Nikon F6 R.I.P.

[William Lewis]

From Michael Johnston at The Online Photographer Blog:

The Online Photographer: The Nikon F, 1959-2020 (typepad.com)

The Nikon F has died at age 61, after six iterations.

Some time within the last few days Nikon Japan added the 旧製品 ("old product") tag to the webpage for the F6—while the Nikon Direct store in Japan now shows 販売終了 and Yodobashi Camera shows 販売を終了しました, which are just shorter and longer ways of saying "sales have ended."

The F series, Nikon's flagship professional 35mm film SLRs, lived from April of 1959—the company's first SLR—to now, November of 2020. But, like Kodachrome, it endured far past the time it could have. Nikon managed to keep it in the catalog well into the digital age.

And so it goes. Perhaps I should look for another film F again? I've always wanted a F4.

 

[William Lewis]

Thinking further...

When I was in high school (I graduated in 1982) our school paper had old battered Nikon F's. They seemed the grail to me but yet when the time came I bought a Canon AE-1P and never regretted it.

I've owned an F2. I want an F4. I shoot a D7100. When the time comes, I'll probably buy a Z5 and put all my old MF glass on it too.

But ultimately, they're tools. I've owned so many brands - Canon, Nikon, Voightlander, Kiev, and others that had all their own pluses and minuses - that I can't get too worried about this. In the end it's more like the transition by Canon from FD (Damn, I LOVED my T90) to EF (That A2E was a hell of a camera too) than it is the end of anything real. I can put my old pre-AI glass on a Z-5 and just go. I can keep the glass. That matters more than anything else in this biz.