return to manual cameras

I suspect you are just the first of many.

I think in say ten years time, most people will use a small digital camera for convenience etc, but will also use a manual camera as a hobby.

There is more pleasure and control using a maual camera and it is great for those special pictures.

Congratulations on the choice of the FM3A, that is the camera I would have bought had the Leica not been around. That camera will outlast you.

Regards

Mick

Mick I had a Leica M6 ttl for a couple of years with 35,50 and 90 lenses but found that I was reluctant to use it in situations where it might get a bit dirty/bashed-such stupidity cost me plenty of opportunities but the camera was mint when I came to my senses and sold it.I bought a Ricoh GR1 with the superb 28mm lens and carry it most of the time (Is that a Ricoh in your pocket or are you just.....).I went for a new Nikon body for reliability but chose to go used on the lenses so that the odd scratch matters not.Cheers Tony

Six years ago I bought a FM2 body and F5 body. The FM2 has never had a roll of film through it, the F5 has had over a thousand. The F5 can be totally manual.

The F5 body is alloy with Titanium top. The shutter is carbon fibre. The body is hermetically sealed against dust and moisture. The camera lets you know if there was a shutter failure.

Out of all my photographic equipment the only pieces to fail have been a mechanical Hasselblad and mechanical Sinar rollfilm back. No electrical product has ever gone wrong.

Something to bear in mind when comparing mechanical cameras to electrical ones.

Nikon like most things are not infallible it's just their hype that is better.Over the last 16 odd years whilst I was running the Photographic Dept at the School of Archtecture at the uni.of Brighton I don't think that there was a single week that went by without me having to send FM2's back for repair I even seem to remember that at one time that some of their lenses had been sub,ed
out quietly to,for manufacture, to I think Vivitar [back to back
comparison by one of the photo mag's showed both to be the same spec.,build quality, resolution and appearance the only differance between them was the price.