The Nikon F-301 was a manual focus, autoexposure, auto film loading and advancing 35 mm

35 mm film

35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...

 SLR

Single-lens reflex camera

A single-lens reflex camera is a camera that typically uses a semi-automatic moving mirror system that permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or digital imaging system, as opposed to pre-SLR cameras where the view through the viewfinder could be significantly...

 camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

 sold by the Nikon Corporation beginning in 1985, it was the replacement for the FG

Nikon FG

The Nikon FG is an interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single-lens reflex camera. It was manufactured by Nippon Kogaku K. K. in Japan from 1982 to 1986....

.

The F-301 was identical to the Nikon F-501

Nikon F501

The Nikon F-501 was the first successful autofocus SLR camera sold by the Nikon Corporation beginning in 1986. A nearly identical, albeit manual focus version, called the Nikon F-301 was also available...

 (sold in North America as the N2020) in almost every way, except it lacked autofocus

Autofocus

An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...

.

The Nikon F-301 is notable for being the first Nikon SLR sold that lacked a film advance lever. As a result the selector knob, also used to lock the shutter button, has a continuous option in addition to the single shot. It was also the first Nikon SLR to feature DX film decoding.

A standard hotshoe flash mount sits above the viewfinder, with which a flash may be attached to the camera. The Nikon F-301 does not feature a built-in pop-up flash (the F-401

Nikon F401

The Nikon F-401 was a beginner's level, autofocus, 35mm, single-lens reflex film camera built by Nikon and introduced in 1987. The camera represented one of Nikon's first endeavours into consumer-based autofocus, as a follow-up to their first autofocus SLR in 1986, the Nikon F-501...

 was the first Nikon SLR to have this feature).

It was also the first Nikon to use polycarbonate

Polycarbonate

PolycarbonatePhysical PropertiesDensity 1.20–1.22 g/cm3Abbe number 34.0Refractive index 1.584–1.586FlammabilityV0-V2Limiting oxygen index25–27%Water absorption – Equilibrium0.16–0.35%Water absorption – over 24 hours0.1%...

s in the building of the camera, and was considered by many people as the dawn of a new era for Nikon.

This camera is powered by four AAA batteries, loaded from below, necessitating removal of the baseplate. A MB-3 battery pack could be used instead of the standard MB-4 enabling AA batteries to be used instead of AAA. The placement of the batteries meant that the tripod bush on the baseplate was extremely offset from the centre of the camera, the AH-3 tripod adapter could be used to rectify this but it added extra bulk to the camera.

The F-301 can be manually preset for film speeds from ISO 12 to ISO 3200, or this can be left to the camera through the DX feature.