I was almost flabbergasted by a local thrift shop’s valuation of three cameras. By far the farthest off the correct valuation, in my opinion, is this Nikon F60 with AF Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. It was valued at 20 per cent the value of the most expensive camera—a Nikon EM with 50 mm lens in a case!
The reasoning I was told was the man who “knows” cameras felt 35 mm cameras were now popular, and the EM had a case. Well first of all, the F60 is a 35 mm camera and second, how many of those interested in shooting 35 mm care about cases?
O well, enough about puzzling valuations. Let us examine the Nikon “N” series (also known in many markets—including Canada—as “F” series cameras) from general to particular.
All the N-series have integral motor drives and are made from polycarbonate. They also cannot accept Non-AI lenses. If you try to mount a Non-AI lens on the N-cameras you will damage the camera! Luckily Nikon made and still makes many AI-lenses.
After the manual focus N-2000 the most basic N model was the N50 (1994-1998). It had a simple/advanced switch. The F60 shown here—introduced in 1998—was its replacement and was a huge leap forward.
It has the ability—when set to PHD (Push Here Dummy—Aka “Auto”)—to chose single or continuous focus depending on what it perceives you are doing. It has the general purpose program described above, but also Auto multi program (a program mode with shift), shutter and aperture priority auto, metered manual plus five Vari-Programs (Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sport and Night Scene).
It can adjust exposure in a plus/minus 3 EV range. It can work with Nikon’s excellent 3-D Matrix exposure (with D-type Nikkor lenses), six-segment Matrix with non-D-type lenses and center-weighted averaging in manual or with the AE-lock engaged.
The shutter speeds range from 30 seconds to 2000 sec with flash at 125 sec.
It has the aforementioned integral motor drive with auto film wind and rewind. It can continuously shoot at one frame a second.
It has—
a self-timer
diopter adjustment for the viewfinder
built-in TTL flash (with red-eye reduction)
a hot shoe that can take very advanced Nikon Speedlites
The Nikon EM sold from 1979 to 1984—so the F60 camera was 14 years younger than the EM (and 14 years more advanced) for 1/5 the price.
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