Fully Manual Nikon SLRs

Hi! I am thinking of getting a Nikon SLR fully manual camera. I was

thinking either the Nikon FA or Nikon FM3A.

 

Which of the two would you guys recommend? Thanks! :)

Absolutely, FM3a. It's the sweetest manual, non-electronified SLR on the market today. It works great in aperture priority too, and it has a modern TTL flash system.

Ditto.

FM3A if it's ok for your budget. Maybe you need lenses too?

Since you asked about the FA, it shows that you might not mind a used body. Like the others before me, I would choose the FM3a over the FA. If the price of a new FM3a is a problem, you can get about 95% of the features of the FM3a in a used FE2 for a lot lower of a price. The 5% that you don't get would basically be the mechanical shutter, but with good batteries, you would never notice the difference in practice.

 

For what it is worth, I have been using a pair of FE2s since the mid-1980s, and they perform perfectly today after about two decades of hard use. I was happy when Nikon released the FM3a (an unexpected move in the AF / digital era), but when I contemplated buying one, it dawned on my that with two perfectly operating FE2s, there was no reason.

Get a new FM3A. If you do not have enough, now, save up and buy it.

 

Do not waste your money on FA. If it has problems, you will need to spend a lot of money to get it fixed.

Thanks guys! Yep. I had second thoughts about the FA because the body would be used and aged already, while the FM3A would be squeaky new.

 

Haha, yes, I've been saving up for it. Thanks again!

Buy a good FM3A from KEH. You can't go wrong with these cameras.

Just one thing- although I like the FM3A, its METER DISPLAY is hard to operate in LOW LIGHT conditions. And Auto mode doesn't solve the problem completely.

 

If that bothers you, consider also the FM2n, which is a very Fully Manual Nikon SLR.

I just got one too recently and am delighted with it.<br>

Be prepared to shoot a lot more as it's so convenient to bring it everywhere (I mean compared to bigger AF bodies)...<br>

At first I missed the spotmetering mode, but I'm now quickly getting used to CW.<br>Fred.

The FM2n is also a good choice but check the viewfinder some people like the red diodes of the FM2 some like the needle/pointer of the Fe and Fm3a series. The FA has leds like the F3. Its some thing to think about before you make a decision

Ditto everything Ricardo said. I prefer my FM2N because I do a lot of low light shooting and very little flash photography. The red plus-even-minus LEDs are very easy to see and quick to adjust, even for someone like me who was raised on match needle meter readouts.

 

OTOH, I'm comfortable with quickly calculating flash.

 

And on the third hand, if I did need to do a lot of flash photography I wouldn't sneeze at a camera with TTL flash capability.

Not trying to discuss experimented users experiences, but dim light is not where I would want to rely solely on the FM3 metering.<br>

I haven't yet had the opportunity to shoot in such low light situations with it though...

I must be getting very old...I've always thought of both those cameras as electronic and not fully manual :-)

 

FM3a, of course.

You have been given some good advice about the body so I will try to offer some advice about the lenses. One nice thing about the manual Nikons is their small size and light weight. They are really at their best with prime lenses and balance very well, a small selection of prime lenses is much better with these bodies in my opinion. I owned an FA after my EOS600 was stolen but kept for only 2 weeks before selling it to buy an EOS100. I tried to use the FA with a slow zoom and metz CT45 flash and it was a nightmare. The view finder was to dark to focus well and it did not balance well with the flash attached. The larger AF bodies balance much better with zooms and flashes. During the time I spent working as a cruiseship photographer there were FM and FM2 bodies supplied but there was the same problem while prime 50mm and 85mm lenses were also on board it was not possible to use these always because of space and requests for group shots. The use of large flashes and zooms meant that many of use would choose to use larger AF camera for reasons of better handling. So if you are thinking zoom lenses and large flashes you may be better off with a larger AF bodies as they will balance much better.

 

The small manual bodies are a pleasure to use with small prime lenses and much easier and lighter to carry around than a large AF slr with a zoom but think carefully about what you want from a camera and what kind of lenses you will use and what kind of photography you will do.