And the Winner Is...

A few weeks ago I wrote about trying to decide on the 35mm film system that I would use going forward. I had decided logically to go with Canon – more specifically the EOS 300V. But what I really wanted was a Nikon F80 (which I eventually found two of). It all arrived a couple of weeks ago, I’ve shot with them, and the verdict is in.

What did I end up going with? If you’ve read my earlier posts, you can probably already guess the answer, so I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m keeping the (black) Nikon N80 – surprise, surprise.

The Nikon N80

I did use both systems, side by side. And having done so, the clear winner – for me – was the Nikon F80. It’s a superb camera. It feels (and looks) superior to the Canon in almost every way, and most importantly, handles better than the 300V.

The Canon only has one command dial – that doubles as the on-off switch! So every time you turn the camera on, you have to rotate the dial to the mode you want to use. Seems like a small thing, but it drove me nuts. The Nikon, on the other hand, has the on-off switch separated from the mode dial, so you can simply leave the mode set all the time, and flick the camera on very quickly with one finger. Easy.

The F80 (or N80 in my case) also feels better (more solid) in the hand, and has the sweetest sounding shutter of any camera I’ve ever used – period! I’m not kidding. The shutter feel, and sound, on the Nikon F80 is just pure perfection. Again, maybe a small thing to some, but it all adds up to a superior user experience.

I also decided to get a 50mm f1.8D Nikkor lens to enhance the ‘classic’ film shooter experience. The 50mm f1.8 is a stellar lens, and can quite easily take the place of the 35-70mm if I ‘zoom with my feet’. So I sold the Nikkor 35-70mm without even taking an image with it – along with the black and silver F80 body that was surplus to requirements (I really only need one 35mm body), and the Canon 300V. So my auto focus 35mm film camera system going forward will be a Nikon N80 with 50mm f1.8D and 70-300mm f4/5.6G lenses. Nice.