Nikon F4
Introduced in 1988 and sold until the F5 launched in 1997, the Nikon F4 was intended as the professional level auto-focus Nikon.
If the F3 was your cool uncle who had been to war and thought a BB gun was an appropriate gift for your 8th birthday, the F4 was your cousin who spent too much time in the gym but still somehow knew about all the cool new tech. The F4 was a leap forward for Nikon with autofocus, matrix metering and motor drive in a tough professional body. All driven by 4 AA batteries and more knobs than you knew you needed.
My Take:
The F4 feels like a big step for Nikon. It is still clearly part of the F professional line but facing forward. It may be the perfect bridge between the fully manual film camera and the menu driven F5. It gives you great compatibility on lens. I could have shot my older lens but opted for an autofocus lens. It will shot the new lens even the VR lens, but the image stabilization will not work.
I found the autofocus to be acceptable and quick enough. The metering and shooting modes were more than my casual shooting style requires but not so intrusive to be a problem. It is a big heavy camera with lots of knobs. It makes the F3 feel sleek.
If you want autofocus and love knobs, the F4 could be the tool for you. But be warned it is heavy and loud. Focus is loud, shutter is loud and film advance is loud. I shot it in a group of digital shooters and several of them looked visibly worried. Get on and scare your friends.
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f1.8
Film: Kodak 200
