I'm not going to bother you with the "features", you can read about them elsewhere. Let's get right to my experiences, mainly in ANTARCTICA with this camera that ended up being mostly a NIGHTMARE on equipment. I wanted a camera that could judge the exposure on snow correctly, could handle the exposure of penguins which both are probably the hardest subjects to photograph, and finally it had to survive! I didn't pay to go down there to screw up my photographs, or get a camera that would fail. I was convinced the F5 was the only camera up to the challenge. I would later realize I had underestimated the F5.
First off... the weather was awful!!! The first day, we made a landing on one of the islands in zodiacs, boated off the main ship. The weather was indescribable; we were going over HUGE waves splashing over us. The F5 around my neck and me being towards the front we both took a lot of them. We got off on the island and there was a constant gale blowing sea-spray over everything. My F5 worked flawlessly the whole time! The ride back was the same situation; they had to move the boat 3 times to try to find calmer seas for us to get back on. I think they finally gave up, because we got back on the main ship in some crazy wind and waves. That first trip killed 6 SLRs, none Nikons but a couple of Canons and a lot of Minolta's. I even changed my film a couple of times in that!
The next day we went on an iceberg tour. It was a downpour!!! The waves where crashing over the zodiacs again... camera after camera again was dying... my Nikon was dripping wet the whole time with a combination of ocean & rain... it worked flawlessly.
The next day or so we pull into Deception Island... it was the worst blizzard I'd ever seen. Every snowflake that hit you felt like a bee-sting, the wind was so bad and the snowflakes so heavy. Your face would pile up snow faster than it could melt, and with the wind every crack on you or your camera filled up with snow. Camera after Camera was dying... but not my F5. I was taking rolls and rolls of film (deception island is very historic) changing film in that kind of weather! Another 4 SLRs died that day (none were Nikons). I ended up shorting out a battery. To give you an idea of the weather I pulled the spare battery out, snow/sea spray had collected on it so much that in the time it took to swap it, the snow & sea spray had made a connection on my fully charged battery and drained it!!! I actually went swimming this day, but because I was stupid in protecting the contacts of my good battery I couldn't take photos.
I charged my batteries, and we pulled into Esperanza, a research facility on a nice day so far being a little overcast and a slight wind. I realized there was fog approaching us fast through the mountains. I'm not lying when I say within 10 minutes the temperature dropped like 30 degrees, and fog and mist was covering everything and the wind was a gale... which we were used to by then. I figured my F5 was invincible by this time. I changed films and used it like it was a nice sunny day because I knew it was reliable.
Finally, the next day it became beautiful and clear! Antarctica had finally released its grip on us! All of a sudden three humpbacks were diving about 100 yards off the ship. I saw how beautiful it would be to get their tail and the water coming off it when they dove... but that's very difficult to do... so for the first time I put my camera on high-speed 8 fps mode and put a new roll of film. The ship moved to an educated guess where the whales would come up for air next. Within 50 yards the whales surfaced... and when they dove, the F5 was a machine-gun capturing the action. I got the shots I was looking for!!! Only possible with the help of the F5!
In the end, out of 14 Nikons ALL survived. Thank god, because I didn't bring a backup SLR. There was hardly a Canon & Minolta to be found that survived. Now... lets get to the photos. I didn't bracket, and I was taking slides. With slides, what you take is what you get. Prints, if you're to bright they compensate, and the same with being dark. With slides, if you're to dark the slide is useless... same if it's to light. When I got my slides back I could not believe it. The F5 nailed them dead on with the exposure! My snow was white, my penguins had details in the whites AND details in the blacks! I was awe-struck. If the F5 were 1/3 above or below target I'd have lost details in the snow of the mountains, or the feathers of the penguins. I put full confidence on the F5's exposure. It nailed them... Penguins and snow are supposed to be the hardest subjects to photograph. Well, thank you again F5! Others on the trip tell me "My pictures are gray!"... I just say, "Mine aren't, snow & penguins are difficult to photograph. I'll e-mail you some of mine". Like it was me that did it right! The F5 even nailed all the exposures in Buenos Aires and the poncho ranch we visited. All came out perfect! And that ranch was dusty and hot. I took 5,070 slides & 120 prints, exposures were perfect! In the end, 17 SLRs died... all Canon & Minolta's. Not a single Nikon died, we got a lot more pictures because of it. The others with the other brands realized their camera's were vulnerable wouldn't take it on those harsh conditions or leave them in the bags if a little fog came. Those of us with the Nikons were right out there, in the thick of it all... taking the shots. Isn't that why you get a camera? I feel this camera is undervalued. There's nothing like it out there, especially in the exposure and reliability department. I can't explain my enthusiasm EACH time I get my slides back and see the exposure dead on... even in what's "supposedly" the most difficult subjects to photograph... and photograph them in the most difficult weather I've ever seen. The F5 is perfection.
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