Nikon F-301

Variants & identification

1. No production figure has been published for the F-301, and no serial blocks. The fullest public database of Nikon serial numbers covers lenses and digital bodies and states that the film cameras are still to be added; published reconstructions of Nikon output stop at a company-wide total for the traditional reflexes without dividing it by model.
2. The end of production is not published either. 1985 is firm as a start date from Nikon and from both encyclopaedias; the date the line stopped is not, and is left open above rather than guessed.
3. Dimensions of 149 × 98 × 51mm are camera-wiki's. Retail and shop listings circulate a different set of numbers and a body weight near 580g; no weight from a source of the standard used here has been found, so none is recorded. Alan D at Canny Cameras, reviewing the camera in hand, gives 560g without batteries and the finder as 92 per cent coverage at 0.85× with a 50mm lens. Neither figure appears in any Nikon document found, and the weight disagrees with the shop listings, so both are recorded here rather than promoted above.
4. One end date is in print. Brian J. Grossman gives the production run as 1985 to 1990. That is a reviewer's figure and not Nikon's, so the end date above is still left open, but the published record is not quite as blank as it looks.
5. Two reviewers warn about the same mechanical hazard. Mel at High 5 Cameras records that pre-AI lenses lack the slot the F-301's aperture follower rides in, and will jam the follower or break it; Mel also notes that the AI-S-dependent program modes were shared with almost nothing else in the range, naming only the FA alongside the F-301.

• F-301: North America received the same camera engraved N2000. The name is the only difference recorded in the sources examined, so it is held here as an alternative name rather than as a version.

Specifications

Format

24×36mm on 35mm film

Finder

Fixed eye-level pentaprism with an LED shutter-speed column · no rangefinder image

Shutter

electronically controlled vertical-travel metal focal plane · 1s – 1/2000 and B

Film advance

integral motor, single frame or continuous to 2.5 frames a second; automatic loading, manual rewind by crank

Back

hinged

Meter

TTL centre-weighted 60/40 at full aperture, EV 1–19 at ISO 100 with an f/1.4 lens

Motor drive

Not compatible — The motor is inside the camera and cannot be removed or supplemented; the MB-3 and MB-4 that bolt underneath are battery holders, not drives.

Dimensions

149 × 98 × 51 mm

Country

Japan

Accessories

MB-4 AAA battery holder (standard) · MB-3 AA battery holder (optional) · SB-16B Speedlight for through-the-lens flash control

Figures we worked out rather than found: Film-speed handling is recorded as manually settable ISO 12–3200 with DX reading the cassette automatically; the two ranges come from different sources and are not stated together anywhere examined.

What reviewers say

• Brian J. Grossman (35mmc) (blog) — Defends it as badly underrated and worth every cent of the under-$50 it sold for, and expects the price to stay there on 1980s styling rather than on any failing of the camera; the failings he does name are that it is "one loud camera" beside his F100, that the illuminated shutter speeds down the right of the finder wash out in bright sun and sit badly for a spectacle wearer, and that there is no cable-release thread, no depth-of-field preview and no mirror lock-up. Praises the split-image screen and calls the meter accurate. Gives the run as 1985 to 1990.
• James Tocchio (Casual Photophile) (blog) — A solid, well-equipped, highly capable camera at about $50, and he likes the noise rather than minding it — the shutter "chonks hard" and the winder "whirrs brightly". His objections are to the fittings: the spring-tension power collar feels vague and cheap, the tripod socket is off-centre so the camera sits crooked on a head, exposure compensation needs a lock button held, and there is no depth-of-field preview or mirror lock-up.
• Jim Grey (Down the Road) (blog) — Found it light, easy and familiar in the hand and the autoexposure sensitive in awkward light, but did not get on with the program mode — "I tried program mode for a couple shots, but didn't usually like its exposure choices" — calls the early motor extra-noisy, and notes that without its four AAA cells the camera is useless. The plastic body and the Series E lens do not feel like the all-metal Nikons that came before, whatever the lens does optically.
• Mel (High 5 Cameras) (blog) — Rates the finder among the brightest and sharpest of its era, up against the Minolta X-700, and calls the camera one of the most underrated 35mm SLRs; the drawbacks are that the motor makes "quite a racket", the tripod socket is offset because the batteries are in the way, and the camera is wholly reliant on power with no mechanical fallback. Warns that the long battery life is itself a hazard — owners forget the cells are in there and the contacts corrode — and that pre-AI lenses will jam or break the aperture follower.

History

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Live listings

• Nikon F-301 Original Standard Back Cover — €15.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• NIKON Bereitschaftstasche CF-35 schwarz für Nikon F-301 * Fotofachhändler * — €17.95 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 SLR 35mm Analogfilmkamera — €19.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 — €22.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 | 35mm Spiegelreflexkamera | Analogkamera | Body — €29.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F- 301 Bereitschaftstasche Foto/- Kameratasche camera case Schwarz black — €29.25 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F- 301 Bereitschaftstasche Kameratasche camera case Schwarz black — €29.25 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon Batteriefach für Nikon F-301 F501 SLR Kamera — €36.75 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 Kameragehäuse In Schwarz F 28 — €39.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 35 mm SLR Auto-Belichtung Schwarz mit 36-72mm Objektiv — €39.50 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 analoge Spiegelreflexkamera SLR Gehäuse #60 — €39.50 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 SLR 35mm Spiegelreflexkamera analog Body Gehäuse (Nikon F) — €39.99 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 analoge Spiegelreflexkamera 35mm SLR schwarz # 9291 — €45.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 — €47.60 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 - SLR Kamera - F-Bajonett - Spiegelreflex Kamera Gehäuse — €48.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon Batteriefach für Nikon F-301 F501 SLR Kamera — €49.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 Analoge 35mm SLR / mit braunem Leder / Getestet — €50.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 Spiegelreflexkamera — €50.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 — €58.00 · eBay · likely F-301
• Nikon F-301 Analoge 35mm Spiegelreflex Kamera + 2 Objektive + Zubehörpaket - RAR — €58.50 · eBay · likely F-301

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.