Nikon F-601
Nikon · Nikon F mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1990
via machine translation — corrections welcomeAlso known as: Nikon N6006 · Nikon N6000 · Nikon F-601 QD · ニコンF-601
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-601 | Nikon F | 1990 | — | No figure published |
| F-601M | Nikon F | 1990 | — | No figure published |
- No production figure has been published for the F-601 or the F-601M, and no serial blocks. Nikon's own product-archive page for each model is a short list of key features with no specification table at all — the same archive gives full tables for the F90X and the F100. The public database that carries Nikon serial blocks for the digital bodies still records film cameras as a section yet to be added.
- Photography in Malaysia identifies the autofocus module as the AM200 used in the F-801, working from EV −1 to EV 19, and calls the F-601 the second Nikon to carry predictive focus tracking and the first to run on a 6V lithium cell. Nikon's own page for the model names none of these things.
- Film speed is set from the DX code between ISO 25 and 5000, or by hand from ISO 6 to 6400. Exposure compensation runs ±5 EV in 1/3 EV steps.
- Finder magnification of 0.75× and 92% frame coverage are published for the F-601M and not separately for the F-601; the same is true of the 154.5 × 96 × 65mm body size. The autofocus body's weight is given only as "approx. 650g" without battery. Matt Denton's specification table for the N6006 gives 92% coverage for the autofocus body as well, which is the only place that figure has been found attached to this model rather than to the F-601M.
- Exposure compensation is given here as ±5 EV in 1/3 EV steps. Matt Denton's table for the N6006 says ±2 EV. The narrower figure has not been corroborated and may be the flash compensation range or a transcription error, but it is recorded rather than discarded because no manufacturer's specification table for this model survives to settle it.
- 赤城耕一, writing for Photo & Culture, Tokyo, states that the F-601M keeps the AI coupling lever but that non-CPU AI Nikkors get centre-weighted metering only, while multi-pattern metering and the P and S modes need a CPU lens. He also says he believes the F-601M was at first an export-only model — a hedged recollection, not a document, and it sits awkwardly beside Nikon's own Japanese product-archive page for the camera. Neither point is corroborated elsewhere in the sources examined.
- Older non-AI Nikkors will not mount without conversion, and forcing one damages the indexing pin. G-type lenses without an aperture ring work in program and shutter priority only if the aperture-ring sensor is held at its maximum position by hand, which Nikon does not endorse.
- Nikon's product-archive pages for this model are no longer served from imaging.nikon.com and were read through the Internet Archive.
How to tell them apart
- Retractable flash in the prism housing, guide number 13 in metres at ISO 100 — 42 in feet
- Single 6V CR-P2 lithium cell; date-back versions add a CR2025
- Top speed 1/2000, where the F-801 above it reaches 1/8000
- Flash sync at 1/125
F-601:
- A flash folded into the roof of the prism, released by a button on either side of the housing
- One 6V CR-P2 lithium cell in the grip, where the rest of the line takes AAs
- Autofocus, spot metering, and the AF/M collar beside the mount — all three absent on the F-601M
F-601M:
- No autofocus module, no focus-mode collar, and no flash in the prism housing
- Two metering patterns where the F-601 has three: matrix and centre-weighted, no spot
- 154.5 × 96 × 65mm and 565g, against roughly 650g for the autofocus body
- F-601: Nikon catalogued a date-back version as the F-601 QD, sold in North America as the N6006 QD. It carries a CR2025 cell for the back and is otherwise the same camera; no mechanical difference beyond the imprinting mechanism is recorded in the sources examined.
- F-601M: Nikon's own archive describes it as a simplified F-601 without autofocus and without the built-in Speedlight, and lists matrix and centre-weighted metering only. Photography in Malaysia gives the same September 1990 date as the F-601 and adds that the spot meter went with the flash. A manual-focus body tooled in 1990, four years after the company's first autofocus reflex.
Specifications
- Format
- 24×36mm on 35mm film
- Finder
- Fixed eye-level pentaprism with LCD readout · no rangefinder image
- Shutter
- electromagnetically controlled focal plane · 30s – 1/2000 and B, the B setting held open by the battery · flash sync 1/125 · self-timer
- Film advance
- integral motor; automatic loading to the first frame, 2 frames a second in continuous high and 1.2 in continuous low
- Back
- hinged
- Meter
- TTL five-segment matrix, centre-weighted and spot at full aperture, EV 0–19 at ISO 100 with an f/1.4 lens; the F-601M has matrix and centre-weighted only
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — The motor is integral and there is no drive to add. Film advances and loads under power; the electronic self-timer runs from 2 to 30 seconds in one-second steps and has a two-shot mode that fires again after the first frame.
- Weight
- 650 g
- Country
- Japan
- Accessories
- 6V CR-P2 or DL223A lithium cell (the only power source) · CR2025 cell for the QD date back
What reviewers say
- John Margetts (John's Cameras) (blog) — Finds a metal chassis under the plastic fascias and a meter that copes with high dynamic range, and rates the film loading and DX reading as trouble-free; his complaints are the CR-P2 cell, a finder with no split-image or microprism aid at all so manual focus has nothing to work against, and a rewind that pulls the leader entirely into the cassette.
- Matt Denton (Matt's Classic Cameras) (blog) — Bought one as a practical camera for his wife and rates the matrix metering and the automatic balanced fill flash as giving results that look professional; names the battery cover as the camera's real fault, its plastic retaining tabs weakly held on and broken twice on his own body — once from a drop and once from ordinary use — and repaired both times with epoxy.
- ImagingPixel (blog) — Calls the body solid and extremely well made with one of the largest and brightest fixed eye-level finders in its class, and treats the F-801's autofocus module and five-segment matrix meter as the reason to buy one; the reservations are the proprietary 6V lithium cell where rivals took AAs, autofocus slower than a modern digital body, and a battery life that runs from about 75 rolls without flash down to three in the cold with it.
- 赤城耕一 / Koichi Akagi (Photo & Culture, Tokyo) (blog) — Writing on the F-601M, admires the nerve of shipping a manual-focus body in 1990 and rates its finder above the Pentax MZ-M's, but says the all-plastic shell goes shiny and cheap with use and never acquires any patina, and lands on the contradiction at the centre of the camera — a manual-focus SLR that gives manual-focus Nikkors centre-weighted metering only, while the AF lenses it meters fully have focus rings too light to focus by hand. via machine translation — corrections welcome
History
The F-601 of September 1990 was the only reflex Nikon announced that year, and it exists to fill a hole in the middle of the range. Below it sat the F-401, which had abandoned mechanical aperture indexing altogether; above it sat the F-801, with a 1/8000 shutter and a reputation among working photographers. The F-601 takes the F-801’s autofocus module and its five-segment matrix meter, drops the top speed to 1/2000, and adds the one thing neither neighbour had: a flash folded into the roof of the prism, released by a button on either side of the housing.
Two things in it are firsts for a Nikon reflex, both on Photography in Malaysia’s account rather than the maker’s. One is the power supply, a single 6V CR-P2 lithium cell rather than a handful of alkaline AAs — the reason the body is as small as it is, and the reason a working F-601 is now harder to feed than a mechanical Nikon three decades older. The other is predictive focus tracking, which that source calls the second such system Nikon shipped. Nikon’s own page for the camera names neither, and lists five bullet points in total.
The rest is a competent middle-ranking camera stated plainly. Three metering patterns — matrix, centre-weighted, spot — over EV 0 to 19 at ISO 100 with an f/1.4 lens. Film speed from the DX code between ISO 25 and 5000, or by hand from 6 to 6400. Two frames a second in continuous high, 1.2 in continuous low, automatic loading to the first frame, and an electronic self-timer settable anywhere from 2 to 30 seconds with a second shot on the end of it.
Then there is the F-601M, sold in North America as the N6000, and it is the strange member of the family. It is the same camera with the autofocus module taken out, the flash taken out of the prism, and the spot meter taken out with them — 565g against roughly 650g, matrix and centre-weighted metering, focus by hand. Nikon put a manual-focus body into production in 1990, four years after the F-501 had settled how the company would do autofocus, and its own archive describes the machine in a single line without explaining why.
Lens compatibility is where the F-601 stops being simple. Non-AI Nikkors will not mount without conversion and force does real damage to the indexing pin. G-type lenses, which arrived a decade later with no aperture ring at all, function in program and shutter priority only if the aperture-ring sensor on the body is pushed to its maximum and held there — behaviour Nikon does not endorse and which exists because of a defect in the camera’s firmware rather than a design intention.
Nothing has been published about how many were built, or in what serial blocks. Nikon’s product archive, which gives the F90X and the F100 full specification tables down to the millimetre, offers this model five bullet points; the database that carries Nikon serial blocks for the digital bodies still lists film cameras as a section to be added later. Even the weight is a rounded approximation. Whether the F-601M sold in any quantity at all, and what argument inside Nikon produced a manual-focus camera in 1990, are not answerable from the published record.
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
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Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $79 across 34 fixed-price listings on 2026-10-19 (middle half $55–$100). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 9 days: up 13% from $70.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-19 | $79 | $55–$100 | 34 |
| 2026-10-18 | $79 | $55–$100 | 34 |
| 2026-10-17 | $79 | $55–$100 | 34 |
| 2026-10-16 | $80 | $53–$100 | 34 |
| 2026-10-15 | $78 | $50–$100 | 34 |
| 2026-09-21 | $70 | $50–$100 | 41 |
| 2026-09-18 | $65 | $49–$100 | 39 |
| 2026-09-11 | $70 | $50–$110 | 38 |
| 2026-09-06 | $70 | $50–$110 | 38 |
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
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