Nikon F-501 (N2020) (1986)
Nikon was late to autofocus, and knew it. Minolta's Maxxum 7000 landed in 1985 and made every other camera maker look slow. Nikon's answer, a year later, was the F-501, sold as the N2020 in North America. It was Nikon's first successful autofocus SLR, and it changed the company's design language. The F-501 was essentially an N2000 (F-301) with autofocus added. CamerAgX even poses the question of whether the N2020 prefigured the F4's design philosophy in a smaller package.
The body is plastic, battery-dependent and all black, with a built-in motor drive and automatic film loading. It offers program auto, aperture-priority, and manual exposure modes, and it reads DX-coded film for automatic ISO setting. Shutter speeds run from 1 second to 1/2000th plus bulb, with ISO sensitivity from 25 to 4000. It takes four AAA cells, which live in a support in the camera shoe. It accepts Nikon's F-mount lenses, but only lenses designated "AF" will autofocus, so keep that in mind with older glass. The viewfinder is serviceable, with LEDs for shutter speed and focus confirmation, though several owners note it feels small. Lapse of the Shutter calls it easy to use and notes compatibility with modern AF lenses.
It has interchangeable focusing screens - types B, E, and J were available - and AE-Lock and AF-Lock buttons sit next to the lens flange. A recessed red button starts the self-timer. Nikon dropped the ISO-type cable release socket on this model. For TTL flash with the SB-22 speedlight, the camera needs to be set to aperture-priority or manual mode.
The F-501/N2020 is one of the strangely forgotten greats of the Nikon world. There was a time you could buy one for about $25. That has changed somewhat as film photography has seen a resurgence, but it remains a cheap AF entry point into Nikon's F-mount system. These are aging electronic cameras, and one popular repair video is titled "80s Icon Complete With Electrical Gremlins," so test it before you trust it on a trip.
Known specs:
- Type: 35mm autofocus SLR, F-mount (AF lenses only for autofocus)
- Released: April 1986 (sources conflict; some list 1985)
- Shutter: vertical metal focal plane, 1s – 1/2000s + B
- ISO range: 25 – 4000 (DX-code auto-setting)
- Size: 145 × 99 × 53 mm; weight: 604g
- Battery: 4× AAA cells
- Interchangeable focusing screens: types B, E, J
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