| The
mechanical ones
There
are several levers and purely mechanical acting switches on
the F5. These are for all:
1.
Mirror lockup lever
2. Lens release button
3. Camera back lock release
4. Diopter adjustment knob
5. Film advance mode selector lock release
6. Film rewind lever lock release
7. Battery holder release knob
| |
An
apple tree. Germany. November 1999.
Nikon F5, Nikkor AF 80-200/2.8D handheld at some 180mm
on Fujichrome Velvia.
|
The
mirror lockup lever
This
fella is a true minus. You must be Tarzan to operate this
one. I seldom use it, but every now and then I must. You have
to press the lever some 90 degrees downwards and it really
feels way too small as you do. The first 3/4 of the way it's
sort of easy to operate, but when it goes into the "lock
area", it starts to get troublesome and you have to apply
a lot of force. It's like trying to bend up a 30 ton Scania
with a tooth pick. At some point the lever is down and the
mirror locks. This one is a PITA, but I am happy that it exists.
Lens
release button
No problems here at all. Everyone who knows Nikon knows
this button. A single press-and-hold and you can switch lens.
The bayonet is marvelous and the mechanical tolerances are
very small. Even if you mount lenses beyond 2 Lbs., this bayonet
is great.
Camera
back lock release
No complaints here either. You push a small, mechanical,
spring loaded slide switch some 10 degrees CW and then pull
up the film rewind knob some 15mm (~3/4").
Diopter
adjustment knob
A nice feature not find on all bodies. I don't wear glasses,
but adjusted this knob one step for perfect view. The knob
is located at the right side (camera seen from behind) of
the DP-30 Finder. You pull out the knob some 5mm (~0.2"),
turn it and then push it back in again. The "High-Eyepoint-Viewfinder",
the DP-30, is great and you can be some 20mm away from the
viewfinder seeing all details in the viewfinder. This is of
course an important feature for people wearing glasses. If
you wear glasses, you likely don't need to play around with
the diopter adjustment.
Film
advance mode selector lock release
A much too small push button at the very top left corner
of the body. You press it down to operate the rotating film
advance mode selector. No complaints except that the button
is too small and you likely won't do this while having your
nose plastered to the body.
Film
rewind lever lock release
Located just below the film rewind lever #2. You press it
with the thumb and let the thumb move the film rewind lever
upwards. Easy to operate. You must push the film rewind button
#1 at the lower right back of the camera simultaneously to
rewind the film. Since the latter button is hidden behind
a spring loaded "door" and because you must keep
both the rewind lever and the rewind button pressed, there's
no way you would rewind a film by mistake - feels a bit like
Fort Knox and might be seen as overcautious engineering. As
several readers have noted: You do not need to keep
button #1 nor button #2 pressed the whole time to rewind the
film: Both buttons and the lever holds by themself when the
buttons are depressed completely.
Battery
holder release knob
A classy solution on locking the battery compartment.
You must pull out and turn the release knob. Then you use
it for pulling out the batteries (or the accumulator pack
if you have a MN-30 inserted). No complaints here either.
Other
purely mechanical controls on the F5 would include the
manual film rewind crank and knob. I have never been in a
situation where I needed it, but who knows... Btw, as the
film rewind crank and knob rotates as the film advance you
can actually block the knob with your left hand. This is not
a good thing. I believe it's actually possible to rip apart
a film this way - or at least block the film advance completely.
OK, this has not happened to me, but a couple of times I've
accidentally blocked the knob while shooting, hearing the
film roll squeak inside. |
