Nikon F-401S
The plasticky Nikon that quietly did something no Nikon had ever done before - and got sneered at for it anyway.
Overview
Set a Nikon F-401S on a table and the first thing you notice is the weight. It's 675 grams, in a body measuring 155 x 103 x 64 mm. The body is plastic and comes in black, but owners who've handled both this and Nikon's later consumer SLRs report the F-401S has "very solid, not plastic feel" - heavy compared to later models like the F-80. It's an autofocus 35mm F-mount SLR built to a standard Nikon would later walk back as it chased lighter, cheaper consumer bodies.
Nikon sold the F-401S in North America as the N4004S. Same machine, two names. It arrived as an upgrade to the F-401 of 1987, a refinement rather than a clean-sheet design. Nikon's own product literature calls it an "upgraded F-401 (1987) with ultra-fast AF even in dim light by Advanced AM200 sensor." So the 1989 camera didn't get a new autofocus module. It got a better version of the one the F-401 already had.
What the F-401S did that no Nikon before it had done was put a built-in TTL speedlight in the body. According to period documentation, it was the first Nikon camera with a built-in TTL flash. The pop-up flash simplifies low-light shooting, and the camera also supports TTL flash metering with external Nikon Speedlights when you want more reach than the built-in unit gives.
The F-401S has a "smart but reduced user interface for setting the right values." Nikon stripped the controls down to what a casual shooter needs, but kept the capability. Exposure modes are Program, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, and full manual. The manual mode is a real one. The camera also has autofocus with predictive capabilities for moving subjects, and the viewfinder gives focus confirmation and exposure information.
Film handling is fully motorized. A built-in motor drive handles continuous shooting, automatic film advance, and automatic rewind. No thumb crank, no rewind knob. The shutter is a vertical-travel metal focal-plane unit running from 1 second to 1/2000s, and power comes from four AA batteries.
Key Features
The Advanced AM200 Autofocus Sensor
The headline upgrade over the 1987 F-401 was the autofocus sensor. Nikon's literature calls it an "Advanced AM200 sensor" delivering ultra-fast AF even in dim light. Independent documentation agrees: the 1989 camera received a better version of the AF module the original F-401 already had, rather than a new design. In practice, the F-401S focuses more confidently in low light than its predecessor, and it tracks moving subjects with predictive capability.
The First Built-In TTL Speedlight in a Nikon
Here is the F-401S's place in Nikon history: it was the first Nikon camera equipped with a built-in TTL speedlight. Before this, if you wanted flash on a Nikon, you mounted one on the hot shoe or you went without. The F-401S put a pop-up flash in the body and wired it into the camera's TTL metering, so the flash quenched itself based on what the meter read through the lens. The camera also supports TTL flash metering with external Nikon Speedlights, so the built-in unit isn't a ceiling. With a shoe-mounted Speedlight, the TTL system carries over.
Four Exposure Modes Including Full Manual
The F-401S offers Program, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, and Manual exposure modes. That's the full set a serious amateur would want, in a body aimed at people who might never touch anything but Program. The camera is easy to use in its automatic modes, but it doesn't lock you out of taking control. The interface is described as "smart but reduced." A shooter learning exposure can start in Program and move to Aperture-priority or full Manual without buying a different camera.
Motorized Film Handling
The built-in motor drive handles continuous shooting, automatic film advance, and automatic rewind. The photographer does nothing but press the shutter and, eventually, open the back. For a camera from 1989, that level of automation was competitive.
Nikon F Mount Compatibility
The F-401S uses the Nikon F mount, which accepts a huge range of lenses. The camera was commonly sold bundled with an AF Nikkor 35-70mm lens, a sensible walkaround zoom for a body like this. Because the mount is the standard F bayonet, the F-401S can use lenses that predate it by decades, though autofocus requires AF lenses. The glass you put on it can be far better than the body itself.
Viewfinder and Handling
The viewfinder provides focus confirmation and exposure information. The body measures 155 x 103 x 64 mm and weighs 675 grams. The plastic body comes in black, and despite the material, owners note the camera has a solid feel that compares favorably to Nikon's later, lighter consumer SLRs. Four AA batteries power it, so there's no proprietary cell to hunt for.
Historical Context
The F-401S sits in the middle of a three-camera line. Nikon made three models, each with more refinements: the original F-401 of 1987, the F-401S of 1989 which added better autofocus, and the later F-401X which added more shutter speeds. The F-401S is the middle child, a refinement of the original rather than a redesign. Documentation of the F-401 lineage notes that the F-401S followed the F-401 "with a reworked autofocus module," which fits Nikon's own description of the Advanced AM200 sensor as an upgrade to the existing design.
One point of confusion: at least one retail source dates the F-401S to 1987, but that's the F-401's introduction year, not the F-401S's. The weight of documentation, including Nikon's own product listings, points to 1989 for the F-401S. The F-401S was also sold in a Quartz Date version, listed by Nikon as the F-401S QD (or N4004S QD in North America), which added date imprinting to the film. What that QD version did beyond imprinting dates isn't documented in the sources gathered here.
The F-401S was the first Nikon with a built-in TTL speedlight, which is a bigger footnote than the camera's modest reputation suggests. Nikon would go on to build far more advanced autofocus SLRs, and the F-401S's autofocus speed was surpassed quickly. But the integration of a TTL flash into the body was a step the entire industry would follow, and Nikon took it here first.
Collectibility & Value
The F-401S is not a collector's camera the way a Nikon F3 or FM2 is. It's a user's camera - inexpensive, plentiful, and built to be shot rather than displayed. One retailer lists it at €189.99, which is at the high end for what this camera typically commands. The F-401 (non-S) has been dismissively called "the £1.50 SLR" in one review, and while that's about the predecessor, it gives a sense of where this line sits in the market. The F-401S generally trades for little, often bundled with an AF Nikkor 35-70mm lens. Listings exist on eBay and craigslist, and at least one recent eBay listing described the camera as "Untested" with the 35-70mm lens attached. That's a common situation with cheap film SLRs, so ask questions before buying.
On the repair side, a "Nikon F401s / N4004s Parts List" is available via the Internet Archive as a 296 KB PDF, which is more than many cameras of this era can boast. There's also a technical memo on a "broken hook in camera back" - a 38 KB PDF in the Internet Archive - which implies the camera back latch is a known weak point. The source doesn't explicitly state that the broken back latch is a common failure, only that a technical memo exists addressing it, so treat it as something to inspect rather than a guaranteed problem. No other common failures, spare parts availability information, or DIY repair guidance is documented in the sources gathered here.
For a buyer today, the F-401S is a cheap way into Nikon F-mount film shooting with autofocus and a built-in flash. The four AA batteries are convenient, the F mount opens up a vast lens library, and the full manual mode means the camera can grow with a shooter. The caveats are age - these are 1980s consumer electronics - and the fact that many examples have been sitting unused for years. An untested body bundled with a lens is a gamble, but at the prices these go for, it's a small one.
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