Thank you everyone for your suggestions. It looks like fm3a and OM4 are indeed pretty safe bets in my case, but I like the idea of LX as well.
Nikon F6 is not my cup of tea aesthetically. I really like the look of classic cameras, it's a part of the experience of shooting film for me, and takes me back to Zenith days as well.
I've decided to throw together a price comparison, looking at ebay mostly. I was not choosing cheapest cameras but was looking for clean ones in 'near mint' condition, even tho some sellers really like to stretch the definition of 'mint'.
Here's the list with some prices:
$1,000 - fm3a with ultron - 650 body, 350 for sl II N or SL n
$900 - fm3a with nikkor P 45 2.8 - 650 body, 250 lens
$800 – fm3a with nikkor GN 45 2.8 - 650 body, 150 lens
$750 – s2b with 45 tessar - 600 body, 150 lens
$650 – pentax lx with 43 1.9 - 300 body, 350 lens
$600 – om4 with zuiko 40 2 – 200 for a clean body, 400 for a lens
$550 – s2 with 45 2.8 tessar - 400 body, 150 lens
$500 – pental lx with rikenon 45 2.8 – 300 body, 200 lens
$400 – pentax lx with 40 2.8 - 300 body, 100 lens
$180 – Minolta XD-7 + 45/2 Rokkor X, Body 150, lens 30
I think at the moment I gravitate more towards options in the middle of the list –
$650 – pentax lx with 43 1.9
$600 – om4 with zuiko 40 2
But fm3a with the ultron seems to be a great option as well, even tho is almost twice as pricey as the other two. I'm currently browsing some manuals to look up dimensions and weight of these cameras, so I can compare them better. I think I will also take an advice someone gave me a coupel pages back and look at Contax 159 and Aria. Aria is one ugly camera to my taste, but it seems to be extremely tiny and packed with features.
I was also looking at flickr albums from Pentax 43 1.9 and I must say I really like the rendition in most cases (apart from corner bokeh at mid-range focus, it gets really nasty). I was looking at some Pentax auto-focus bodies and thought maybe I can live with something like an MZ-5, it's not a classic looking camera, but not as ugly as later Pentax models.
Meanwhile I've borrowed canon 300x from a friend today. Feels snappy, and it's really small (paired with a summicron 50, he does not have the pancake), but its so plasticky and fiddly, you can hear the plastic squeak under your fingers as you pick it up. I won't be able to live with it as my only film camera for sure.
