About 8 years ago I abandoned the Minolta XK SLR system that I'd been
amassing since 1975 and bought my first AF/AE camera, a used Nikon N90.
It's given me good service since then and I've finally added an N90s and a
D70 along with 7 lenses to the system. But on a recent trip to Italy the
N90 failed -- the mirror's not returning to the down position and the camera
indicates "ERR".

SO ... I have to decide whether to repair, replace, or upgrade. I
definitely want (and many times "need') to have two film bodies in addition
to the digital and I need to be able to use older/non-automatic lenses (like
a 500 mm mirror or a 55 mm AIS macro or the PB-4 bellows) with the film
bodies in Aperture Priority mode. The N90/N90s does this flawlessly as does
IIRC the F100 and the F5/F6, but the N75 that I had for about 6 months did
not and I got rid of it, partially for that reason.

A new F6 body is close to $2K. While I could probably come up with that
much money, I'm not a professional and probably couldn't effectively use the
additional features it possesses beyond the F100 & F5. (For reference, I do
shoot a lot -- on a recent two-week trip to Italy, I shot over 2000 digital
images and 14 rolls of 36-exposure 35mm film, along with a few rolls of
120).

A new F100 is $750 (marginally within my self-imposed budget) and a
reconditioned (by Nikon) N90s is $375. I haven't gotten a quote yet for the
repair but based on recent experiences with other equipment I'd expect it to
be in the $100-200 range. (Note: because of the Nikon $200 rebate, the new
F100 body and the current used F5 offerings are running about $750 so
there's no price advantage of a used F5 over a new F100.)

What to do? Yes, I'd love a new F6 -- I'd certainly be happy with an F5 too
and even the F100 has features beyond what I have with the N90's as well as
faster focusing, ... But as an amateur, there's always the money issue.
I'm quite pleased with the N90s and I certainly wouldn't cry too much if I
simply got a second one but the F100 is very appealing. Is it really worth
twice the price?

Your comments, opinions, and constructive flames will be graciously
accepted.

Norm