F501’s controls uncomplicated

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 27

F501’s controls uncomplicated

The Nikon company’s first automatic-focus single-lens reflex camera, the F5Ol, is comfortable to handle. While capable of most functions one expects in a’ modern SLR, its controls are uncomplicated. Handbook diagrams tell the story almost without the need of text. The F5Ol, although having its own special range of autofocus lenses, accepts also the Nikon E and A series— though for autofocus a special adaptor is needed which incidentally increases the focal length by a factor of 1.6, and the lenses must be f 2.8 or faster. There are reservations. Firstly, the F5Ol does not have the depth-of-field preview button seen as essential by many photographers. Secondly, the

application of autofocus to SLRs has not been completely solved. The F5Ol shares with other . recent autofocus SLRs the phase-difference system which, while. extremely : accurate and available for all lenses, still fails in dim Ught, coritra-jour, or when the scanner cannot locate a vertical pattern. Certainly the handbook freely admits all this, but such are times when autofocus would be most useful. Pan Pacific Cameras quote the F5Ol with fl.B/ 50mm lens at $1395 or with 35-70 mm zoom at $1595. —R.M.