Nikon FM3A shutter speeds

[ruicardoso]

Hi all,

 

I just bougth a brand new FM3A Black. It's an amaizing piece of

equipment, but i just have one doubt about it: The spec sheet says

that the shutter speed range for this camera is 8" to 1/4000", but

in the shutter speed ring I only find speeds from 1" to 1/4000".

 

This may seam ok because speeds of 1" to 8" should only be available

in auto-exposure mode, but I can't find them either the shutter

speed scale inside the view finder.

 

I checked the manual and can not find reference to this issue.

 

Does anyone have an ideia on how does this work?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

-Rui

[richard_oleson]

i wouldn't worry: my OM2 viewfinder scale only reads to 1 second, but automatic speeds go well beyond a minute.

 

if you want to check, set it to a low ISO number, put the lens cap on, stop the lens to f/16 and fire the shutter to see what its slowest auto speed is.

 

:)=

[geris_k]

In manual mode, you can only set it as low as 1 second. Anything longer and you need to use Bulb (and a tripod and shutter release cable!).

 

The 8 second figure refers to when the camera is in Aperture priority mode. Although you won't see this number through the viewfinder, it's there and when the camera needs to go that long, it will.

[colin carron]

Thats interesting - I have a FM2n and an FE2 and had understood that if I could squeeze the two of them together hard enough I would get an FM3A.(Chrome only though). But my FE2 has manual speeds to 8 seconds so there are some differences to be aware of. I find the 1 second to 8 second manual shutter speeds quite useful.

[ruicardoso]

Thanks all!

 

I did some tests in auto-exposure and the shutter speed realy goes to 8"!... We just have to be carefull in order not to underexpose photos when going down to 8".

 

-Rui

[ruicardoso]

Hello All,

 

I've been testing more about this issue and it seams that the camera goes longer than 8 seconds on auto-exposure mode, I tested it up to one minute!...

 

When I tried to set the camera to ISO 50, F22 and put the lens cap on, the camera jams and does not close the shutter curtain (after five minutes I found out that moving the shutter speed dial from Auto-Exposure to Manual-Exposure unjams the camera)...

 

Any ideias about this?

 

Thanks in Advance,

 

-Rui