I have had to claim on my insurance to replace my kit- 601 and AF Nikkor 28-105. As the 601 is not available new my insurers advisors have offered an F80 with the 28-105 lens. Can anyone say how the 80 compares with the 601, or is there another body of similar performance.

-- stephen read (castleblack@btinternet.com), February 18, 2002

Answers

Your insurance company's offer sounds fair enough, Stephen. In the heyday of the F601, Nikon's four grades of autofocus camera -- from professional model to family model -- were F4, F801, F601 and F401. Now the equivalent grades are F5, F100, F80, and F65.

In many ways, and as you'd expect, the F80 is technically more advanced than the F601 (faster autofocus, better matrix metering, and what have you) but there are two important ways in which I perceive the F601 to be better.

The first is build quality. The expectations of the camera marketplace are that an enthusiast camera like the F80 should be light in weight. So, although the F80 is the most robustly built of its type, this robustness was subject to a need for reasonably light weight. Since many people have managed to convince themselves that polycarbonate is just as strong as brass, your insurers are unlikely to take this into account.

The second is the inability to meter with manual focus lenses. This doesn't matter to F80 users like me who also have a secondhand F3 on which to use manual focus lenses. Nor does it matter to those new to Nikon -- they can restrict themselves to buying only AF lenses. But, if you have some manual focus lenses, then you should discuss these with your insurers: if you are willing to stay with manual focus, then they may run to an FM3A, or alternatively they may agree to replace your manual focus lenses with autofocus versions.

Later,

Dr Owl

-- John Owlett (owl@postmaster.co.uk), February 19, 2002.

I would echo much of what has been said already. The F80 is, I believe, manufactured in Thailand. I thinks there was also some build quality variability early on. The 28-105 is a straight replacement, but again there will be some sample variability.

I suspect the F80 may be quieter that your F601. There is also a host of user-definable features available.

Is there any chance of a cash settlement for the body bit? Only suggest this because you might then be in used F90X territory, which means ability to meter manual lenses, but no built in speedlight.

Hope this helps.

Simon.

-- Simon Hickie (s.hickie@lineone.net), February 21, 2002.