The F36 motor drive is remarkably light and compact and handles standard 35mm cartridges or bulk loaded Nikon cassettes from 36 up to 250 exposures (using the F250 motor drive version). It can be operated by hand or remotely, wired or by radio control.

Nikon initially only offered a seperate battery pack as the power source for its S36 and F36, but they eventually came out with a cordless design with integrated hand grip extra shutter release button.