I have read two wonderful reviews of the new Nikon N65 at the Epinions.com site. Any other tests/reviews available for the N65

-- Jim R (jimr18@netzero.net), December 04, 2000

Answers

Popular Photography (October 2000 issue) made a good review of N65. Respected British magazine Practical Photography made an average review of the N65 saying its a "near miss" of Nikon and pointed out all the weaknesses. I think you are better off buying N80. Much better camera for $100 more.

-- Tushaar Kumar (tushaar@hotmail.com), December 28, 2000.

I am on the verge of buying either Nikon f/n 80 or the 65. Having read a lot of the stuff on this forum I am not sure if similar Canons are better.

I currently have a Nikon 401 which struggles to focus under low light low contrast situations. I previously had a canon t70 and the nikon 401 was a massive improvement on it. Hence the hesitancy to move to canon.

Any ideas would be helpful and Thanks in advance.

-- nalin U (nalinu@talk21.com), March 13, 2001.

Hi Nalin,

You've posted questions on several threads. Do you mind if I post all my responses on this one thread? Since you seem to be primarily considering the Nikon N65, N80 and N90s this looks like the best place for the discussion.

When talking of these three cameras, I call the N65/F65 a "family camera", the N80/F80 an "enthusiast's camera", and the N90s/F90x "an advanced amateur's camera". Canon competes head-to-head with Nikon in each of these three market segments, with the Rebel/EOS 300, the Elan 7/EOS 30, and the A2E/EOS 5. So do Minolta and Pentax, though I don't know the model names.

Oversimplifying horribly -- because I don't know a lot about what you want to use the cameras for -- if you intend to be serious about photography, you will quickly find the family cameras too limiting. If on the other hand, you want a very high quality point-and-shoot for family events and portraits, then you don't need the expense of an advanced amateur's camera.

Whichever you buy, I would urge you NOT to buy a kit with basic-grade lenses in it. Buying a mid-range zoom -- such as the 28-105mm in the case of Nikon and Canon -- makes a bigger difference than buying a slightly better camera body.

If you are looking for an advanced amateur's camera, then there is an added complication. Both the N90s/F90x and the A2E/EOS 5 have been around a long time, and look as though they are due to be replaced, by the F100 and the EOS 3 respectively. This makes them good value for money at the moment, but means that they don't support all the latest goodies (VR lenses in the case of the N90/F09x, and E-TTL flash in the case of the A2E/EOS 5).

All of the cameras mentioned so far should be more convenient to use than the F401. As to which level you need to buy, that's up to you. So is the brand to choose. If you have much Nikon kit (say, three lenses or more) then stay with Nikon. The brand differences are not great enough to justify a change (gross oversimplification :-)

Later

Dr Owl

-- John Owlett (owl@postmaster.co.uk), March 13, 2001.

If you think about photography more ceriously, consider buying a different camera than F65. There are various things that I found that are good for amateur photographer, but not for advance.

here are some disadvantages of F65 you cannot preset the ASA of the film manually, it means that it works automaticly, you cannot do the push and pull process by the ASA, you can olny push and pull by EV, for instance I do push and pull Ilford HP 5 by ASA, because it is the only way I can judge the developing times following the Ilford instructions - Microphen (400ASA push 1800)

the second thing is that the lens mounting of the 28-80 mm set lens has different material then the mounting ring on the body of the camery, it is a combination of plastic and metal, it doesnt go together very well, so you might see after a while a huge srabs in it, you can wear it out very easily, look for lenses and bodies that uses the same material for the mounting rings!

you cannot you the infra film because the film is moved not by a manual wheel, but by a infra red sensors which do not allow to use infra red film, it can be a disadvante if you are using or planing to use this kind of film

you cannot use all kinds of various lenses from Nikon, it allows you to use only new Nikon lenses, if you want to use old manual Nikon lenses the TTL exposure meter wont work

well that is all I wanted to say about F65, it doenst mean that I would be against F65, I only wanted to say what is not writen in regular reviews and what minght be usefull for the photographers that are considering buying F65

Jan Jedlicka Czech Republic

PS sorry for my English

-- Jan (soil@iol.cz), October 23, 2001.