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Yes, I have a late FM2n, but not the FE or FE2. I can vouch for the excellence of the FM2. Mine was made in 1994. I had a Nikon 35mm specialist technician look at it recently and he said it had never been serviced as far as he could tell and said it didn't need one following a light dismantle - all speeds and functions were still perfect. Many pros had FMs and FM2s as back ups as they still didn't trust fully electronic cameras at the time, especially in wet and cold weather. Mine is a bit scraped and well used but still excellent.

Hi Niels, the answer to your second point... price of Canon lenses - the superb prime lenses, like the chrome nosed, older SSC early Canon FD (breechlock) lenses like the 35mm f2.0 and the 24mm f2.0 have been snapped up by cinematographers and movie makers as there seems to be a retro movement in using these lenses in digital movies, by attaching them to modern cameras. I think also fewer were made than the Nikon equivalents, hence supply and demand. For example, a FD 35mm F2 from the mid 1970s - a superb lens - was about £200 not so long ago and is now £400.

As an educator and someone who taught in the past on Masters photography courses, I could write a book on this and I am sure books have been written.... My view is this: film slows you down but that's probably a good thing technically and creatively. We should not forget that most film cameras are older, often manual focus, with metered manual or aperture priority, etc, manual wind and so on. So, there are a whole bunch of 'barriers' that slow you down anyway, compared to 'spray and pray' digital. Teaching photography is possibly easier with manual and film cameras but then there is the delay of the darkroom process before you can see the results. I have seen incredible, cutting edge digital photography that is both technically and creatively admirable. For me, living in rural Europe, I indulge myself with my collection of Nikon and Canon 35mm cameras (and medium format too) and a fridge load of film, probably for the fun of using these amazing pieces of engineering (that are now 30,40,50 years old) more than any other reason. I shoot 2-3 rolls of 35mm film per month on average. Nonetheless, I have just bought an iPhone 15 Pro and the quality of the camera system is breathtaking.

Robert, yes. Agree. My other thought was this - what about the Nikon FA? It doesn't have the manual shutter option of the FM3a but is very similar and has matrix metering option which if I recall, the FM3a does not. The FA is one of my favourite Nikons in my collection and is incredibly light and compact. And it is heck of lot lighter than the Canon F1N. Gary

The FM3a is a superb camera but quite rare and at least twice the price of a good F1-N, which is why I never got round to adding one to my Nikon collection. Aside from that, lenses for both are about the same price (e.g. 50mm, 28mm, 135mm, 28-70 zooms, etc). If you are completely starting from scratch, you might want to go for the Nikon as the lenses can be used on all the later AF and digital bodies. But the last time I looked, good FM3a bodies were about €700. It suffered from being a collectors, run-out, boutique camera. F1-N construction and mechanism is simpler, actually. In fact, it does not have a hybrid shutter. It is electronic with just one manual speed if the battery fails. Just had a quick look on eBay: reasonable F1N bodies seem to be about £200 - £250 (more for mint, boxed, etc) with some sound ones around £150. Nikon FM3a - sound working models £300, but decent ones more like £400-£500. Some good ones from Japan were £500-£600 but then you'd need to factor in import costs on top of that. Mint, boxed were at least £800 and the quality of the ones I would like to buy were about £600-700.

Here is the male connector on my CP-E3 pack. Not sure how this will fit the female port on my 577G?

I have the 577G and the CP-E3 - I'll try. Are the connections physically compatible? I don't have the items in front of me at the moment...

Thanks, but it seems like a modern CP-E2 pack might not sensible?

I agree. The transistor pack (basically a rechargeable battery pack) is not available and any that you could buy used I am sure would not be functioning. I have a full working 577G kit but not with the battery pack - I use the internal 6 x AA battery cartridge. I agree that the CP-E2 (etc) would deliver too high a current, even if you could adapt it to fit. Remember, the A-series flash era flashguns are at least two generations removed from the EX era. I think it would probably blow up the 577G circuits. Remember, the internal electrics are 40 years' old as well!

I am British but now a Portuguese citizen. If any one is interested, I know good repairers in London and Lisbon that I can recommend.

Agree, a working one can be picked up at a fair priced and then you can far less for a technician to just to a CLA on it. G

HI Mike, I have not encountered this particular problem before but given the age of the electronics now (at least 45 years, or so), I am not surprised. I am sure a good Canon A-series technician could deal with it - but it would require cannibalizing parts from another camera and it would be a complex and expensive repair, I am sure. Is it worth it? Gary

Good point, I do recall now hearing that before

Yes, this area is a minefield. The issue was that the date code was stamped when the camera was packaged to leave the factory. Thus, a camera could be made one year or more before the camera was released. This was certainly the case with the T-90 and the A-series, where towards the end, large batches were made and stockpiled before they ended production. The stamping was sometimes a bit ad hoc and amateurish, if I can use that word. And at the time that it happened, was anyone checking and quality assuring what the worker was doing? I doubt it.

I have used Metz a lot and still have three units, including a modern one for digital cameras such as my EOS 6D etc. Essentially, the SCA311 adapter will default to 'A/F series flash mode' on non-TTL cameras (using the two contact pins) or TTL on the T-90 using the 4 pins. EOS and later EOS using a different TTL system (such as evaluative balanced) and hence the SCA311 will give basic functionality only on EOS. The T-90 was backwards compatible with the older non-TTL flashes such as the 199A, 299T etc

Yes, as I said in an earlier post, I always thought that the Canon FD lenses were better designed than their Nikon equivalents though the latter were (arguably) marginally better optically but without doubt better made - they are far less likely at (now) 40 or 50 years of age to fall apart or have mechanical problems. My oldest 'modern' lens is a 1971 Canon FD BL zoom (a 100-200mm zoom!) and a pre-AI Nikkor 135 f2.8 from 1970 (or '69). The former is still going strong with no yellowing in the glass or fungus etc and I don't believe has ever been serviced. The latter had become almost impossibly stiff to focus (but was otherwise perfect) and has just gone for a CLA with my technician in Lisbon. As an aside, the Nikon F3 was always praised to the rafters (yes it did have TTL flash) but I always thought the Canon F1n (launched in 1980 too) was a far better camera, aside from the perennial late 70s problem of very slow flash sync. My F1n I have owned since new (1983) and is still going strong. I have had the speeds, etc checked but it has never needed a service.

yes, I was a bit confused too?

My opinion is this: most companies (and their accountants with the green pens) are only interested in what they will report to shareholders in the next financial statement. It’s all about growth and sales. They don’t want to make available 30 year old software because they are then worried that they will get requests for technical support, drivers, etc. What they should do is archive it and let you download it ‘as is’ and with an understanding they don’t support it anymore. There are probably few people at Nikon that can even remember Photo Secretary anyway. Lacie, for example, provide all their old software and will even give limited technical support. I keep all my software, etc from old printers, scanners, cameras, hard drives, etc going back to MS-DOS days. I have a CD-ROM drive and a floppy external reader and most is archived on a big hard drive anyway. I even have some FORTRAN code from the first year of my degree in 1982! And I never use Macs, only PCs which I build myself, so I am fully in control of what is going on…. But I didn’t have Photo Secretary as I didn’t own an F5 until relatively recently, so thanks a lot for your help. G

Thanks, that would be great as I cannot find it anywhere....

Hi - wasn't aware of that - hadn't used it for a while. What a shame. If you come across PC Version 1 that is for the F5, please let me have a copy. Best Gary

Sure. It’s too big to upload here. If you give me your email address I can send it by FTP. g

PS. I had a T-70 for a while before the T-90 came out. I used to do a lot of cycling and hillwalking and it was an ideal camera for slide photography and travelling. Small, compact, powered by 2 x AA batteries and it had partial metering.

On balance, the T-90 was a proving ground for many things that were to come. It was almost a 'run-out special' that you see from car dealers from time to time - just a few made and they won't be round for long (a had a 1982 BMW 323i like that once!). The A-series range was a boon for Canon and boosted their sales and their image. The A-1 was my first 'real' camera that I owned outright. Long term, the A-series was a bit limited for me - slow top shutter speed (just 1/1000), 1/60 flash sync and weak shutters and just CWA metering. When working as a pro in the late 80s (when you could make money from photography), I used medium format and the Canon F1n for weddings, commissions, etc and the T-90 for all my stock photography. The F1n was probably the best camera of the era and actually better than the much vaunted Nikon F3. It's only weakness was its primitive flash system. I have a New F1 body from 1982 that is still going strong and probably still has the best viewfinder display of that era.

Hi Ben, Afraid not - I only have the PC version. Obviously, we are dealing with 25 year old cameras and software, so it's a struggle. I managed to get an Nikon MC-35 lead (sic) which was for early GPS connections with a serial port - 10 pin Nikon lead (male to male) and my PC has a serial PCI card, which I keep for running legacy devices. The correct MC-33 lead? I only ever saw one in eBay in the US with the PhotoSec floppy discs but the seller wanted $140! G

In terms of Photo Secretary v2 which can run with the F5 or the F100 etc, (but is not available anymore), as long as you have a suitable cable: I have all the PC software and manuals, and some extras saved in a .zip file, if anyone would like it. It includes an exe. installer that will run the software on Windows 10 64-bit and Windows 11. It works fine with both my Windows 10 and 11 desktop and laptop and talk to the F5 just fine.. Gary