Nikon F65

This is a review for the Nikon F65. I base the review on the one film I shot with this camera during the one month stay with me.

Another one of these car boot sale finds, this little beauty of a camera was given away for next to nothing as the previous owner had switched to digital. To me, Nikon always seemed to get it wrong with her cameras in this price category. Canon always had secured this lucrative part of the market, offering small, full featured cameras starting with the iconic EOS 1000F. The Nikon F401 was a dinosaur, the F50 did much better but messed up with the interface and was way too loud, the F55 was better – the F65 seems to have got it right (at last!). Small sized with a wealth of features offered. This has got to be a winner.

Once you pick up the F65, you immediately notice the small size and light weight. Size-wise, the body has roughly the same height and width of a Barnack Leica, it is very small for an AF SLR. It is made out of plastic which helps keeping the weight down and fit and finish is very good. Hands fall comfortably around different buttons. The small size of the camera has its disadvantages too – the viewfinder is tiny, although reasonably bright. There are also a number of ergonomic hiccups – the

Nice and clean interface

button that helps you select the AF-points in the viewfinder is placed on the left of the lens mount and takes some practice to be able to use it without removing your eye from the viewfinder. Another hiccup is the depth preview button which is placed right below the AF-assist lamp – it is quite a bizarre place to put it.

My biggest disappointment in this camera is the AF speed. Without it being slow, I can't say that it is fast either. The older F90x is roads ahead in terms of AF speed and even the old F4s is superior to it. I understand that the F65 was made to work with the G-series lenses and I bet it is much faster with the 28-80 f/3.5-5.6 G that it was supplied with but with the older 28-70 f/3.5-4.5 the AF is slow and noisy. Things get a bit better with the AF 50 f/1.8 although I wouldn't say that you will be impressed. Not only that, the AF lamp turns on almost all the time and you cannot disengage it permanently (you need to keep pressed the AF selection button while focusing).

Another thing that you need to keep in mind is that you cannot select certain features of the camera but they are integrated within different modes. For example, the metering is always Matrix unless you switch to manual mode where it becomes centre weighted. But you can't select centre weighted metering in any other way. Same goes for winder speeds. Also, you cannot set manually your film's ISO, it is DX only.

As expected, the camera performs well – exposure is accurate and I did not come across any unpleasant surprises once I developed the film. Noise levels and vibrations are kept into minimal levels – the only thing to watch out is putting a heavy lens on this camera, all the weight tilts the camera forward when you're holding it which is not very convenient when walking about with it.

Conclusion

I have to admit that past the good looks of this camera, I was left rather unimpressed. I think I could live with the number of features been locked away in this camera, but the AF seemed slow with the lenses I have got and at times (when having all sensors on) it will hunt for focus. I ended up selling it as I am going through a period of photographic downsizing. The biggest problem with this camera is the competition it faces. For me, the older F70 (reviewed in my blog) is a better (although slightly bigger) camera. With the F70 fetching less money in the used market, I see no reason why you would prefer to buy the F65 instead. Of course, your mileage might vary, therefore....