Although discontinued, the Nikon F4s continues to be my main 35mm SLR. It's built like a tank and lives up to Nikon's reputation for reliability.
I bought my F4s used in 1999. I had no reservations about it being 10 year old technology at all. It's a great buy on the used market now. I purchased the F4 for several reasons.
The first reason was for the F4's traditional controls. All the controls are where they are on most older manual SLRs. I appreciated this because I come from a manual SLR background (Nikon F3, Hasselblad 501). All the dials are large and click into place with a reassuring substantial feel.
The second reason for the F4 was metering modes. Offering spot, center weight, and matrix the F4's metering has been able to solve the majority of my metering needs. A plus is the ability to use matrix metering with selected manual focus lenses.
My third reason was the reliability and rock solid construction. The thing is a tank! It's also moisture and dust sealed.
I use the F4 for all my 35mm photographic needs. I shoot street scenes with it and it has survived many bumps and knocks traveling around the city in the subways and buses.
If one is to buy an F4 in this day and age of the F5 and F100, there are some limitations that one needs to understand before buying the F4. The autofocus is not lightening fast like the F5's or EOS 1's. The F4 has difficulty in focussing in low light situations where the subject area has little contrast. Many current SLR's have focus assistance light that projects a beam to aid in low light, but not the F4. Another factor to consider is the heavy weight of the F4, it's heavy by today's standards, so fatigue may be an issue if you plan on using this as a back packing camera.
There are "fixes" for the cons that I mentioned. To help in lowlight focusing situations, the use of Nikon's flash model SB-24 does provide a red focus assist beam. If you are using the flash, and still have problems with low light focus, point the focus brackets towards an area of the subject where there is contrast, and most of the times, the camera with do just fine. In regards to heavy weight, one can switch out the 6 battery MB-21 with the lighter less bulkier 4 battery MB-20 grip (but you lose the vertical grip/shutter release).
If one is in the market for a reliable tank like camera, the F4 is hard to beat. I would recommend this camera as a serious creative tool.
The only field of photography that this would not perform well in is in the realm of sports photography, for that one would need a newer faster autofocus camera. But everything else, the F4 is still a worthy performer and should not be overlooked.
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