Wife just bought me one of these in near mint condition after watching me run around with some antique film cameras. After skimming through the manual I'm glad Google brought me here. 😅 Not against reading, just learn more thoroughly when I'm shown. Good job on these videos.
Sure the size and weight are a monstrosity, but I love the F5. The tech, specs, durability, and reliability really are incredible, especially when you consider when it was made. You can still hammer your F5 all day long like it's the 90s with any film stock and in any condition and it'll still always come through for you in 2022.
I'm happy that the F5 is still so cheap considering it's in the highest tier of film cameras ever made, and you can get the best pictures currently possible on 35mm film for under $500
I watch all your manual videos with extreme interest. They are so detailed and lucid, and in some instances virtually the only source that comprehensively explains a specific function. Thank you so much for this invaluable service.
Thank you David ... I did NOT need to see these very well made video manuals that you create. I have the F4S, and the F4 variant battery option, and have been wanting to add the F5 to my collection, and to shoot it too :) Just purchased a used D4S in almost new condition for critter shooting in the springtime, so the F5 will have to wait a bit. Cheers!
After F3 and F4, I skipped the F5 for the F6. That is the film camera I use all the time, even I have many. I don't know if t is less capable than the F5, but it is surely more handy without the built in battery grip. My F4 is also the "smallest" version. But I enjoy the F5 video anyway 😊
Not having used the F6, honestly, I would likely go with that one over the F5 solely because of the weight. I am definitely hoping to get one of those someday, though.
i was gifted the Nikon F5 from a retired photographer that has been sitting in his drybox for years and due to his decreasing in health, invited to his house and handed the F5. The condition is not mint thought, but all the operations seems solid. Its just the yellow LCD inside the viewfinder can no longer display anything at all. I just want to confirm with you, if I manage to get a replacement of the DP-30 finder, that should fix the problem right?
@@DavidHancock I've been looking online and there is a guy that modified the mn-30 battery pack with a 3d printer to take modern battery cells that you would find in a d810s battery pack. He loaded the 3d print design files for download, it should be interesting.
Great video series! Are you aware of the Nikon F5 giving an ERR message when trying to fire the shutter when there is no film loaded? I've tested 2 different F5 cameras, and one of them would allow you to fire the shutter in different modes with no film loaded, and another one that wouldn't allow you to at all but it would work fine when it was loaded with film. Is this some hidden setting? A design change made in the middle of the production life? Thanks!
Oh boy. If you have another camera, set the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture on it and use an evenly illuminated wall to obtain a meter reading. So let's pretend that means you set your other camera to 400 ISO, f/5.6, and 1/60th and that's a proper meter reading. Set your F5 in manual mode, the same aperture and shutter speed, and then adjust the ISO setting until the meter reading displays a proper exposure and you're likely to be in good shape.
@@DavidHancock i think just like f90 iso set on top disp. for bottom display is the extra display. lol waste of 200 bucks. can only do casual street. need calibration every roll. i use my phone lightmeter to calibrate tho.lol
David, I am not able to find this answer anywhere, manual, videos, facebook group. I shoot a d850 and I use back button focus button to lock focus through same spot I use to meter. Having already decided on aperture, I adjust shutter speed to put caucasian skin one hash mark brighter than center, ie zone VI. I would like to be able to set up the F5 to hit a back button, either of the two, release it with focus locked then adjust the shutter speed without losing focus and trip the shutter. Is that possible on the F5 with focus on button and ael and afl button? I have tried all the settings I can come up with from your third video on custom functions. I have the shutter button turned off effecting focus. I would like to do the same as on the d850 which only has one back button, hit it to acquire and lock focus then it holds focus with my thumb adjusting the shutter wheel.
That's a tough one. I don't think it's strictly possible with the F5. I think that you would set CF 21 to AEL and then set the EV comp to +1 separately. Then you'd use the AEL button to meter and lock the meter setting in place and use the AF ON button to obtain focus. It's a bit more fiddly, but so is most everything with early-2000s film SLRs.
@@DavidHancock Thanks, David. I'm not looking to have the camera take care of exposure though, I just want to be able to hit one back button to get and lock focus even after I remove my thumb. The problem I have had over the years focusing with the shutter button half way is when recomposing on the fly, I accidentally release the half depression of the shutter button and lose focus. With back button focus on the d850, I hit AF back button and gets and locks focus even after the thumb is removed. Will the AF ON button on the F5 get and lock focus even after the thumb is off it? If not, I guess i might as well go with shutter button focus on this camera.
@@GTXTi-db5xu that's exactly right. To me, 70% is noticeable. It's an indication that this is more of an AF camera than MF because the reduction makes fine-detail focusing a lot harder with manual focus lenses.
@@DavidHancock Ahhh that makes sense. If the autofocus on the camera is as good as everyone says it is then I think it should be no problem in most scenarios.
