Princeton with a Nikon F4

In my last post, I wrote about how I recently picked up a Nikon F4, continuing my trajectory down the analog photography path. The F4 was a professional grade Nikon camera released in 1988 and was the first SLR that Nikon released with autofocus capabilities. Pretty amazing technology for the time, and it still works great! Better yet, for a camera that used to cost thousands of dollars in the 80s, you can easily find one on eBay for < $200.

I was finally able to take out my new gear and shoot a roll of Fuji 200 on a cold Spring day in early April.

Nassau Hall, April '22 - Nikon F4, Fuji 200, Nikkor f/1.4D

Princeton University during the Spring is one of my favorite places. I have many great memories of my time on campus around this time of the year, enjoying the weather and the beautiful landscaping.

Now that I live so close to campus, I find it very convenient to be able to visit whenever I have the opportunity, and it makes for a perfect location to test a new (old) camera!

Top L: Nassau Hall, Top R: Nassau Street, Btm L: Firestone Library, Btm R: Prospect House

While I'm happy with the shots that I got, unfortunately there appears to be a lot of construction going on around the campus, and I was ~1 weekend too early to see the blossoming of all the trees on campus. The campus rivals most arboretums in its variety of flowering trees, and it really is quite remarkable to see all of the colors in the Spring. Even though those flowers were still just little buds, I still had a lot of fun walking around and taking in the scenery.

Nassau Hall, South Side

As far as the experience with the camera went, for as much as people like to say that the Nikon F4's autofocus capabilities are limited, it actually did a great job on quickly nailing focus with the 50mm f/1.4D that I was using. Granted, you are not getting the sophisticated 3D focusing targeting from the newer DSLRs that track moving objects across the frame, but the D4's single point focusing system does a perfectly capable job of quickly locking onto an object.

Henry Hall, Princeton University

I was mainly using auto metering, due to the changing lighting conditions - it was overcast and cloudy, but with the sun peeking out occasionally and lighting up the scene. The metering definitely appears to be much more consistent than the F3, and offers more modes such as center weighted and matrix metering.

For these pics, I was set to center weighted, as I find it a bit more predictable than matrix metering. I'm also accustomed to focusing on a single point, and then using the expsoure lock buttons to ensure the camera is metering for what I had originally aimed at when I recompose. I think that the F4 did an awesome job at properly exposing for the bright skies and contrasting architecture.

Blair Arch, Princeton University

One other observation of shooting with these old film cameras is that I'm really enjoying shooting on prime lenses. They're small and light, they focus incredibly quickly, and they are tack sharp. You can zoom into these photos and still see an incredible amount of detail - even on film. I think that's pretty remarkable.

That's it for my time on campus for now - I'll definitely be back again to catch the flowers! Next roll up in my F4 is Cinestill 800T. I used it to shoot a few pics a buddy's wedding, and I still have a few shots left in the roll before I process the film.

Hope to see you back for that post soon!