But it wasn't always this way. Nikon's very first successful autofocus SLR actually looked much more like its manual focus predecessors than the bulky AF cameras that would follow it. In fact, the camera actually had a sister model (the N2000) that looked more or less identical to it, but lacking the autofocus feature. The 1986 AF model, known as the F-501 in other markets, was known as the N-2020 in North America, which leads to me jest that this camera was Nikon's perfect vision of its future.
I'd rarely use the term "elegant" to describe most Nikon Autofocus SLR cameras, but I certainly can appreciate such a trait in the N2020.
My interest in the N2020 came after reading Mike Eckman's well-penned Nikon trifecta article. I was particularly pleased to discover that he had a spare "beater" body that he'd shell out for some surplus trade bait of my own. I'd already had some experience with the N5005 and N60 that I'd genuinely liked, but the N2020 seemed very much like my kind of Nikon, being an autofocus camera that remained remarkably true to its manual focus roots.
