I just read a list of Photokina announcements.

The F3 will be discontinued in Spring 2001 according to Nikon. I'm not sure if pros around the world will mourn its passing, but I sure will. All of my best 35mm work was done with mine; thank god I just sent it to Nikon for its first CLA (& got a new lensmount, etc....) so that at least I'll have it for another 20 years.

Now we'll have to see when the accessories and parts will be discontinued; I'll have to get that AS-17, those G screens, and my DA-3 quickly...

-- John O'Connell (boywonderiloveyou@hotmail.com), September 15, 2000

Answers

BTW John, where did you read these announcments?

-- Ivan Verschoote (ivan.verschoote@rug.ac.be), September 15, 2000.

Ivan, Try:

http://www.genyosha.com/JCTN/JCTN2.html

Sergio.

-- sergio Ortega (s.ortega@worldnet.att.net), September 15, 2000.

Earlier in the year Nikon announce that the F3 and F3T were to be discontinued but that the F3HP would remain on the market. It's been my understanding that the F3HP is prduced in batches and they are not produced year round.

Earlier this week there was a posting on the Nikon Mailing List that said that there would be a final batch of 4000 F3HPs produced and that would be the end of the line.

Has anyone seen anything that declared the official end of the F3HP?

-- Geoffrey S. Kane (grendel@pgh.nauticom.net), September 15, 2000.

I read it in Sergio's link. It explicitly says "F3" and not "F3HP" although if they're not discontinuing the F3HP I doubt anyone would cry over the demise of the smaller prism. I'd love to think that this was the case, but I doubt Nikon intends to let the F3 survive forever.

It's a pity Nikon let the price climb on the F3 to the point at which it couldn't compete with itself in the used market.

-- John O'Connell (boywonderiloveyou@hotmail.com), September 15, 2000.

I know that Nikon went overboard in making sure that the electronics in the F3 would be reliable (remember, it was 1980 and they had to convince F2 users to upgrade). I wonder if they could design a "functionally equivilant" version with modern (i.e. cheaper to assemble) electronics.

-- Geoffrey S. Kane (grendel@pgh.nauticom.net), September 15, 2000.

A moment of silence please. It's a pity that the FM2N is now virtually the only survivor from the the age when cameras are metal and the power is from the thumb.

-- Chuck Fan (chaohui@msn.com), September 15, 2000.

I think that surviving 21 years from announcement (March 1980) to the making of the last batch (Spring 2001) takes the Nikon F3 ahead of the Pentax K1000 as the longest lasting camera model since the 19th century.

Does anyone know different?

Mind you, it could be a short-lived crown. Minolta's X-700 and Nikon's own FM2 were both announced in 1982 and are still going strong.

-- John Owlett (owl@postmaster.co.uk), September 16, 2000.

The Pentax 67 lasted almost 30 years.

-- Willie Ju (wju@mediaone.net), September 17, 2000.

It is truly a shame that there is soon going to be a group of people who will never know how good a camera could be. In this day and age of the "flavor of the month" camera buyer, there was always the classic, simple and tough F3. You can't fight economics though and Nikon probably did themselves in by building such a durable camera... they just last forever. Mine is 17 years old now and I would still trust it over any of the "wonder plastic" from either Nikon or Canon. People who bought into the "anything new is good" philosophy don't want to hear this and are probably laughing... but what is the life expectancy of the hottest camera on the market now? Probably less than 2 years, a lot less.

Just like people who were brought up on CD's are now discovering the superior audio quality of vinyl, these great cameras will be discovered by people who tire of the mindless button pushing that photography has become in the last few years. The good thing is, these cameras will still be functional for them to enjoy.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), September 17, 2000.

Sadly you are right.

-- Ralf Grambrock (101.51955@germanynet.de), October 13, 2000.

Just bought a used f3/T with a 50mm 1.2 lens. It was a replacement for an F100 and I have absolutely no regrets. The camera is fantastic!

-- Frank Johnson-Suglia (fjs303@hotmail.com), April 22, 2001.

In case anybody thinks the guy above is nuts I did the same thing. I sold my F3hp for a f100 and I felt like I was playing a video game not taking pictures (and I grew up playing video games!). So out with the F100 and I got a used F3 and a 85mm 1.4. With this news I wonder if alot of F3 owners should send their cameras in for a CLA before springtime.

-- Tim ODonnell (odonnell@zbzoom.net), October 23, 2001.