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★★★☆☆

“Owned an FM3A for about three weeks before I sold it...”

written by Garland. on 24/11/2002

Good Points
Compact design is durable and ergonomic for small-to-medium-sized hands. Fit and finish are excellent. Film chamber is well protected against dust and moisture intrusion. Admirable feature set. Battery independent shutter.

Bad Points
Center weighted meter not heavily enough center-weighted for critical use. Lack of a spot metering option in a camera of this cost and capability is, to my mind, a serious shortcoming. The viewfinder analog match needle metering display, not being illuminated, is rendered useless when a dark area falls upon the left edge of your composition - great idea to offer the added precision and control of match needle metering, but very poor execution. Dim viewfinder with consumer lenses; just adequate with higher-speed optics. Probably quite a bit overpriced.

General Comments
Owned an FM3A for about three weeks before I sold it and picked up an F100. I loved the camera's size, features, and capability overall, but could not reconcile the lack of a spot meter. I shoot a great deal of transparency film under difficult conditions and was quickly frustrated with not being able to accurately meter specific distant areas, particularly in landscapes. Alas, I then soon sold the F100 for its battery-hungry disposition, poor film chamber isolation, and plethora of unnecessary features (for my style of shooting) sold my Nikkor lenses as well, the AF Nikkor zooms in particular for their relatively low optical performance and too-abrupt manual focusing (due to the short helicoids needed to acheive fast AF speeds), which is how I tend to use them most. Now using Contax equipment with Zeiss T* primes (28 f/2, 50 f/1.4, 135 f/2.8), a Sigma macro (until I can afford the Zeiss), and a Yashica 80-200 f/4 telezoom, any of which put to shame similar Nikon (or Canon or Minolta, for that matter) offerings.
In short, the FM3A is a fine camera for the purist used to working exclusively with 60/40 centerweighted metering. However, overall it's a bit pricey and limited in metering options for the rest of us. Somewhat of a bad miscalculation, I fear, for Nikon. A mint condition FM2(N) would likely prove a far more satisfying and useful purchase for 95% of users, at a substantial savings.

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