One thing I learned from the "Film vs. Digital (Not What You Think!)" post is that a small but significant number of people, after using digital for years, have gone back to shooting film.
I didn't know that was a thing. Sure, for years it's been rumored that it's cool for young hipster Millennials to shoot with old film cameras. But I wasn't aware that people of middle age or more were returning to shooting film, sometimes after two decades or so of shooting mainly or exclusively digital. But we heard from a number of you in the comments to that post, which means there are more out there who are doing the same.
So I thought I'd recommend a bargain camera.
'Party like it's 1999'
The best 35mm film camera bargain in the known Universe today is "The Last Great 20th-Century Nikon," the F100. I'm not sure what actually was Nikon's last camera of the 20th century, but the F100 must be the last great one, so that's what I'm gonna call it. It came out in 1999.
You can buy a nice F100 for anywhere from $199 (eBay) to $339 (in Ex+ condition from KEH Camera*).
The F100 is a bargain because of an accident of history. Or of timing, really. The last widely-used pro-level Nikon F camera, the F5, had come out in 1996. The F100, a fresh makeover updating the aging but very popular N90s, was Nikon's "AdAm" (advanced amateur) variant, containing a considerable amount of "trickle-down" technology from the F5.
EOS was only ten years old in 1999, and Nikon was either at or not very far from the peak of its modern reputation—certainly it hadn't been long since Nikon dominated the professional market, and at the time it still ranked first in the minds of many devoted enthusiasts. However you parse it, Nikon's reputation and prestige were near their peak. And for most people, digital was still hull-down on the horizon in 1999—the best digital cameras in the late '90s were breathtakingly expensive and being purchased mainly by newsrooms, sports magazines, and rich dabblers, while the amateur digital cameras of the day were more or less toys, heady fun to use but providing only heavily compromised image quality.
Plus, it was briefly a "thing" at that juncture in time—the late '90s—for seasoned and experienced photographers, especially middle-aged and older ones, to declare their fealty to "real" film photography and denigrate digital. The paradigm shift was still a few years in the future. And the F100, as the "F5 lite" (really, that's what people called it), offered significant technical advances over many cameras that were only a few years older.
As a result, the F100 sold like ice-cold Cokes on a sweltering hot day. It hit the bullseye in the target market. They were hugely popular. It seemed like everybody and his brother wanted one. Nikon sold boatloads of 'em.
...But only for a while. Only a year later, the three-megapixel Canon D30 came out, and Michael Reichmann's article declaring that it equaled film in image quality went viral in a big way, establishing his site The Luminous-Landscape. The D30 was tantalizingly cheaper but still prohibitive at $3,000. Then in 2003 the radically affordable Digital Rebel came along, and the bell began to toll. The same photographers who had proudly purchased F100's as their "last" cameras—enticed by the fast pace of digital progress, the proliferation of digital models on offer, and the ever more accessible prices of digital cameras—started making the migration to digital. First in a trickle, then in a torrent.
By 2005, hardly anyone was buying film cameras any more. As it happened, a great many people switched to digital shortly after buying their F100, making for a huge supply of F100's out there that had very low miles. Quickly, the used market was awash with F100s in great condition, so the price went down, down, and down some more.
And there the price has stayed.
'It was 20 years ago today...'
Objectively, there are more desirable Nikons today for film shooters. In 2001, Nikon made a small-volume revival of its famous FM/FE lines of compact film cameras, a new version called the FM3a (here's a picture). In 2004, the last Nikon F film camera, the F6, was introduced. Both the FM3a and the F6 are marginally better choices for someone wanting a nice 35mm film Nikon today; the former for its superior retro chic, the latter for pure tech-and-feature horsepower. The problem is that neither of those cameras ever sold in high numbers—the historical moment for each had already passed by the time they came along. As a result, the FM3a and the F6, used, now go for approximately two times and four times, respectively, what you'll spend for an F100. I'd pick an FM3a myself. But (unless you just prefer its manual-metal-mechanical gestalt) the FM3a is not twice as good a camera as the F100, and the F6 (which you can still buy new, believe it or not) is better but not four times better.
The F100 has more advantages 20 years later than just a low price. First of all, there are so many of them out there that you can be picky—you should be able to easily find one that's not only cheap 'n' decent but in truly pretty condition. It's ergonomic and not huge; it has AF and Matrix metering with AF-Nikkor lenses; it uses commonly available AA batteries, so no hunting for scarce or outlawed button batteries as with some more antique SLRs; it has built-in diopter correction, so ditto on the search for separate, screw-on diopters, a similar headache with certain old cameras for people who need diopters; I believe Nikon ARS (Authorized Repair Stations) still work on them, as do many independent repair shops; and there's a large community of film Nikon people and a large number of F100 shooters within that community, so you can find camaraderie as well as people on forums who can answer any questions you might have. And you can get Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon F100. Finally, it's still new enough that you aren't likely to encounter problems created purely by age. The F100 was discontinued, along with most other Nikon film cameras, in the late 2000s**, not all that long ago.
'Sweetheart of the Rodeo'
Nikon put a huge amount of R&D into the F100, as it was right in the sweet spot for high-volume, high-profit sales to the enthusiast market that was the company's bread and butter. And it was an expensive camera when it came out. I reviewed one in 1999 or early 2000, and my memory is that the retail price at the time was about $1,400, which was a pretty decent whack 20 years ago. Yet it was a fair bargain at that price...as least in terms of the market conditions that existed at the end of the 20th century.
I'd be pretty relaxed today about tech specs, though. Shooting film is retro now, and should be enjoyed as such. You can use the F100 with manual-focus AIS lenses...some of which are still available new! Brand new, you can get the legendary AIS Micro-Nikkor 55mm ƒ/2.8, the same lens John Loengard of LIFE magazine used for his brilliant work. That would be fun. It would pair perfectly with the AIS Nikkor 28mm ƒ/2.8, another standout. And of course the short tele to get with those would be the famous AIS Nikkor 105mm ƒ/2.5, one of Nikon's most iconic and longest-lived lenses, which had a run from 1959 all the way through to the '90s. Here's an information page about that paragon.
The camera only offers aperture-priority exposure and center-weighted metering with manual-focus AIS Nikkors, but that's okay, because focusing it yourself enhances the retro experience. On the modern functionality side of the equation (you still want to take good pictures, after all), the camera offers focus confirmation in the viewfinder with manual-focus lenses, and actually has little arrows telling you which way to turn the focusing ring.
Me, though? If I had an F100 I'd take some of the savings from the body and buy an AF-Nikkor 35mm ƒ/2D, which is also still available new. The lens is a sweetie, and with the F100 has both autofocus and Matrix metering. Beware of used models of this lens, though, at least those without the "D" suffix at the end of the name—many early samples of this lens were plagued with lubricant getting on the aperture blades, a problem that Nikon service had trouble fixing. That lens's period of greatest popularity overlapped with my tenure as the Editor of Photo Techniques, and I fielded an earful of complaints about it. The "D" version fixed the problem.
'The Song Remains the Same'
Of course, shooting film isn't entirely about value these days, because film and processing costs money***. And picking a camera is part of the fun—you might want something weird or ancient, something that's nostalgic for you, or that can serve as a conversation piece. Have at it, I say. But if it's a bargain you seek, for shooting 35mm film you can't get more camera for the money than "The Last Great 20th-Century Nikon."
Mike
*And believe me, when KEH calls something "Ex+" it's going to be technically gone over and cosmetically essentially flawless. Those people are strict about their condition grading.
**Many higher-end film cameras were sold out of NOS for years after the last production run by adjusting the prices ever upward as the stocks ran lower and lower, so that there is seldom a well-demarcated date of discontinuation.
***But then, so does inkjet printer paper and ink.
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Andrew: "I got into photography in the late 1990s and continued to shoot film for years after many (most?) had switched to digital. It was wonderful to buy used film cameras, use them for a while, then sell them for pretty much what I paid for them. I owned P&S style cameras (Contax T2, Olympus Stylus Epic, Lomo LC-A), many rangefinders (Leica M6 TTL, Zeiss Ikon, Bessa R2a), medium format TLR (Yashica 124g) and a bunch of other stuff. The best camera of the bunch, in terms of keeper photographs, is the Nikon F100 with the 35mm AF-D lens. Ergonomics, metering, reliability, features—all perfect. I still enjoy using it."
Mike R: "Regarding shooting film being a thing: a while back, I picked up a Yashica TLR, and was shooting around the Philly Art Museum. Two young guys saw what I was doing, and were excited—excited!—to see an old film camera in use. And insisted I take their picture. And wanted to take mine, but I declined to hand over the camera. (Ya never know.)"
PWL: "Thanks, but I started out with Minoltas, and now I’m going back to 'em. I’ll pitch for the XD—a very well built and innovative camera for its time—and also a bargain these days—along with Minolta MD glass, which can still give the Big Boys a run for their money. Takes me back years to have to do the focusing all by myself—and guess what: it’s fun...."
Jim Grey: "I'm a 40-year film-camera collector and also a miser in the first degree. I say the best film-camera bargain is actually the Nikon N90/N90s—plenty, plenty good, and available for under $50. I bought my body for $27, including shipping!"
David Brown: "Slightly off topic to the bulk of this essay, but regarding your initial comment that people are going back to film from digital: I teach beginning darkroom at the Dallas Center for Photography. When we designed the workshop three years ago, we assumed two things: 1.) people would be coming to film from digital (and our terminology had to account for that), and 2.) it would be a lot of younger folks (millennials, et al.). Number 1 turns out to be absolutely true. However, number 2, not so much. Most of my students have been middle aged and up. I’ve had one 15-year-old, but she came with her Dad. Many of them started with film ('in high school') and are now coming back. The number shooting 35mm and 120 is about evenly split. Many TLR users."
psu: "The F100 was that last film body that I bought with the serious intention of using it a lot...but I ended up switching over to the D100 then the D70 instead, and never went back. That old 35mm ƒ/2 was also one of my favorite Nikon lenses.
"In my house I still have an old 8008s, which was the grandfather of the F100, and an FM3a that I should sell. The last time I shot a roll with the FM3a I forgot to reset the transport before rewinding the film and broke the film off outside the canister while still in the body. Ah those classic ergonomics.
"I think if a current Nikon D user picked up an F100 they would note that it mostly handles the same as the D700, D300 and D500s of the world...but they might be surprised by two things: 1.) It's pretty small compared to even the DX bodies, even though the film camera has to have a transport. I've never understood why the digital bodies are so comparatively large. 2.) The various functions of the camera are relatively slow compared to the newer hardware. Especially focus and frame-to-frame speed."
Timo Virojärvi: "My first Nikon was an FM with 55mm ƒ/2.8 Micro-Nikkor and my last new film camera was an F100. They are my favourites and I will never sell them. I still use the 55mm with digital bodies."
Sroyon: "I started out with my dad's Minolta film SLR around 1999, when I was 14. After a few years I switched to a digital compact and finally got my first DSLR in 2012. Meanwhile in 2011 I started using my dad's SLR again, but I was only shooting a couple of rolls per year. Last year I got a Leica M3 as a birthday gift, and now, other than macro and wildlife, I hardly use my DSLR at all. My girlfriend and I also started developing and printing B&W film at home. Maybe my enthusiasm is contagious, because my dad, who is 66, has also gone back to shooting film. He and my mum went on a holiday recently where he took just his film SLR and my mum's digital compact. His full-frame DSLR stayed at home."
Alan: "Bought the pristine chrome FM3A with silver pancake 45mm with silver clear filter for about $500 in 2003. Had the 105mm ƒ/2.5 for many years, and the 20 mm. f2.8 also for a few years. I was in heaven for a few years and then in 2007 the D70 came along and I began to give up the film. Still have the FM3A, an FE, an FE2, and an N80 with about 25 rolls of Fuji Velvia in the freezer. My camera now is a Sony A6500 because its light and fabulous with my 12mm Zeiss, 19mm Sigma and 16-70mm Sony, but the Nikons still call my name. So after reading these posts, I will thaw out some film and see what develops!"
Dan Khong: "The growing number of new films (mostly in B&W) available in the market is a positive sign that film photography is slowly rejuvenating. There is a lot more play when shooting with films. Films and printing papers cost money, and so do inkjet inks. But the majority of people shoot but they don't print. At the end of the day, the guys with prints will still have something in their hands to show for their memories."
