Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Nikon F-501

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1986

Also known as: Nikon N2020 · ニコンF-501

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
F-501 Nikon F 1986 — No figure published
  1. The autofocus sensor carries 96 photosites. The AM200 module of the F4 of 1988 has 200, which is the measure of how early this system is; xtalfu, writing on CamerAgX, calls the F-501's "almost unusable indoors" on that account, and every reviewer consulted repeats the complaint in some form.
  2. The screen comes out. Three types were catalogued — B, E and J — which is unusual in an entry-level autofocus body and is the feature most often singled out by owners.
  3. Published weights disagree: Mike Eckman gives 644g, davidde 604g. Neither cites Nikon and no maker's figure has been located, so no weight is recorded in the table.
  4. No production figure has been published for the F-501, and no serial blocks. Nikon's own history of the camera describes the engineering and the market it answered and gives no numbers at all.
  5. Four autofocus Nikkors were on sale within four months of the body, on Nikon's account: the AI AF 50mm f/1.8S, AI AF 35–70mm f/3.3–4.5S and AI AF 70–210mm f/4S in April 1986, and the AI AF 35–105mm f/3.5–4.5S in July.
  6. Autofocus works only with AF Nikkors. Manual AI and AI-S lenses mount and meter, and the programmed modes need AI-S; the two AF-Nikkors made for the F3AF are usable on it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • AF coupling screw in the mount, absent on the otherwise identical F-301
  • P, P HI, A and M on the mode collar
  • Four AAA cells in the MB-4 holder under the body; the MB-3 substitutes four AA

F-501:

  • A screwdriver coupling in the floor of the mount throat, and an AF/M collar beside it
  • Otherwise the F-301's body: same mode collar, same 149 × 98 × 51mm shell

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film
Finder
Fixed eye-level pentaprism with focus indication and an LED exposure readout; the screen is interchangeable, types B, E and J · 0.85× magnification · 92% coverage · 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
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 integral and there is no drive to add. The MB-3 and MB-4 under the baseplate hold batteries.
Dimensions
149 × 98 × 51 mm
Country
Japan
Accessories
MB-4 AAA battery holder (standard) · MB-3 AA battery holder (optional) · Interchangeable focusing screens, types B, E and J

Where sources disagree

End of production
  • 1990 — Mike Eckman gives the F-501/N2020 a run from 1986 to 1990
  • 1989 — davidde's review states the camera was discontinued in 1989

Nikon publishes no withdrawal date for this model, English Wikipedia gives none, and the two reviewers disagree by a year. The entry therefore leaves `years.last` unset rather than choose between them.

What reviewers say

History

The F-501 of April 1986 is the F-301 with a focusing motor in it. The shell is the same, the shutter is the same to 1/2000, the meter reads centre-weighted at 60/40 over the same EV 1 to EV 19, the film still runs through at 2.5 frames a second under a motor with no lever to override it. What is new sits in two places: a phase-detection module behind the mirror, and a small blade-headed screw in the floor of the mount throat that turns the focusing helicoid of the lens.

Nikon had tried the other arrangement first. The F3AF of 1983 put the motor inside the lens, and there were two such lenses. The F-501 reversed it, and the company’s own account of the decision is unusually explicit about the reasoning: phase-difference detection was chosen over contrast detection, and the drive was placed in the body with the movement carried out to the lens through a coupling. Every Nikon autofocus body with a screwdriver in its throat descends from that choice, and so does the complaint of every later owner whose lens will not focus on a body that dropped the screw.

The market reasoning was the same as the F-301’s, stated by Nikon in the same breath. Compact cameras with leaf shutters had flash, autofocus and motorised winding; the reflex was losing ground to them and needed the same things. The F-501 has them all, plus film-speed setting from the DX code, plus two program curves for people who did not want to think about either control.

Four autofocus Nikkors were in the shops within four months — a 50mm f/1.8, a 35–70mm, a 70–210mm in April and a 35–105mm in July — which is a system launch rather than a camera launch, and it is the reason this body and not the F3AF is where Nikon’s autofocus history is usually said to start.

What the camera is like to use, everyone who has written about it agrees on, and it is not flattering. The autofocus sensor carries 96 photosites where the F4’s module of 1988 carries 200; xtalfu calls it “almost unusable indoors”, Mike Eckman “slow and indecisive”, Paul Newbery sluggish and noisy, and davidde concludes that an N90s or an F100 blows it out of the water. The finder is uncluttered but not bright. Both motors — the one winding the film and the one turning the screw — are loud. Eckman adds a warning of a different kind: all three examples he has handled had corroded battery compartments, and corrosion there kills the electronics.

Against that there is a short list of things a 1986 entry-level body had no business having. The screen comes out, and three types were catalogued. There is exposure compensation and TTL flash. The shutter dial and the manual rewind crank are where a Nikon owner of the 1970s would expect them, which is why Eckman describes the camera as semi-retro rather than as an early plastic one.

Nothing has been published about how many were built. Nikon’s own history of the camera runs to development anecdote and market analysis and contains no figure; the serial blocks are not in the public database that carries them for Nikon’s lenses and digital bodies, which records the film cameras as still to be added. The camera that began the largest transition in the company’s history is, numerically, undocumented.

Expand Collapse

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

Nikon F-501
Nikon F-501 with a Nikkor — Shun Miyazaki, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Nikon F-501
Nikon N2020, the F-501 in America — Austin Calhoon, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Nikon F-501
Pohick Creek — shot on a Nikon N2020 (dw_ross) — dw_ross from Springfield, VA, USA, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $90 across 20 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $53–$140). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 3 days: unchanged from $90.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$90$53–$14020
2026-09-08$90$53–$14020
2026-09-06$90$53–$14020

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 61 more listings

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

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

Lenses for this body: Medical-Nikkor 120mm f/4 IF · Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED

Sources (8)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.