Nikon FM3A - the Good SLR

kshapero said:
The Nikon FM3A has Aperture priority exposure and a manual exposure (so what no big deal) but if the battery becomes drained in the field ALL SHUTTER SPEEDS are available for use. Who else has that?
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Leica may make the best rangefinders in the world, but in my book Nikon is the SLR company to beat. Their cameras are incredibly tough and just feel right. The original F still is a stroke of genius on par with the M-series.
 
Rob, just get a diopter correction lens for the Nikons. I use a +0 (effectively a +.5) on my Nikons (and OM's for that matter) with my regular glasses. Snaps the image right up.
 
The price of F100 is so attractive these days that I've been thinking of selling my nice black FM2n and get a F100 instead.
 
I once have 2 FM3a black and chrome and a silver 45 2.8. I have been shooting Nikon manual cameras for some time before I jump to RF, I really missed them but RF isw much much easier to focus for me. The most missed however is the black F2AS.
 
kshapero said:
The Nikon FM3A has Aperture priority exposure and a manual exposure (so what no big deal) but if the battery becomes drained in the field ALL SHUTTER SPEEDS are available for use. Who else has that?

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Let's see now......... Oh! I have.
I get a full range of shutter speeds all the time in my F, F2, two FMs (both recently given to me by ex-film shooters who simply didn't know what else to do with them), my SP and my two S3's. And if the meters die in the FMs or the F2, I'll set exposure from experience or use my handheld meter.
 
rbsinto said:
Let's see now......... Oh! I have.
I get a full range of shutter speeds all the time in my F, F2, two FMs (both recently given to me by ex-film shooters who simply didn't know what else to do with them), my SP and my two S3's.
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No automatic exposure though. :)
 
newspaperguy said:
As Keith was too polite to mention
(But obviously, I'm not)
Olympus was there first...
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Sorry to have to disagree sir.

The OM-1 may have come out before the Fujica ST 901, but I don't think so. They weren't too far apart either way. The OM-1, as good as it was, did not have auto exposure of any kind. It had a built in meter, but not auto exposure.

The OM-2 did not come out until way after I had bought and used my Fujica ST 901. And evidently it didn't have manual shutter speeds if the battery went dead. According to the OP, his Nikon does, and I can assure you my ST 901 does. Even the Fujica AZ-1 (successor to the 901) had mechanical shutter speeds if the battery died. However, with the Fujica AZ-1, I think there were only 3 speeds. I think it was 1/60, 1/250 and 1/1000, but I am not positive on that. Oh, and B.

I am not aware of any camera that had AP auto exposure built in and had mechanical shutter speeds at the time the Fujica came out. That and its use of M42 mount lenses were selling points for me when I got it.
 
Ok... let's listen FM3a with Ektar and Voigtlander 40 (exactly the above combo), August 2009... Some of you might have already seen them..

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FM3a, Nikkor 200 F/4 AIS and BW400CN up to 1600

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Ditto as above

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So the FM3A and Pentax LX pass the test, eh? Aperture priority auto exposure and use of ALL shutter speeds if the battery dies.
 
The Ricoh Auto TLS EE from 1973 had shutter priority autoexposure and will work manually without batteries. I have one and it's a pretty decent camera for use with M42 lenses.
 
The OM-2 does have one clever feature that I'm not sure has been duplicated in other SLR's?

If you forget to turn the camera on before shooting it goes to a default AE setting as soon as you press the shutter button and will meter your scene and adjust shutter speed for you despite the fact that you managed to forget. I quite often overlook changing the switch from off to on before I shoot but could never work out why I was still getting decent exposures on those frames.

Does any other camera do this?
 
Ciao John
I appreciate the little wider framing than a 50 mm but it's not what you need for a close portrait. Still, it's very compact (camera and lens always stay in my pouch) and nice to operate. I have to thank Chris who gave me time ago a hint on how to load a roll 10x faster than I did.
I agree with those who would like a spot meter now and then, but overall I feel it nice to work with.
 
kshapero said:
So the FM3A and Pentax LX pass the test, eh? Aperture priority auto exposure and use of ALL shutter speeds if the battery dies.
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The Pentax doesn't. 1/60 and slower are electronically controlled and don't work without a battery. 1/75 and faster are mechanical and do work.

Same with the Canon "New" F-1. With the AE prism you get shutter priority auto exposure; with an additional motor drive you also get aperture priority auto exposure. (It's something of a weird system. I also never understood why in manual mode they don't show you the currently selected aperture in the viewfinder on any of the FD bodies.) The body itself offers the fast speeds mechanically, the slow speeds only electronically.
 
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Keith said:
The OM-2 does have one clever feature that I'm not sure has been duplicated in other SLR's?

If you forget to turn the camera on before shooting it goes to a default AE setting as soon as you press the shutter button and will meter your scene and adjust shutter speed for you despite the fact that you managed to forget. I quite often overlook changing the switch from off to on before I shoot but could never work out why I was still getting decent exposures on those frames.

Does any other camera do this?
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Now Keith, you must have known you would hear from me that the ST 901 beat Olympus on that too, right? But you have me on that one.

Actually, it is always interesting to me some of the differenct design philosophies of the camera manufacturers. The ST 901 only came on when you depressed the shutter, so it only came "on" when needed. That presented a possible problem that it could be depressed in a camera bag or anywhere that something pressed on the shutter, running down the battery. So they put a collar around the shutter button that could be rotated and the shutter button locked. In case you forgot to do that, but had the camera in the case, there was a hardened, built up portion, in the upper part ot the case to pretect the shutter from being depressed.

Others simple put an on/off switch somewhere on the camera. Olympus cleverly allowed the meter to come on when needed. Is it protected in any way?
 
oftheherd said:
Now Keith, you must have known you would hear from me that the ST 901 beat Olympus on that too, right? But you have me on that one.

Actually, it is always interesting to me some of the differenct design philosophies of the camera manufacturers. The ST 901 only came on when you depressed the shutter, so it only came "on" when needed. That presented a possible problem that it could be depressed in a camera bag or anywhere that something pressed on the shutter, running down the battery. So they put a collar around the shutter button that could be rotated and the shutter button locked. In case you forgot to do that, but had the camera in the case, there was a hardened, built up portion, in the upper part ot the case to pretect the shutter from being depressed.

Others simple put an on/off switch somewhere on the camera. Olympus cleverly allowed the meter to come on when needed. Is it protected in any way?
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No ... there isn't any shutter protection. I'm undecided about shutter lockouts with rotating colllars!

I didn't know my OM-2 had this feature until 'fdigital' pointed it out in one of the many OM threads.

You gotta laugh ... someone starts a thread about a Nikon and we all wind up talking about our Olys and Fujicas etc! :p
 
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