The Nikon F-301 (sold in the United States as the N2000) is a

manual focus In the field of photography, a manual focus camera is one in which the user has to adjust the focus of the lens by hand. Before the advent of autofocus, all cameras had manually adjusted focusing; thus, the term is a retronym. The focus itself m ...

autoexposure In photography, exposure is the amount of light per unit Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of actio ...

, auto film loading and advancing 35 mm SLR

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

that was sold by the

Nikon Corporation (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...

beginning in 1985. It was the replacement for the FG. The F-301 was identical to the

Nikon F-501 The Nikon F-501 (sold in North America as the N2020) was the first successful autofocus SLR camera sold by the Nikon Corporation beginning in 1986. A nearly identical, albeit manual focus version, called the Nikon F-301 (N2000 in North America) ...

(sold in North America as the N2020) in almost every way, except it lacked

autofocus An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system ...

. The Nikon F-301 is notable for being the first Nikon SLR sold that lacked a film advance lever. As a result the selector knob, also used to lock the shutter button, has a continuous option in addition to the single shot. It was also the first Nikon SLR to feature DX film decoding. A standard hotshoe flash mount sits above the viewfinder, with which a flash may be attached to the camera. The Nikon F-301 does not feature a built-in pop-up flash (the F-401 was the first Nikon SLR to have this feature). It was also the first Nikon to use

polycarbonate Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...

s in the building of the camera, and was considered by many people as the dawn of a new era for Nikon. This camera is powered by four AAA batteries, loaded from below, necessitating removal of the baseplate. A MB-3 battery pack could be used instead of the standard MB-4 enabling AA batteries to be used instead of AAA. The placement of the batteries meant that the tripod bush on the baseplate was extremely offset from the centre of the camera. The AH-3 tripod adapter could be used to rectify this though it added extra bulk to the camera. The F-301 can be manually preset for film speeds from ISO 12 to ISO 3200, or this can be left to the camera through the DX feature. The camera can also be used with the Nikon SB-600 & SB-800 flash units.

External links

F301 F301 {{photo-stub