Bang for the Buck – Nikon F90x

This post is going to be incredibly useful for a small slice of you – Nikon shooters who are interested in shooting 35mm film. If you fit that description, the Nikon F90x is the biggest bang for the least bucks you’re going to find. I picked this one up used for about 3000 yen, and it’s been a trooper. It has absolutely no collectable value, which is why it’s dirt cheap. Also, it’s missing the double-wheel setup that makes it’s close relative, the F100, able to use all the G glass to it’s fullest potential. But if you’ve got a collection of older lenses and you are currently shooting digital, the F90x is a great buy. The MB-10 battery grip, which I picked up separately for 3000 yen, really isn’t a battery grip, but a vertical grip. The 4 batteries that are in the camera are displaced into the grip, so there’s no advantage there, but I love to shoot vertically, and so the grip pretty much never comes off the camera.

As image sensors make leaps forward, and film companies discontinue more and more film, there are less and less film shooters out there, but if you’ve never shot film, you should pick up a F90x, or it’s equivalent for your lenses, and do it now, while you can. Shooting film really has informed my digital photography, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Edit: I have to add that if you want that fun film-advance lever or the circle-and-needle meter to feel like you have the real film experience, this camera will let you down. I don’t really see those as important, but I know some people who do.