The Best Nikon Camera of All Time (a Poll)

Recently, I was having a discussion with a friend about which Nikon camera he should get. He asked me point-blank what I thought Nikon’s greatest camera is, and my gut reaction was to say the Z9 – after all, it has the most advanced specs of any Nikon camera today (with the possible exception of the Z8). But with some further thought, I realized that the answer wasn’t so simple. Who am I to ignore 7+ decades of Nikon’s history and reflexively say that their current flagship is their greatest camera? There are so many other cameras with claims to the throne. Film, DSLR, mirrorless, point-and-shoot, you name it… what a dilemma!

So, I’ll pose the question to you: What is Nikon’s greatest camera of all time?

Is it the Nikon Z9, their current flagship and most advanced camera? The Nikon Z8, which is very similar but in a smaller package and with some new firmware additions? The Nikon D850, a nearly perfect DSLR? Or, is “the greatest” something different entirely, like one of Nikon’s classic film cameras?

Today, you can see how your fellow photographers would answer these questions. It turns out that there have been roughly 128 Nikon cameras made over the past 76 years of Nikon’s existence. That’s the perfect number for a tournament-style bracket to pare these down to 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, and finally 1: the greatest camera that Nikon has ever made.

So, let’s do it. I created a set of polls with 128 Nikon cameras (which necessitated excluding a few minor cameras, mostly various Coolpixes that didn’t stand a chance of winning). I’ve grouped these cameras roughly by type, which should provide us with some interesting answers along the way – such as people’s favorite Nikon film camera, entry-level DSLR, and so on. I think this is a reasonable approach, but it does mean that some really good cameras will get eliminated in an early round if their category is small, including full-frame Nikon Z cameras.

Because my bracket tool only allows a maximum of 32 entries per tournament, I’ve created four divisions separated by camera type. Click to access each of these brackets and vote on the winners yourself!

1. The Punishers (Nikon Z cameras and FX DSLRs)
2. The Small but Mighty (Nikon DX DSLRs and more recent Nikon 1 cameras)
3. The Analog Hotshots (Iconic Nikon film cameras)
4. The Underdogs (Lesser-known cameras today, but they could surprise us)

A few notes:

• Each round of these brackets will be open for 24 hours, and there will be seven rounds in total, so you’ll have multiple chances to vote over the coming week.
• “Greatest” is up to your interpretation. You could answer simply based on specifications, or go for something more intangible like the camera’s cultural impact or sticking power.
• You don’t need to answer every question in these surveys! If you’re not confident that you have a favorite between, say, the Nikon FG-20 versus the F-301, or any other cameras you may not have heard of, feel free to sit those out.
• I expect that the first 2-3 rounds are mostly going to converge on some of the obvious choices and pare down some of the (many) lesser-known Nikons. But since there could always be some surprises, I decided to start with the full suite of 128, rather than eliminating too many unlikely cameras myself.

That’s all you need to know! I’ll keep this article pinned to the top of Photography Life this week and post some of my thoughts and comments with the completion of each round. In about a week, we should have an answer for the greatest Nikon camera of all time (at least according to our readers).

Finally, I should mention, all of this is just for fun! Don’t get too caught up in whether your camera “wins” or “loses” in these votes, because at the end of the day, it’s literally just a popularity contest. Odds are, the right camera for you is not going to be the winner of this poll :)

Round 1: Results and Commentary

Today, we started off by ruthlessly eliminating 64 of Nikon’s cameras, including some of my personal favorites. But I won’t get ahead of myself. Let’s take a look at how each bracket turned out.

Division 1 – The Punishers

Still remaining after round one, we have the following cameras:

• Nikon Z9
• Nikon Z8
• Nikon Zf
• Nikon Z5 II
• Nikon Z6 III
• Nikon Z50 II
• Nikon Zfc
• Nikon D6
• Nikon D5
• Nikon D4S
• Nikon D4
• Nikon D850
• Nikon D810A
• Nikon D810
• Nikon D750
• Nikon D800E

Which ones will hold on for another round? It remains to be seen! (As a side note, thanks to some admittedly bad game design on my part, this next round has a crazy matchup between the Z8 and Z9… two cameras that I think could have contended for the overall throne of Nikon’s greatest camera! One of them will have to exit in round two, so make your voice heard if you have a strong preference between them.)

For now, let’s look at a few of the most interesting results from Round 1:

Closest Matchup: The Nikon D800 and D800E traded places until the very end. Ultimately, the D800E won out by a mere four votes (276 to 272). It looks like the anti-aliasing debate never truly was settled.

Most Imbalanced Battle: There were some very lopsided matchups this time – with easy wins for the Nikon Z8, Nikon Z9, and Z50 II – but the most imbalanced battle was between the Nikon D850 and the D600. Okay, I didn’t expect this one to be close. But the poor D600 only got 20 votes to the D850’s 736. Apparently some grease in the wheels (or oil on the sensor) was never going to allow the D600 to reach the iconic D850.

Biggest Upset: The Nikon D750 beat the Nikon D780 in a nail-biter, 313 to 281! Both are excellent cameras, and the D780 is of course more advanced on paper, but I can see why it lost. Of the two, it was more of the incremental upgrade.

Saddest Defeats: It was probably inevitable that the Nikon D700 would lose to the D810, but it does break my heart a little. The Nikon D700 was revolutionary – it brought full-frame image quality to a wide market and still stands as one of the most enjoyable cameras Nikon has ever made. The D810 is obviously a more advanced camera, but it also didn’t have nearly the same cultural impact of the two. And this was always going to be a ruthless competition, so the D700 will have to bow out gracefully.

Division 2 – The Small but Mighty

Still remaining after round one, we have the following cameras:

• Nikon D3500
• Nikon D3400
• Nikon D3300
• Nikon D5600
• Nikon D5500
• Nikon D5300
• Nikon D7500
• Nikon D7200
• Nikon D500
• Nikon D300S
• Nikon D300
• Nikon D2XS
• Nikon D2X
• Nikon D2HS
• Nikon 1 J5
• Nikon 1 V3

Not a round with too many surprises! But we still learned a few interesting things, like these:

Closest Matchup: The matchup between the Nikon 1 J1 and the Nikon 1 AW1 was the closest, but it definitely wasn’t a close one. The J1 won with about 68% of the vote! A sad day for anyone who loved the ability to shoot with an underwater interchangeable lens camera (and could ignore the fact that the waterproofing was sometimes… less than perfect).

Most Imbalanced Battle: The Nikon D3500 smoked the D3000 with a score of 267 to 24. Not a surprise – obviously the D3500 is a better camera – but I guess there wasn’t much love for the first of the D3000 series.

Biggest Upset: None in this bracket! The newer, more advanced camera won every time in this division. Too bad… hopefully the next round will be spicier.

Saddest Defeats: The Nikon D1 wasn’t exactly set up for success in round one, going against the beloved Nikon D500. But it was still sad to see Nikon’s original DSLR be eliminated (with a score of 393 to 39 at that).

Division 3 – The Analog Hotshots

Here’s what’s left after round one:

• Nikon I
• Nikon SP
• Nikon Nikon’s
• Nikon FM
• Nikon FM2
• Nikon EL2
• Nikon FE2
• Nikon FA
• Nikon FM3A
• Nikon F65/N65
• Nikon F75/N75
• Nikon F100
• Nikon F90X/N90S
• Nikon F2
• Nikon F3
• Nikon F6

Wow! Already some wild results (including one huge disappointment, in my opinion). Here are a few of the highlights:

Closest Matchup: The Nikon F5 and F6 were locked in a pitched battle until the very end! Ultimately, the F6 prevailed by ONE VOTE! I’m glad we saw a little bit of love for Nikon’s most recent film camera, but it is a little sad that it came at the expense of the classic F5.

Most Imbalanced Battle: In an extremely lopsided matchup, the Nikon FM beat the Nikkorex cameras by a score of 163 to 1. Wow! I didn’t realize that in today’s world, so many people could agree on something so unanimously. Well, the FM is one of the most beloved mechanical, Swiss-watch-style cameras that Nikon has ever made, so maybe it’s no surprise. Could the FM go the distance, or was the Nikkorex just that unloved? Let’s find out in the next round.

Biggest Upset: It’s both an upset and not an upset – the Nikon F3 beat the F4 in a bit of a drumming! Although the F4 is the more advanced camera, this isn’t too much of a surprise given that the F3 is so beloved. But will it be able to beat the F6 in round two? One way to find out!

Saddest Defeats: The original Nikon F lost to the Nikon F2. And although I understand that the F2 was an improvement, how could we lose the Nikon F so early?! It wasn’t just Nikon’s first SLR, it was the first practical commercial SLR from anyone, and it lost in the first round? Sigh…

Division 4 – The Underdogs

Finally, our remaining underdog cameras are:

• Nikon D50
• Nikon D70
• Nikon D90
• Nikon Coolpix P950
• Nikon Coolpix P1100
• Nikon Coolpix A
• Nikon 1 J2
• Nikon 1 J4
• Nikon 1 V2
• Nikon S3
• Nikon S4
• Nikon FG
• Nikon F-301/N2000
• Nikon F-801/N8008
• Nikon F-601/N6006
• Nikon F60/N60

It’s an interesting mix, and even though not all of these cameras can match the sticking power of the other divisions, there are still some iconic cameras in the mix. Some highlights include:

Closest Matchup: The Nikon EM and the Nikon FG were surprisingly close, with the FG prevailing in a score of 33 to 30. Both are consumer-oriented SLRs and not really Nikon’s most iconic bodies of all time. But the FG is indeed the more advanced of the two, adding a manual mode and a program mode (whereas the EM is aperture priority only). So I think y’all made a good choice.

Most Imbalanced Battle: In what I would describe as “not the most exciting matchup,” the Nikon F-601 beat the Nikon F-401 in a score of 41 to 5. (In the US market, these cameras were called the N6006 and N4004.) And it’s true that the N6006 was aimed at a more advanced audience, with better metering and autofocus, among various other improvements.

Biggest Upset: No major upsets in this division, but I was very surprised that the S4 and S3M rangefinders were so close! For context, the S3M is a half-frame version of the S3, while the S4 is an upgrade over the S3. Either y’all like half-frame cameras a lot more than I realized, or some people voted without really knowing what they were voting on!

Saddest Defeats: I’m a bit disappointed that the P950 and P1100 beat the P900 and P1000. Yes, they are newer and ostensibly better cameras. But both (especially the P1100) are about as incremental of an upgrade as you’ll ever see. Meanwhile, the P900 was a pretty revolutionary camera thanks to its 97x zoom, and so was the P1000 that took things all the way to 125x. The P900 and P1000 also had some serious cultural sticking power among Flat Earthers, for whatever that’s worth.

And that wraps it up for round one! What can we expect next, now that we’ve whittled things down to the top 64? Meet me back here this time tomorrow to find out.