Having “upgraded” from my Nikon F75 to a Nikon F80, this little project has definitely come to an end. In fact, with the F75 being deposited on a particular shelf at work that usually ends in cameras being sold, it’s fair to say that it’s quite likely I won’t shoot with it again. That all said, it’s also fair to say that overall it’s been a positive experience, even if it has made me feel a little daft from time to time.
Short of lenses attached to various point & shoot cameras it’s been ages since I’ve shot with a zoom. I am of course a prime lens snob. Blah, blah, limitations, blah, blah, small size, etc – you know the score by now…. But, this Nikon F75 project was based on some ideas about challenging my own preferences, so why not challenge them further and shoot a zoom…?
The biggest issue I have is with the concept of the SLR is the viewfinder. It seems to me that the technology around the SLR viewfinder was flawed from day one, and has now been pretty much superseded by electronic viewfinders. Yet despite this, many people still favour the experience – proven of course by the fact that Nikon and Canon’s top flight cameras are SLRs. I don’t really like the SLR viewfinder, and shooting the Nikon F75 has reminded me of this fact.
I talked around the way I think differently with different cameras in my hands in my post about the Lure of the Uncomplicated camera. How the Nikon F75 impacted on my thought processes at the Christmas Fayre makes for a really good opportunity for me to qualify some of those thoughts without me getting too bogged down in being too critical of the camera itself.
The one feature I’ve always desired from a compact camera is a 50mm lens. I would estimate that around 75% of my photography is shot with a normal focal length. This is actually one of the main reasons I haven’t been shooting with compact cameras as much lately. If the alternative is to have to carry my Leica M on a strap rather than put a compact in my pocket, the Leica option wins more often than not simply for the fast 50mm it allows me to shoot.
