nikon fm3a review

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Average Ratings

Photograph Quality	10/10
Features	9.1/10
Ease of Use	9.2/10
Value for Money	8.4/10
Reviewer Rating	9.2/10
Overall Rating	9.3/10

93% Recommended13 out of 14 Reviews

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By deerekit on 5th Mar 2008

deerekit's Ratings

Time Camera Owned	Over 1 Year
Photograph Quality	10/10
Features	8/10
Ease of Use	9/10
Value for money	8/10
Overall value	9/10
deerekit's recommendation

Good Points

The overwhelming brilliant feature of this camera is its encouragement towards the complete consideration and control in the making of a photograph, as with its older cousin the Nikon FM2. In purely operational terms, the FM3a provides capability and reliability in flash photography, especially by way of the flash suppression button. The build and strength and durability of the body makes this camera a work horse, not a show pony. For someone who wants to take time and care and responsibility in the making of a photograph, this manually-operated camera (especially when used mechanically) will continue to teach and perform and deliver, which is what any serious photographer should wish for in the pursuit of the craft.

Bad Points

The absence of a of a spot-metering setting and the absence of a lock on the film-rewind lever are the only two serious operational failings of this otherwise excellent camera, which in longevity and professional photographic regard will surely outlast many other film and digital cameras, no matter their seeming superiority in other aspects of picture-making capability.

General Comments

The Nikon FM3a is my second Nikon camera; my first was a (Millennium Edition) FM2 which I bought as soon as I realised that the model had been discontinued - so, I bought the added advantage of a collector's-item camera and 50 mm lens with matching serial numbers. I eventually bought the FM3a in preference to an F5 because I wanted to be sure of the camera's ability to operate in all conditions and without power, and because I wanted to use manual rather than auto-focus lenses to make my photographs. I now regard the FM3a as my main body and the FM2 as my second body, although I often use them together to split and share my four fixed focal-length manual lenses (28, 50, 135 and 200 mm). As a journalist who shoots all of his own pictures, as a photo-journalist who sometimes finds himself in rough situations, and as a documentary photographer who values the depth and density and sheer quality of film, I can only say that these two Nikon bodies and their brilliant lenses are probably all that I will ever need (or wish for) in the making of photographs that matter to me, and that I try to make matter to others. I know that the F6 is the last film camera that Nikon will manufacture, but for me the two best mechanical cameras are a better choice: they speak of the purity and seriousness of the craft and vocation of photography, and remind me of its long history. I first picked up a camera more than twenty years ago - it was a Minolta X-700, an ideal camera for learning the basics - and my wish to always be entirely responsible for composition and exposure in the making of a photograph eventually led me towards the Nikon mechanical models with the sharpest and clearest lenses. Unless I one day decide to convert to a Leica MP rangefinder outfit, I will stay with Nikon and its mechanical sense and dependability.

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