Film Advance

Is plastic “fantastic?” Sometimes. But often plastic is just plastic — cheap, fragile, and nasty. I was on the hunt for a Nikon 28-80 kit lens to mate with my F80 for a versatile and lightweight travel combo. The lens I eventually found came bundled with a Nikon F55 body (known as the N55 in the U.S.) which, for my purposes, amounted to a glorified rear lens cap. But the camera turned out to be far more than that.

Here’s something to ponder. When it comes to buying a used film SLR, is an older, purely mechanical model better than a newer one with an electronic heart? I recently acquired a Nikon F80 that has me leaning more toward the latter than the former.