus points on the camera back door. How I would live with this piece of technology and would the F100 offer me enough to justify its near doubling of cost over my F90x? Tech Talk Although only slightly heavier then the F90x the F100 is far more solid in the hand due to its magnesium alloy build. The F90x has metal construction (aluminum) under a polycarbonite shell and while solid and well sealed against the elements, still smacked of some delicacy like all plastic covered bodies. It’s a body that you wouldn’t want to see dropped on a hard surface because of the plastic. Indeed there have been a few reports of the plastic on the prism cracking or being stressed, pointing to a weak juncture in build. I would still not want to drop the F100 but I would have far more confidence of it surviving a drop and only suffering superficial scuffs. The F100 is no F5 but there is enough solidity and metal to inspire confidence in a variety of harsher shooting situations. Not only is the top deck made of cool to the touch metal but also the bottom plate and the front of the body. The body is wrapped around with the same type of textured rubber as the F5 to allow for a better gripping surface then the smoother and very thin covering of the F90x and F70 bodies of the early/mid 1990s. Given my concern about the plastic covered prism of the F90x, I very much appreciate the all-metal prism of the F100. In the hand the F100 is a better ergonomic fit then the squatter F90x as the right hand grip is deeper allowing for greater reach around. The controls and dials very much harken to the F5 but a bit more cluttered as all the buttons are exposed whereas the F5 has less used buttons hidden behind a small trap door below the camera back door. The F5 required this layout to accommodate the manual rewind lever on the top left side of the body. The F100 like the F90x uses this space for flash, shooting mode and ISO control. One difference to this configuration is the Mode button. While the F90x had the Mode button to select through Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program Auto and Manual control on the left side of the top deck, the F100 sees this button moved to the right side of the body in front of the LCD display. This allows the F100 to accommodate a feature sorely missed on the F90x without the costly MF26 data back, which is bracketing. The F100 answered the criticisms leveled at Nikon for not including various features not found on the F90x of which Bracketing was but one. My F90x with the MF26 back actually still has more features then the base F100 but I found the control of the MF26 to be such a nuisance that I could never remember how to use the features with any confidence. Now ambient exposure bracketing, flash bracketing and multiple exposure can be accessed with minimal fuss. At first glance the F100 could be seen as an updated and improved F90x but a closer look at the F100 reveals it to be closer to the top of the line F5. I’ve already mentioned the metal build but all of the styling and layout cues of the F100 are directly descended from the F5 (with minor differences of course). Control Layout The prism has the standard Nikon four-point hotshoe and like the F5, the F100’s prism on the right side has the Exposure meter selector. This is another locking selector that requires the push of a central button to release the ring to select through the Spot, Matrix and Center Weighted meters. More then a few people were disappointed that the F100 did not incorporate the F5’s 1005 pixel RGB Color Matrix meter or some lesser version of such. Instead Nikon chose to increase the number of segments of their venerable Matrix meter from the F90x’s eight-segment to the F100’s ten-segment meter.
The Center Weighted meter takes a 75% weighting for the central circle seen inside the viewfinder with the remaining 25% for the outer portions. The Spot meter is a true 1% type and corresponds to any of the five autofocus points in the central viewfinder area for more versatility. Moving on to the right side of the F100’s top deck we have the LCD readout that will indicate the functions or modes selected by the user as well as exposure information and any compensation selected. The LCD will also show which of the five autofocus points is selected and when Custom Functions have been set. Nikon made a good move to always show the frame number even when the camera is turned off. No need to turn the body on to see which frame you’re on for a roll of film. The LCD is also backlit by a blue Indiglo type of light (of Timex watch fame) that is turned on or off by the main power On/Off ring.
The F100’s top deck is quite simple and clean and any previous Nikon autofocus user will find the F100 to be intuitive to use right away. The front of the F100 is also very clear with the familiar controls for Depth of Field Preview on one side and the lens release button and Autofocus mode selector switch on the other. A ten-pin socket for a cable release as well as a PC sync socket is also available on the front, situated almost exactly as on the F90x.The back of the F100 is where the new features and functions of the body are revealed though. The first thing the new user of the F100 will notice is the circular control pad reminiscent of a Nintendo Gamepad. This control is for the five-point autofocus module that is directly taken from the F5. This is the same CAM1300 module that provides the F5 with its superior autofocus speed and focus tracking ability. There is a lot more to the CAM1300 module that will amaze the user but I didn’t want to simply regurgitate the technical brochure. Suffice to say its impressive even four years after its introduction in 1996.
For the F100 the Custom Functions are as follows and are accessed by pushing the Custom Function button and then turning the Main Command dial.
As one can see the F100 offers a great deal of customizing for the user to select the best mix of features and functions desired. Moving to the other side of the camera back has a Diopter dial that allows adjustment of –3 to +1. Beside the Diopter dial is the AE/AF lock button, the AF-On button to start autofocus and then the Main Command dial. The bottom of the F100 has the standard tripod socket mount, the battery chamber access door and a covered socket that allows for connection and transferring of control to the optional MB15 battery pack/grip. Inside the viewfinder, we have 97% coverage of the frame and a new look for Nikon that again resembles Canon for the viewfinder display. Previously, in the older F90x and F70 bodies the viewfinder information was black print backlit by a lime-green colored LCD panel. Now we have green colored print over a black colored panel. Easy enough to get use to but I think the older viewfinder display was brighter and easier to read. Plenty of information is available for the photographer such as focus lock or focus turning direction if manual focusing; exposure meter selected and exposure value lock indication beside the meter symbol; Shutter speed and Aperture value; and next in line, one very excellent improvement over the previous AF bodies (save for the F5) and that is a bar graph display for over or under exposure. The F90x and F70 only provided a bar graph with a plus or minus one stop value, which most users felt was ridiculously inadequate. Nikon improved this display to two stops with the F5 and the F100 (when in default 1/3 stop increment setting) but if the user chooses to have the display set for 1/2 stop instead of 1/3 stop values then the bar graph will show a plus or minus three stop variation of the base exposure. Over top this bar graph in the viewfinder the user will notice PSAM to correspond with which mode of operation chosen (Program, Shutter, Aperture, and Manual). Beside the bar graph is plus or minus indicator to reveal when exposure compensation has been activated and then finally the frame counter. All in all for a camera the size of the F100, it packs a whole whack of features and capabilities that very definitely make it much closer to the F5 in abilities then the F90x.
There are quite a few differences obviously, as the F100 has to justify the near doubling of cost over the very capable and still popular F90x. Some of the ones not yet mentioned are: Viewfinder
Both cameras have poor interfaces for the head to camera coupling and I find that Canon bodies are superior in this regard with a generous rubber surrounding of the eyepiece. With the F100 and F90x the use of the round rubber eyecup is highly recommended for greater comfort and stability. Depth of Field Preview
Camera back door release
Lens to camera contacts
Shutter cycle duration
Autofocus F90x and F100 When I mounted the 80-200mm on the F100 I received nice AF speed but I wasn’t blown away, in fact I had to say that I was let down as I was expecting so much more given all the hype. When doing direct comparisons to the F90x and focusing the lens from near to far subjects I would have to conclude that the F100’s faster AF speed was noticeable but the F90x held its own. Where the F100 won outright was in terms of control and less tendency to hunt. The F100 had a better ability to brake the lens right at the proper focus point and it did so in a very smooth way that spoke of refinement in contrast to the rawness of the F90x. I had previously described the F90x to an American built muscle car (my F90x review). One with immense power under the hood but also sounds like it. I’ve never been entirely satisfied with the higher noise levels emanating from the F90x especially in quiet and delicate situations such as the exchanging of vows in a marriage ceremony. It’s disconcerting and embarrassing to have your camera go "schwack" with everyone looking on. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to move up to an F100 as I found the refined operation to be much better then the F90x, the F5 and even my F70. Even when autofocusing the F90x is loud as it screw drives the lens elements back and forth. The F100 walks all over the F90x as far as refinement is concerned for AF and shutter release/mirror slap. Keep in mind though that better the F100 may be for noise there is still a noticeable amount emanating from it and only the use of Silent Wave lenses would satisfy the noise-abhorrent among us. Confidence This is more psychological then it is about actual objectivity. Earlier on I mentioned the more plastic build of the F90x as compared to the F100 and how the F100 allows the user far greater ease of mind for the camera making it back from a rigorous shoot. The F90x has metal in its under chassis and is a favorite among a number of National Geographic photographers. This in itself attests to the durability and reliability of the F90x in all manner of shooting conditions. For that matter while I’m on the topic of plastic vs. metal, I’ve never come across a reliable reference to any of the all plastic Canon EOS bodies failing in the field due to build quality. The issue is subjective, as some photographers will not ever come to terms with the amount of plastic being used in today’s high tech AF bodies and will always buy a metal body. I know of one young female sports photographer freelancing for some of the local pro sports team in Vancouver and she won’t bother with an EOS 3 due to its plastic build despite the high tech wizardry in it. She very much prefers her EOS 1n and is now looking very favorably at the new EOS 1v. It all has to do with perceived reliability and robustness that a plastic body no matter how well built or sealed against the elements will never deliver the subjective satisfaction that a metal body will. My friend Wilson who loaned me the F100 under review is presently enthralled at being a Leica rangefinder owner again and marvels at its toughness and durability. Although we are of similar age Wilson started photography quite a long time before I got serious about it and as such he cut his teeth on some very fine and very tough cameras such as an old Leica III and Nikon F3. He likes his cameras to be tough and he likes metal like all the other old timers out there. Put the F90x and F100 together and the F90x begins to look a bit a shabby and imagine when you put a F70 and the F100 together, night and day. I was in a local camera shop recently talking to some of the staff about the new Nikon bodies and the one to still come (the F80). The main person I was talking to commented on how the F80 would rob a lot of sales from the F90x and the F100 and I had some trouble with that. For an amateur buyer who doesn’t have or want to spend a lot of money the F80 appears to offer great value as it more then meets the challenges of other rivals in the same class. But for a more serious user the F80 still represents a bit of a bottleneck in terms of pure performance and capabilities never mind the obvious lack of build quality. Even though as of this writing the F80 is not available yet, given its expected price range and build quality, I suspect it will be marginally better then the F70. The serious user will want a better built and more capable camera body such as the F100 or even the F90x first before embarking on the lighter and lessor mid-level body. I mentioned to the sales person that I would only buy a F80 as a second body after I already had an F100 squared away first and only if I couldn’t afford another F100. With the state of my meager finances this is more then likely the way I will go for my future 35mm kit, an F100 as primary body and an F80 as the second. Both will share near identical control layouts including the same type of AF selection pad on the camera back so it will be easy to switch back and forth between the two rather then the current disparate situation of the F90x and F70 bodies. All this typing over what the F100 is and can do but how does it handle? Very nicely thank you very much! Although, I missed the extra grip that the MB15 would have provided as I very much like the F90x and MB10 combo, the F100 was very nice to hold due to its better contours and very grippy textured rubber covering. My friend Wilson likes street shooting and eschews the extra bulk that the MB15 would add whereas when I buy my own F100 I will also buy the MB15 at the same time. When I took delivery of the borrowed F100, I knew that I would have some misgivings about the control of certain functions, essentially the AF selection control and to a lessor extent the default use of dials for aperture value. These would be the biggest learning curves for me to get acquainted with as it means a retraining of sorts to use the F100 effectively and enjoy the greater control it offers. But there were also other features and functions that I took to immediately with nary a thought to how I did things previously with the F90x and F70. The first time I came across the AF-On feature was not on a Canon body (they originated the feature as far as I know) but on the F5. Then I became more aware of how it allows the user better control over AF when I read Phillip Greenspun’s review of the EOS 5 (A2E) body. The AF-On button allows the user to disengage the AF start from the shutter release to only the AF-On button so that the user decides when to AF. The feature is really used to full advantage when a Silent Wave lens is used since these lenses allow instantaneous manual focusing even while in AF mode on the body. With such lenses the user has the best of both worlds in that he can manual focus during slower moments yet still have automatic AF when required during some fast paced action. Or the user can AF most of the time yet be able to tweak the focus manually. Although I have no AF-S lenses and have yet to even use one I still appreciate being in control of the AF when I want to and being able to keep my AF essentially locked and not having to re touch up my AF every time I let up on the shutter release button. This was probably the best feature for me among all the fine ones offered on the F100 and it allowed me to slowly get use to using the AF control pad to select between the five AF points. When I was taking my time and doing things in a controlled fashion then it was nice to select an AF point, especially one of the side points as they are sufficiently wide enough to be useful as far as viewfinder coverage is concerned. But when I was in a hurry trying to catch something I found myself doing the old AF shuffle of locking focus first with the central AF point and then recomposing. I had been doing this type of shuffle for so long that it was natural for me to continue and the F100 actually made it easier for me to do so. (I should note that I'm left eye dominant and use that eye for photography, meaning that I always feel like I'm about to jab my right eye out with my right thumb when using the AF Selector Pad) I could start AF first and then lock the exposure value with shutter release button (Custom Function #7) then simply shift whichever way for my intended composition. But I do see the benefits of the five AF points and the selector pad to simply compose first and then select the proper AF point, lock exposure for that point and then release the shutter. I just find it a bit awkward to do so now as I find that I move the camera away from my forehead slightly to allow my thumb to access the AF control pad. Practice will make perfect. One last point regarding the AF-On button and Exposure lock on the shutter release button when in Single Servo mode. If I was taking my time and let the meter turn off for contemplating my composition I found that I had to repeat the whole AF and exposure lock sequence again when I had the camera’s AF mode set to Single Servo Focus Priority mode. Only if I set the AF to Continuous Servo Release Priority mode would I be able to AF once then take my time to set up the shot and be able to release the shutter even after the meter turned off without repeating the AF sequence. Another awkward way of doing things is to use a command dial for selecting aperture value. There is nothing more natural then to select the aperture via the lens ring and I really do like this way of doing things but Nikkor lenses do not have half click stops with their aperture rings. The lenses are certainly capable of half stop values when the ring is mid way between full stop values but it would be much better if the ring was built that way. Using the command dial allows for such half stop or even third stop accuracy for aperture value and this is very much a good thing if you’re into getting exact exposures for a given scene using slide film. The command dial control of the aperture is also good for when using very large lenses. I found it sometimes awkward to access the aperture ring of my 80-200mm lens especially when my Kirk EZ360 bracket is attached and the even bigger telephoto lenses pretty much require that the command dial be used. I’m currently setting the aperture through the main command dial as opposed to the sub- command dial on the front of the body as it seems more natural to do it this way but given how much the right hand thumb has to do at the back of the camera I’m not so sure if I shouldn’t change it back to the sub-command dial. More experimentation will be required for a final choice. I’ve also set the sub-command dial for easy exposure compensation. This allows me to adjust compensation without having to push the +/- button. I very much like having numerous custom functions to personalize the F100 to suit my needs but twenty-two is a bit much to remember and I certainly don’t care to carry a card with me all the time to try and remember which function is what. Fortunately only a few functions require memorizing while the rest can be set once and then left alone. For me these would be #2 for setting the exposure compensation steps. At present I have the camera set for ½ half stop increments but sometimes I want greater accuracy or refinement in 1/3 stop increments. #11 for choosing between ambient and flash bracketing or choosing both to be changed at the same time. #16 for self-timer duration. When caught without a cable release then selecting a two-second duration is best but when trying to get myself in a photo with others fussing around then 20 seconds might be better. With continued use of the F100 I’ve become more comfortable and the initial awkwardness I felt in the beginning is pretty much gone. This is a natural reaction to anything new and I knew that a period of adjustment would be required despite the already familiar features and functions that were also available on the F90x. I wrote at the beginning of this report about the rather high cost of the F100 when it seemed to be an upgraded F90x but this is a wrong assessment. The F100 is fairly priced for what it offers and is very much a bridge between the F90x and F5. When the F90x is finally retired and becomes a legend in its own right it will be difficult to see how Nikon can fill the gap between the coming F80 and the F100. The price gap is quite large and I would think that Nikon would have to lower the cost of the F100 to under $2000 CAN to lessen the gap. As it stands now the F100 is priced at $2200 CAN and offers a number of very useful features over the F90x. The MF26 data back would have to be added to provide a similar feature set to the base F90x which would increase the cost of the F90x/MF26 combo to nearly $1500 CAN. The price gap is less but still very noticeably wide. To justify the remaining $700 the F100 has to have other tangible and intangible qualities and it is my conclusion that the F100 very definitely does offer the user good value for the money (good value is subjective though and I speak from a serious amateur’s perspective). The F100 is more solidly built with a more robust shutter assembly that is rated for at least 100,000 shutter cycles whereas the F90x is only rated for about half that. The shutter cycle point alone should make the F100’s added expense easy to quantify as you would require two F90x’s to survive what one F100 will endure. Compared to the F5 the F100 is practically a bargain as the F5 is still at least $1000 more then the F100 in Canada. I could afford to buy one F5 if I really desired it and man oh man have I desired it but and this is a big but, I like having two bodies to shoot with and even if I went with an F5 and F80 combo the cost is enough to kill me as I wouldn’t be able to afford some of the newer lenses that will eventually see their way into the Nikon line up. I have my eye on the 80-400 VR lens and I’m quite confident that Nikon will eventually produce a 35mm f1.4 AF-D lens. Both these lenses would serve my needs better then what is currently available now and I need to have money saved up for these eventual purchases. Busting the bank on an F5, as much as I would be in wet dream heaven, would be a foolhardy decision on my part. Far better to stretch my meager funds as much as possible with an F100 as my main body and an F80 as the second for less then the cost of an F5. The F5 still offers a few more features and abilities to warrant the $k bill extra entrance fee. The F5 will last at minimum 50% longer then the F100 in shutter cycle, which again puts the extra cost into proper perspective. The F5 also has a true mirror lockup and not some cheesy lockup tied to the self-timer like some other make of camera (but truth be told I would take this in a second if offered for the F100 – call me a hypocrite). The F5 is even more robust in build quality and continues the Nikon F series tradition of being able to be used as a hammering tool or a personal weapon. The F5 has a faster flash sync speed of 1/300 instead of the F100’s 1/250 although both can high speed sync to 1/4000 through some funky short bursts by the SB28 flash, not all that useful for most people though. The F5 has a manual rewind so your film will never be trapped at the mercy of dead batteries and in cold climates this manual rewind is useful to prevent static from insinuating itself on the film as it can through motor driven rewinding. One other feature that can make the world of difference for some photographers that the F5 has over all other current Nikon bodies including the F100 is less shutter lag time. Shutter lag time is the amount of time in milliseconds it takes the camera to register your finger pressure on the release button to the time the shutter actually goes through the exposure making cycle. I was in Broadway Camera (my main store in Vancouver) late 1999 and happen to meet a local photographer working on staff for the China Daily News. Sam (use to work for noted Canadian stock photographer Daryl Benson when he lived in Alberta) does a variety of work for the paper from photojournalism to sports as well as his own freelance work. We had a nice hour-long chat with our man Henry at the store on a variety of topics about Nikon and Canon. We got to comparing the F100 and F90x to the F5 and Sam’s take on the situation was that a person who feels he needs an F5 should never, ever cheap out and buy a F100 or F90x instead. The money would be wisely spent on the F5. His major reason for not using the cheaper bodies had to do with shutter lag time. His experience with Nikon F3’s, F4’s and F5’s was that from the time he pressed the shutter release button to the time the camera actually makes the exposure is as fast as it can get. But when he used a F90x in the same situations (sports photography, especially basketball with the local NBA Grizzlies) his timing would be completely off and he would have to compensate. With the F5 he could count on getting the first frame right during a three frame burst but with the F90x he would never get the first shot and would have to go with the second and often times the third shot. What does this have to do with the F100? Sam felt that the F100 suffered from the same type of slow shutter lag time as the F90x and for that reason it was not suitable for his professional requirements as a photojournalist. After talking to Sam I reflected back on my own experiences with my F90x during various candid moments in the weddings I covered and I found that I experienced problems with shutter lag as well. At the time I wasn’t aware of what the problem was but I knew on a few occasions that a shot would come up and it felt like a long time before I could get the camera to respond and consequently the taken shot wouldn’t come up as I first saw it. This is not a big issue for me since I don’t shoot sports and no paper or magazine has come to me offering me fame and fortune for my abilities as a photographer. I don’t need a F5 and its near instantaneous shutter lag to take the shots I like to take. I think my friend Wilson would probably pooh-pooh the Nikon shutter lag anyway and say that his Leica has zero shutter lag due to its rangefinder design. I hadn’t mentioned the motor film advance speed of the F100 and this is because super fast film advance is not of any use for me. Nice to have and good for the penile deficient to brag about 8 frames per second or even 10 frames with the new Canon EOS 1v but fast film advance don’t cut it with outdoor photographers. The 4.5 frames per second of the F100 (or 5 fps with the MB15) is fast enough for me and is only subtly improved over the F90x’s 4.3 fps. More important for me is how well damped the sound of the film advance is and the F100 is certainly better then the F90x in this regard. My initial roll through the F100 was with Fuji Velvia rated at its 50 ISO. Wilson and I met downtown at Leo’s before heading off to Stanley Park for a walk around session. He with his Leica M6 and I with his F100 and 20mm f2.8 AF-D lens along with my own 50mm f1.8 AF lens. I shot a variety of subjects in afternoon and late afternoon sun as we tried to get to a good position for some sunset shots. The sunset disappointed and we didn’t shoot much of it but I liked most of what I got back from the lab for the other shots. The slides had the telltale Velvia saturation with a few shots looking like they had been polarized but given the folly of using a polarizing filter on a 20mm lens, I actually had not. Most of the other shots had a pleasing balance when the bright sky was mixed in with some darker subjects. I shot the roll entirely on Aperture Priority and Matrix metering to see how the F100 would do with my most used settings on my F90x. About the only shot that gave me some pause was a shot I took of Wilson as he was taking a shot with his M6. He was in dark shade with the background lit by the full force of the afternoon sun. It could be construed as a backlit scene but the sun was actually to the side of me when I took the shot but again we were both in deep shade. The end result was Wilson coming out dark but not silhouetted against a very light background. Detail is still there but the slide would require a large amount of work to make it useable. So high tech ten-segment matrix meter perhaps but still requires some thought from the photographer to make things work. If I had a flash then it would have saved the shot or if I had spot metered Wilson then the shot would also have been more accurate. The next roll of film through the F100 was for testing out the flash capabilities. I had never really done much testing of the Nikon flash system so I decided to try it out a bit more. Previous settings using Galen Rowell’s recommended minus 1.7 compensation in standard TTL mode have provided me with very good fill flash shots. The slide or print would have just the barest presence of flash and only if you looked at the subject’s eyes could you detect the highlights and know that flash had been used. I decided to test out Matrix balanced fill flash with that of Standard TTL with a variety of minus settings to see if one particular combination struck me as being the best. With 35mm flash system I tend to get lazy since I buy into 35mm gear for the high tech wizardry and convenience factor. This is the main reason why I never bothered to do much beyond Nikon’s 3-D Matrix flash exposures. With my Bronica 6x6 medium format system then I mix manual ambient and automated TTL flash for my subjects as I take an incident reading of the scene first for my base exposure and then let the TTL flash adapter control the flash output. I suppose I’m still being lazy with my flash work here too but I don’t like to suffer through calculations much and my results have been quite decent. My very basic fill-flash testing consisted of me chasing my son, dressed in a bright yellow jacket, around the yard and then some green vegetables planted by my parents in a small plot of dirt in the backyard. I shot Fuji Provia 100 (RDP II not the new Provia F) and the results indicated that Nikon’s 3D Matrix Balanced Fill Flash is not as good as I would have been led to believe. Much better then Standard TTL flash with an overall balance about one stop less then Standard TTL. But again I found that I preferred a minus 1.7 fill flash setting as being the most natural looking. The vegetables shots as mundane as they were actually helped to bring out the differences and comparing the flash shots to an ambient light shot allowed for the best looking slide to be easily soon on the light table. The shots of my son revealed the benefits of fill-flash as his bright yellow jacket had a nicer color then ambient shots, the greater the flash power, the brighter the yellow. Since my main photographic love is outdoor nature work and scenes then flash work is less important. If I did a lot of macro work then I would probably appreciate the Nikon flash system more but I’ve never been much for chasing insects around and I yawn at pictures of flowers. Most of my flash work is in the form of the standard and horribly rote family pictures that nobody else in the world cares for or in the form of wedding candids that nobody else outside of the wedding couple’s friends and family would care for. It’s in these situations that Nikon’s flash system works so well for me, as I don’t have to think or more importantly worry about it. D lenses and 3-D metering may not mean a whole lot for ambient exposures but I think it makes a nice difference for flash work. I can lock AF on a subject and recompose with proper flash exposure for that locked subject instead of the back of the hall or on some other person at a different distance to the flash. As good as Nikon’s flash system is (arguably the best out there despite what Canon has done with the 550EX flash – more about quantity of features then about improving the actual flash exposure) it’s still not perfect. I see this every time I see a gaggle of photojournalists working on TV or in the papers and notice that a good chunk of them have tried to compensate for the weaknesses of direct flash. Some use the Stofen Omni Bouncer attachment to diffuse the flash in all directions. Others tilt the flash head at a 45-degree angle with a bounce card to reduce the amount of harsh light falling on the subject while keeping the loss of the flash power to reasonable limits (the Stofen robs 1½-2 stops of flash power when used). I’ll be trying out some more flash experimentation once I start using my own newly bought Stofens with my mix of flashes. As far as ambient light work is concerned I think that if you relied on Matrix metering, you would still have to bracket the shots in order the cover the bases. In certain types of conditions that have more complex lighting and exposure values the Matrix meter will not be able to provide an accurate exposure. Mostly the same types of conditions that will give pretty much every built-in meter fits such as back lighting or extreme contrast conditions of snow or sand. Galen Rowell learned a trick from an old pro when he was starting out and that is to always expose for the most important aspect of the scene/subject. Following this rule has mostly allowed me to get what I saw onto the film. It won’t save you from blowing out the shadows or highlights but you at least get the essence of what you wanted. As I use my Bronica 6x6 more often, I find myself trusting my Sekonic 508 meter in incident mode more and more and will go with that for the slower and more methodical tripod work. For street shooting or shooting on the run then Matrix metering can be a great way to forget the technical and go for the subjective, within reason of course. One last note on the metering of the F100, like the Canon EOS 3, there were reports that the first wave of newly manufactured F100s had underexposure problems. Nikon and Canon did fixes to remedy the problem but I recently found that the Matrix meter could still be less then stellar for not so complex scenes. Some shots of a common mallard (a duck) in Vancouver’s Stanley Park gave me some things to think about as far as the F100’s matrix meter was concerned. Most of the water fowl in the park are quite use to the large numbers of humans and often look for handouts. The duck I took pictures of allowed me to get close enough to fill the frame with an 80-200mm lens set at 200mm (Kodak E200 film) but prior to coming across this duck, I had shot some scenes of logs on a beach and had done some exposure compensation. I forgot to set the compensation back to zero and consequently shot the first few frames of the duck with plus two compensation. I realized my mistake and set the dial back to zero and shot some more slides of the duck to at least give me some usable shots. I thought I had blown out the first few shots with the over exposure but I found that the supposedly correctly exposed slides were a bit too dark for my liking. This is not to say that the plus 2 stops slides were superior as I felt a middle ground of plus one stop would have been the best value but it revealed that the matrix meter was not infallible and was in fact disappointing in this one example. The scene was in the shade but not very dark with little in the way of bright background to fool the meter to underexpose. It reveals a pattern that in shaded scenes a bit plus compensation is required to balance the exposure the matrix meter would provide or spot meter a neutral subject and then expose the film. The F100 is very nearly the perfect body for most users. Except for a mirror lockup feature the F100 pretty much has it all. It is the size of the traditional high-end camera instead of taking the Schwarzenegger–like sizing of the F5. When the extra grip is needed for use with longer lenses or for people with larger hands then an MB15 can be added. It lacks the viewfinder shutter of the F90x and F5 but I can’t recall the last time I actually used this feature on my F90x so it’s not a vital omission. The build and robustness is almost as good as the F5 and certainly feels far more solid then the plastic build of a competitor’s offering (again very subjective). It inspires confidence that it can handle the toughest shooting conditions with aplomb and hell if you drop it, just dust it off and continue shooting. When you take everything the F100 offers you and compare it objectively and even subjectively to other cameras the value is clear and unmistakable. This camera is a winner and it is very easy to understand why it has sold like hotcakes since its introduction in 1999. Now I just have to sell off my old bodies and get my own as soon as possible.
The MB15 is made of plastic with two strips of rubber gripping straddling the lower section of the grip on the front and back where the fingers would hold the MB15 for vertical shooting. The rubber cover is the same type of textured covering as on the F100 body and is a marked improvement over the smooth MB10 for the F90x body. The base is noticeably wider at the bottom of the MB15 over the MB10 in order to accommodate the six AA sized batteries or its own proprietary rechargeable Ni-MH battery (MN-15) whereas the MB10 only took four AA sized batteries. The battery chamber is accessible via a small turnkey that is quite quick to open but not quite as quick as the push button spring release on the MB10. The MB15 attaches to the F100 in exactly the same manner as the MB10 on the F90x. The grip has a column-like section that fits into the body’s battery chamber and after the grip and body meet and fit in a locking wheel will turn a screw into the camera’s tripod socket for secure coupling.
Build wise the MB15 is not much different then the MB10 with some concern about how it would fare after an accidental nasty drop from some height onto a hard surface. I hope not to experience said drop and see for myself how well plastic holds together. It would have been a very nice touch on Nikon’s part to have used the same type of magnesium alloy material as in the F100 body but I shudder to think how much more Nikon would have to charge for such a hypothetical MB15. At over $300 CAN for the MB15, it is not cheap but I believe that it offers more value then the $200 MB10 given the features available. A major criticism of the MB 10 for the F90x body was the dearth of features beyond a shutter release button to facilitate vertical format shooting. A look at the direct competitor to the F90x from Canon, the EOS A2 (or EOS 5 outside of North America) and its companion VG10 grip reveals just how much thought and consideration Canon gave for users of the A2 with a control dial, AF start button, AE Lock/Custom Function button and AF point selector button. Add to that the low cost of VG10 and the MB10 was getting near ridiculous in cost to features.
Coupled to the F100 the MB15 provides that extra bit of reassurance for a firm hold on the body. My hands are not large but I find that when holding the body by itself my pinkie finger sometimes dangles in the air and only a vertical grip provides it with a place to rest. When using larger and heavier lenses the MB15 is very much necessary for stability when in handholding situations. All in all the MB15 is a worthwhile companion to the F100 and unlike the F5, the two can be separated for those times when compactness and lightness are desired. Having said that I’d be remiss if I didn’t make mention of the MB15’s one weak spot. Build quality is not that issue even though I’d prefer a more robust build. The issue is the camera to grip coupling and the minute amount of flex apparent when the two are together. My previous F90x/MB10 combination was rock solid in its coupling in comparison and I’ve been in situations of having my older, no-tripod mount version of the 80-200 f2.8 lens mounted on the F90x and MB10 direct on the tripod head with not much worry about swaying or flex due to weight. I’m not so sure that I would be as comfortable doing the same with the F100/MB15 combination but people have done so with no reported problems.
I can’t grouse too much on the flex (an issue that has been brought up a few times among on the Nikon Mailing List) since I don’t have my old 80-200 lens anymore so the only potential problem I might have had is no longer an issue. It is really more about subjectivity in terms of how it feels in your hands and although I much prefer the F100 with the MB15 I still feel like I’ve been screwed by Nikon economics of producing a less then stellar piece of equipment for an otherwise stellar F100 body. Oh yes, I suppose I should make mention of the nice ego trip one feels carrying the F100/MB15 in public. The F100 by itself is a chameleon as very few people would know of the pro-caliber qualities of the body by itself but mount the MB15 and you have a combo that screams “pro” body. Perhaps not the best thing to be advertising when doing a bit of street shooting with the F100. Discretion is the better part of egotistical valour and many times it’s much better to carry on like a tourist then it is as a professional wannabe. That said, I still love the look!
For benefit of people looking to purchase a used F100, below are the old and new rewind forks for comparison purposes.
The Final Word I've received queries regarding the continued worth of buying the F100 despite its nit-picky concerns. Yes, by all means do so and given its lower costs today, it has become a good value in the US, less so in Canada but always try to negotiate when buying from local sources. For those looking at used F100 cameras, serial numbers to look out for would be 21654XX and later as these cameras already have the more robust rewinding fork incorporated into its design.
An earlier, edited version of this review is available for reading on Philip Greenspun's Photonet site and on Focal Fix Online. |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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The F100 is of similar dimension to the F90x but slightly wider, longer
and taller. The F100 is marginally heavier then the F90x by about 30
grams but when hefting the F100 it felt very much lighter in my hands
then the F90x. Only when I checked the manual was it confirmed that
the F100 was indeed heavier. But later on I realized that I had packed
in regular alkaline AA batteries in the F90x while the F100 had the
lighter lithium AA batteries.
Starting from the top left side we have a cluster of three function
buttons in a circular array. Bracketing, Flash and ISO controls are
the three main buttons on top with a Film Advance control ring at the
base of the three-button cluster. The usual options are available such
as Single Frame, Continuous Frame advance and Continuous Silent Frame
advance. The Self-Timer and Multiple Exposure features are also accessed
through this base ring but both functions are hidden from view, as they
are less used features. This base ring locks whenever it is in a particular
mode and requires the push of a small button to rotate the ring to another
feature or function.
From
what I can read of the technical literature the F100 rearranged the
central Matrix segments and utilizes the five Autofocus points as part
of the Matrix pattern. The Matrix meter is simply a database of about
30,000 exposures that Nikon felt would be representative of what a photographer
would come up against for any given scene. Nikon went to great expense
to hire many photographers from around the world to take photos of complex
and ordinary scenes for the database. From actual field conditions the
Matrix meter takes a reading of a scene and compares it to the built
in database and then sets the exposure accordingly. It’s good but it’s
not fool proof and complex metering scenes will still require some thought
from the photographer to render an accurate exposure but this should
come as no surprise to an experienced photographer. This database was
first used for the no longer current F801 (8008 in the US) some twelve
years ago and originally had over 80,000 and then over 100,000 exposures
of information. It was a surprise that Nikon decreased the base number
to less then half of the original 801’s database but this is probably
due to some arcane mathematical formula devised by Nikon to weed out
the unneeded information. 
In
front of the LCD display is the Mode button and the +/- Compensation
button. In front of these two buttons is the Shutter release button,
which has the Power On/Off and LCD light control ring surrounding it.
The Compensation button and the Bracketing button act as the user rewind
buttons when the end of the roll of film has been reached. Nikon chose
not to provide the user with the ability to leave the film leader out
but the F100 could be programmed for such by a Nikon Service depot.
The way Nikon chose to implement the film leader out option for the
F5, F100 and F90x is quite intelligent. Pushing the two rewind buttons
will rewind the film but a three-inch leader is left out but with another
push of the two-rewind buttons, the film leader will be wound back into
the film canister. This allows the user to make a conscious choice about
needing a film leader or not instead of always having to select a custom
function to set the feature. Like the F5 the F100 also has a sub-command
dial in front of the shutter release button which can be used to select
either the shutter speed or the aperture value. 
Beside
the autofocus selector pad is the AF mode selector that allows the user
to choose either single mode or dynamic mode AF. Single mode uses only
the selected AF point to focus whereas Dynamic mode allows the user
to set the initial AF point and when the subject moves the camera will
automatically track the subject to the other focus points. A very useful
tool for action photography. The user can also lock in a particular
AF point for use all the time via a locking switch surrounding the AF
control pad. On the top left-side
of the camera back are two buttons, one is the Lock button that allows
the user to lock in a particular Aperture or Shutter value (I think
this is pretty useless actually) and the other is one that probably
has a few Canon users smirking in sarcastic irony. Nikon has followed
Canon’s example and provided the user with a number of Custom Functions
to fine-tune the features and controls of the F100 to the user’s personal
settings. Although Custom Functions is more familiarly associated with
Canon EOS bodies the term Custom Functions has been in the Nikon lexicon
for a number of years with the F90x and its ability to link up to a
Sharp Personal Organizer and then later on in its life, to a personal
computer. With the hookup the user could set a limited number of Custom
Functions to the F90x. Minolta has also utilized the term for similar
user changeable settings on the Maxxum 9 body. 
I
was very interested to see how the new CAM1300 would fare in terms of
speed given how much hype had been accorded to the F5. I was quite happy
with the speed of AF from the F90x especially when using my older 80-200mm
f2.8 lens (one ring AF-D version). My F70 body was very slow and sluggish
in focusing the big lens despite its more advanced AF CAM then the F90x.
More advanced but certainly not more robust as the F90x is regarded
as being as fast as the Canon EOS 1n, which is well regarded for AF
speed.
After a couple of months of using my friend Wilson’s F100, I decided
to bite the bullet and do a sell off and consolidation of my 35mm
kit in order to finance my own F100 body. I cleaned out my cupboard
and drawers and proceeded to sell off a lot of rarely used pieces
of equipment in addition to my two older bodies; the F70 and F90x
with MF26 Databack and MB10 grip. But since some pieces were slow
in selling I haven’t quite gotten enough to push me over the edge
to indulge myself with my own F100 yet but I did purchase the MB15
grip for use on my friend’s F100 in the mean time. Since my main camera
system previously was a F90x with its companion MB10 grip, I’ll be
doing direct comparisons to the two.
One
pleasant surprise about the MB15 are some O-Rings used to keep out dust
and moisture around the column that goes into the F100 body and around
the MB15's battery holder. This is in keeping with Nikon's claim for
very good protection and sealing against the elements for the F100 and
also for the MB15.
Nikon
obviously heard the criticisms and ensured that a near-top level body
such as the F100 would have a better-featured vertical grip. The MB15
still has less features then the VG10 or the PB-E2 which is the companion
grip/booster for the EOS 3 body but the MB15 does have the two most
used controls from the F100. These are the AF-On button and the Main
Control Dial that controls the Aperture or Shutter speed depending upon
which Custom Function has been set for the Main Control Dial on the
body. A locking tab to lock the shutter release button finishes the
feature set on the MB15, so it is still spare but the user at least
has some meaningful controls in vertical shooting mode. I should note
here that the MB15 is not a motor drive in the same sense as the PB-E2
is for the EOS 3. The extra two AA batteries from the MB15 allows the
F100 to achieve a firing rate of 5 frames per second but by itself the
F100 fires at 4.5 fps so the .5 is hardly a meaningful benefit. The
MB15 is less then half the cost of the PB-E2 and so it should be since
it does not improve the technical performance of the F100 the same way
the PB-E2 does for the EOS 3.
In
normal handheld use the flex is not an issue at all and of course for
use with larger lenses with their own tripod mount it is not relevant.
So I suppose that only in very specific uses could the tiny bit of flex
cause potential problems (probably in the same types of shooting speeds
where mirror lockup becomes very critical, 1/4 to 1/30 of a second).
But a $2500 CAN price tag for both pieces should get the purchaser a
near flawless coupling something that the similarly priced EOS 3 and
PB-E2 combination reportedly achieves.
The
Lens Mount 
The
Autofocus Selector Pad Many reports of the focus selector
pad failing to register to one side and activating autofocus. The right
side seems to particularly guilty of this tendency and I have experienced
this problem when using a friend's borrowed F100. The non-registering
problem appears to be intermittent and may be resolved in the short
term by locking up the entire pad with the locking switch located directly
below the AF selector pad and then unlocking. This was what I did with
my friend's F100 and right side sensor hasn't failed since.
The
Camera Back Door
The
Rewind Spool
The
Self Timer
