5 Frames from a Seaside Town with a Nikon F4

This is a tale of linking eras and styles, the vintage with the modern, the hefty with the lightweight. The heavy, old (1993) Nikon F4 with the svelte new (2021) Voigtländer Color Skopar 28mm f/2.8 SL IIs lens. The old (2009) KODAK AEROCOLOR IV film respooled with a new (2023) “SantaColor 100” name, and the older – maybe not so wiser – guy revisiting the town of his youth.

When I was in my early 20’s I lived in Southsea, the southern part of the City of Portsmouth in the UK. I was a keen photographer then, pre-digital, and used a Nikon F3 which I loved. I couldn’t afford the top-of-the-range F4, despite coveting the gorgeous F4S of a good friend of mine who was a working photographer.

Time passed, jobs changed, and I moved away from Southsea. Camera gear came and went. Nikon film gave way to Canon DSLR, which then gave way to Fujifilm mirrorless, which re-ignited the spark for more traditional “knobs and dials” cameras and a return to film. This time I could afford the camera that I coveted all those years ago.

The Nikon F4 is a beast, there’s no escaping that reality. It is, however also a superb camera, perhaps misunderstood and somewhat maligned in its day, but nevertheless really lovely to use. I bought mine in near mint condition from a Japanese eBay seller, for a very good price. It arrived just as described (I’ve always had really good experiences from Japanese eBay sellers), and is the smallest F4 variant with the MB-20 battery grip.

In use the F4 just feels right. Yes it’s heavy, but I can happily carry mine around for hours one-handed using just a wrist strap and my fingers curled under the grip. The dials and knobs are reassuringly positive, it’s clear that a lot of thought went into the ergonomics of this camera. It has everything that an advanced camera should have, but nothing that I find myself yearning for. I don’t have any autofocus lenses so the single focussing point isn’t a limitation. I’d read about the shutter balancer that supposedly absorbs shutter vibration, and it really does seem to work, I can hand-hold shots at much slower speeds with this camera than with others.

I’d had a couple of Nikkor lenses (50 and 35mm) when I first got the F4, but found myself preferring the 28mm angle of view with other cameras. In a spate of spontaneous GAS I bought the newly released Nikon-fit Voigtländer Color Skopar 28mm f/2.8 SL IIs, and this pairs beautifully with the F4. The styles complement each other, the small size of the lens counters the bulk of the F4 body and together they make a great carry-round camera that matches 1990’s state-of-the-art camera technology with 2020’s-era asymmetrical element computer-designed fidelity.

To complete the picture, for this return to my old stomping ground of Southsea I used a lovely film, SantaColor 100. It’s apparently re-spooled KODAK AEROCOLOR IV, and is beautifully fine-grained, with lovely colour rendition. It is the perfect addition to the F4/Color Skopar combination. Here is a selection of the shots taken on a cold January day in the town of my youth…

There is a fun fair that’s buzzing with shrieks, fish and chips, and candy-floss in the summer months. Not so much in winter.

Southsea has a traditional seaside pier called South Parade Pier, complete with amusements, restaurants and children’s play area. The lowered decked area at the end is popular for fishing.

Portsmouth harbour has been used for centuries as a safe haven for naval ships. The Hotwalls in Old Portsmouth were constructed for defensive purposes as part of the city’s fortifications, along with the Round Tower at the harbour entrance. They date from the late 15th century, and are pretty substantial.

These pictures show some of the sights from a seaside town in winter. Southsea is now quite up-and-coming, the local government is spending millions on new coastal defences, and there’s a definite local pride in the place now that I don’t remember from my youth. I have fond memories of living there, and definitely enjoy re-visiting the place. I’ll be taking more photos there for sure!

If you’ve got this far, thanks for reading and letting me share my experiences with this camera, lens and film.

Peter McGowan

If you’d like to see more of my photos, my Flickr photostream is here

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