Bought mine in 1979 and it has been with me from Arctic to desert and everything between being carried in far from perfect ways and still working like when it was new. You want to learn photography, by manual camera (FM10 is widely available and reasonably prices). FM its successor FM2 are both amazing pieces of kit (I believe FM10 is on par with them). Simply put: buy it, in my opinion you won't regret it! Original 2L76 battery only lasted about 25 years! Forget auto this and auto that, you want camera to do the work for you, stick with one in your mobile. You want to learn to take photos, buy FM. Once you learn to take photographs, you may start thinking of model with auto options but before you go and waste your money on one, you've most probably already realised that you'd be just wasting your money.

In my point of view Nikon FM is the best mechanical SLR ever made.
It's a lifetime camera.
i ve been using mine since1990 and it s like a Swiss watch. It's. strong, reliable and very well built.
There are a lot of quality Nikon lenses avaiable.
Mechanical.
It s heavy with the MD drive.

well, I haven't been using the Nikon FM camera for four months yet, but I'm more than happy with it. I found it extremely easy to use and become accustomed to and is now like second nature to me. with a copper silumin body, it's quite a heavy camera and built to last and it doesn't feel cheap like some plastic bodied cameras do. Because it uses the Ai system lenses, they're pretty much readily available and the depth of field preview button can be very handy.
my FM is a little beaten up with loads of brassing around the edges and the viewfinder a little dirty, but in perfect working order. I've had and used a few cameras in the past and I know for a fact that I won't want to part with this one.

The Nikon FM and its auto-exposure twin, the FE, replaced the Nikkormat series just as Nikon came out with its auto-indexing (AI) lenses. The importance of this is that the camera is one of the few in the Nikon system that was designed to accept EITHER NAI or AI lenses.
If you refer to the Nikon Compendium (book) for data, be aware that there is a glaring error on viewfinder coverage for this camera and the FM-2. The real coverage is 93% (not the 43% listed in the book...that isn't even useable!!!).
Like all Nikon bodies I own (5), I purchased my FM new when it first came out and it has never malfunctioned or required repair in the 25+ years I've owned it...neither has any other Nikon body I've ever owned. Nikon may advertise that they "Take the world's greatest pictures" (about 60% of the pros use Nikon), but they also make the most reliable products I have ever purchased. If they didn't, no one would be worried about whether or not they could use their AF and AF-D lenses with their FM from 1978 (you can) or if you can use a 105mm f/4 preset Nikkor from 1969 with an F5 (you can).