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Nikon FM

A completely mechanical 35 mm SLR. This particular model is from 1977 and the construction is sound and reliable, in my opinion a superior camera even today. But sure, when it comes to the light meter there has been great progress the last few decades, the FM's center-weight lightmeter can't quite compete with the modern ones.
But in most situations it works perfectly, you just have to think a bit for yourself in difficult light conditions such as strong light coming towards the camera or subjects with many light or dark areas where the meter is 'tricked' to over/under expose. It also can't quite handle very poor lighting with fast film when the shutter speed goes under 1/30th of a secound, but as with everything else there is most of the time ways to work around it.See full specifications of Nikon FM here.
    Advantages with Nikon FM:
  • Completly manual-complete control.
  • Dept of field preview.
  • Fast flashsynk (1/125).
  • Mechanical self timer.
  • + o - LED (light emitting diode) makes light readings clear and fast even in dim lighting.
  • Film speeds from 12-3200
  • Multiexposure button
  • Plugin for external flash- possibility to work with studio flash.
  • Works with virtually all Nikon lenses!
  • You can attatch Nikon MD 12 Winder(see image), a really fast winder with the lovely "old-time-press-photographer" sound.

That Nikon still believes in this construction ought to be prtoved that alongside with all the digital stuff they recently launched a model called FM3. It is more or less an exact copy of the old FM2 (the pro-version of FM, a bit faster flash synk, available with time aoutomacy) apart from the lightmeter which is improved.
Read more about the Nikon FM-series

Are you interested to know more about Nikon in general? Here is a few suitable links to start with:
www.nikon.se The offical Swedish Nikon site
www.nikon.co.uk The official Brittish site, a bit more flash with a more exiting design
www.nikon.co.jp Also in english if you have a problem understanding japanese
www.nikonownersclub.com Brittish site that is a bit hyped in an American sort of way, calls itself the most prestigious camera club in the world...well well