I didn't like the F100 at first. That is, before I bought one. I think I was trying to convince myself that I didn't like it because I already felt a bit guilty for buying the F5. I don't know why I even bothered to try to not like it, though, since I'm sure I knew in the back of my mind that it wouldn't last.

Sure enough, with a bit of time, I found myself staring at this mini-F5 marvel, going into the shop "just to see how it handles" and then hearing those words which I hear all too often coming from my mouth: "OK, I'll take it, please". I'm sure there's a part of my brain which completely takes over in situations like that. I think: no, I shouldn't, I don't need one. But different words come out.

Anyway, I've had it for some time now and I love it. It's very well made; in some respects it seems to be better put-together than my F5, with no wobbly switches or anything like that. This is despite the fact that there are some obviously cheaper (i.e., plastic) parts whose equivalent are metal on the F5. It's a solid, tough, relatively light (in no small part, no doubt, thanks to the magnesium alloy construction) little body. I say "little" because it feels only slightly larger than the F801s which I used to own years ago, but it does have a nice, chunky feel when compared to smaller bodies such as the F3, FE2, etc. I don't have the battery pack grip for it because I tend to use it as a "small F5", so couldn't really justify it unless I got rid of the F5 - which I have no intention of doing. What I mean by using it as a "small F5" is that I use it when I want to travel lighter or smaller than the F5 will allow, but want pretty much the same functionality. Certainly, there is a certain "feel" to a single-digit F body which the F100 doesn't quite have but it can do most of what the F5 does just as well.

Many people go on about how the red focus indicators are so much better than the F5's black ones, but I find that the opposite is true. The F100's are fine, but they flash briefly and then that's it. The F5's, on the other hand, stay on as long as the meter is active. Personally, I find this easier to work with and have never had any trouble seeing which of the five areas is active - not to mention the F5's illuminated arrows which make it even more obvious.

The F100 has never really let me down, unless you count a couple of matrix-metered underexposed shots a failure due to the camera. I don't; it was my own fault for, for example, including some bright sky above a dark, shadowed building. The F5 would have done the same, I strongly suspect. If anything, I generally prefer the way the F100's matrix algorithm works compared to the F5's, since I find that the F5 takes too much notice of brighter objects (such as sky or a window) and exposes them perfectly at the expense of the main subject. I get more underexposed surprises from the F5, because of this, than from the F100. But that's just me expecting matrix metering to work miracles and it can't. It can never know exactly what one would want it to do in any given situation. That's why centre-weighted and spot metering are provided. In c/w and spot, both F100 and F5 agree with one another.

It's as accurate at focussing as the F5 and almost as fast; the only difference I can make out being due to the lower torque of the body's AF motor, compared with that of the F5, using non-AFS lenses. I use 4 AA alkaline batteries in mine which last quite long enough: I've never been caught out, anyway. I can't really fault the F100 - it's brilliant.

A later note regarding the MV-1 which I bought for the F6: it works perfectly well on the F100 and allows one to pull shooting data in exactly the same way. Unlike the F5 and F6, the F100 comes supplied with the recording of shooting data deactivated. Activate it with the MV-1 and you're away!

A still later note (2016): the rear door of the F100 is covered in that dreaded "soft touch" plastic/rubber coating which degrades over time. It's all very well until it starts to get sticky, by which time it will only get worse quite rapidly. Mine became sticky a year or two ago and I initially tried a small amount of talcum powder which worked, but the coating continued to degrade and become gooey. At that point I'd treated a few other items, which had experienced similar fates, using isopropyl alcohol; successful if not labour-intensive and frustrating. Unable to stand it any longer, I spent some time removing all of the soft-touch (now gooey-touch) coating from the rear door (after detaching it first from the body), leaving it smooth and completely non-sticky. It doesn't have the same pleasant feel any more as it did before it started to degrade, but at least it's now stable. This plastic coating has to be one of the worst inventions I've come across; great in the short term but a dreadful pain in the backside beyond that. I have (or have had!) so many things coated in the stuff, some of which are now stripped bare and others are waiting in line. Still, the F100 is fine now, if fractionally less "grippy" on the thumb.