Wow, it’s been a minute since I penned anything in here. That first post back after a long break can always be a bit challenging. Long held writing advice has always suggested to “write what you know.” I’ll avail myself of that bit of wisdom and pen an article on the camera I’ve come to use more than any other: the Nikon FM3a.
Most of my film camera purchases have usually been on the more affordable end of the price spectrum. I’m always up for a bargain or a hidden gem. I’ve played some “Russian Roulette” with old Soviet cameras because, while there are plenty of clunkers to be had, there are a few winners at bargain prices. I detest that influencers have driven up the price of AE1’s to silly levels and will grab an FTb – a far superior camera in my eye – for a lot less money every day of the week. Give me something like a Pentax P3N over a K1000. The former has all of the functionality of the latter with a few extra perks for a quarter of the price. There have only been a few instances over the years where I’ve sunk more than $150 into a film camera. The FM3a was the latest such investment back in 2023.
Purchased to celebrate a major life event, it has become so much more. It’s the camera I always reach for if I can’t decide what to take. Since its purchase, I’ve used it to capture more significant life moments than anything else in my collection. Only my Rolleiflex and my Z7 come anywhere close to generating the kind of meaningful photos that the FM3a does. It’s become the proverbial “extension of my hand.”
There’s just so much that the camera gets right. The ergonomics are perfect for me. The unique shutter offers the best of both worlds from Nikon’s FM and FE family of cameras. The feature set is simple but provides almost everything I could ever need (I’ll address my one sole criticism a bit later). It just makes me want to sling it over my shoulder any time I go out.
Part of its appeal is that it is the centerpiece of a pretty portable kit. While not quite as svelte as something like an Olympus OM-1 or Pentax ME, it’s still on the small end of the 35mm SLR size spectrum. While there are roughly a Graham’s Number of lenses that I could mount on the camera, I tend to keep things pretty simple with this one. My usual kit is an AI converted Nikkor-O C 35mm f2 and AI 105mm f2.5 pair. If I’m trying to go even smaller/lighter/simpler, I’ll mount a single 50mm, either the AI f1.2 or AI f2 version, depending on how light I’m trying to go. I have a lot of other Nikkors but with this camera, it’s almost always that 35/105 combo or a single 50 lens mounted to the camera. Simple but effective.
Beyond that, I don’t carry too much. A couple filters. A few rolls of TriX (almost the only film I use in this camera). A microfiber cloth. That’s about it for 99% of my outings.
I will say that I’ve given my camera a few upgrades since I bought it, though. I’ve added a wood/aluminum grip with an integrated Arca mount. I have a soft release button and hot shoe cover from Artisan Obscura. I picked up a nice but simple leather neck strap. Since it’s the camera that sees the most use, the extras seem worth it.
Another part of the FM3a experience that has me always reaching for the camera is that it pairs so well with the lenses and TriX listed above to deliver a look that I really, really like for the photography I tend to do when documenting my life. While it delivers nowhere near the technical image quality of my digital kit or my medium and large format cameras, there’s something about the look of 35mm TriX with vintage glass that seems perfect to me. To be honest, I’m not even sure why that is. My late father always took the same kind of photos on Kodachrome 64 and my mom tended to use color print film of the era. So black and white wasn’t a thing from my youth. There’s something to the look that has captivated me, though and made me want to use it now that I’m the one doing the family documentation. I have dozens of 35mm cameras but the FM3a/Nikkors/TriX give me the specific aesthetic that I’m trying to match for this work.
If I have one fault that I’d call out on the camera, it’s the lack of illumination for the light meter in dark settings. It would be nice if some kind of illumination of the match needle meter had been included, even at the cost of some battery life, as it’s difficult to impossible to see depending on just how dark it is. I can overlook this as I tend to reach for digital options when light levels get that low. Additionally, I have enough faith in the meter and aperture priority exposure mode that I’ll put the camera in auto and just listen to see if the shutter speeds are getting too slow. Still, I think it’s the one miss for the camera. Everything else is just right.
Of course, there’s the elephant in the room. One could make the argument that it’s too expensive of a camera and isn’t worth the hefty premium over an FM2 or an FE2. In fact, that argument has been made by others whom I value thoughts and judgements from quite a bit. I’ll proffer a few points on why I think it’s worth spending the extra dollars over something like an FM2:
- The first and foremost is that it features the unique and marvelous dual mode shutter. With an FM3a, photographers don’t have to choose between the precision of an electronically controlled shutter like the FE2 or the no-batteries-necessary mechanical reliability of the FM2. The FM3a does both!
- It’s a small thing but the auto-exposure lock button is in a more convenient position on the back of the camera, similar to later autofocus film and digital cameras. Located near where the right thumb lands when holding the camera, it’s quick and natural to lock exposure for lighting and then recompose to take the picture. It’s more convenient than on the side of the lens mount like the FE series. Small details like that are the result of years of careful iteration and innovation. They separate the excellent from the merely good.
- The match needle meter is quicker and more intuitive to me than the lighted display of the FM2. Match needle meters offer a simple way to dial in exposure corrections over the meter reading in tricky lighting conditions. As mentioned above, though, the meter isn’t backlit, so it can be hard to see. For those shooting in “available darkness” often, the FM2’s lit meter might be a better fit. Since I tend to use my digitals when it gets dark, this is mostly a non-issue for me.
- The FM3a comes with the K3 focusing screen which is modestly brighter than the K2 screen that came on the FM2/FE2. It’s not a huge difference but it’s there. The FM2 can of course be upgraded to the brighter screen but these screens are somewhat pricey (completed auctions running $150+ at the time of writing). Adding a K3 screen erases some of the price differential between the FM2 and the FM3a.
- Not that I’m into what the influencer crowd thinks but they all seem to flock to the Leica M6 and lenses like the “King of Bokeh1” v4 of the Summicron as carry everywhere kits. The FM3a fills the same niche for me at a much more palatable price (and with much closer focusing abilities).
- There’s a bit of historical significance to the FM3a. This was the last of an era. Manual focus Nikon SLRs had been around since the release of the F in 1959. I suspect that many people expected that the FM2n, an already excellent camera, would be the last manual focus Nikon after the onslaught of autofocus cameras and then digital bodies following soon after. I remember all of the buzz around the FM3a when it was released in 2001. It was already apparent that the digital onslaught was real and there were already voices questioning what the future looked like for film gear. So when the FM3a showed up, there was a bit of a feeling of nostalgic surprise. And the camera follows a trend for Nikon. I feel like they have really been hitting it out the park with their final iterations of given camera designs. One could argue that the F6 (last film body), D500 (last advanced APS-C DSLR), D6 (last pro DSLR) and D850 (last advanced DSLR) were all the top cameras of their class without rival from Canon or anyone else. The FM3a certainly fills that role for manual focus film bodies (and yes, I know that there were a couple of Cosina made cameras that followed; those don’t count in my world). Owning the FM3a feels like owning the apotheosis of a legendary line of cameras. Everything that Nikon learned previously about manual focus SLRs made it into the camera and the result is practical perfection.
At the end of the day, what matters most is results, though. As my friend Hong (whom I can easily point to as the source of my initial interest in the camera) has noted, I think my hit rate with this camera is higher than with anything else in my collection. I’ll share a gallery of images here but they really don’t do the camera justice. Most of the photography I do with this camera is of family members and I don’t share those publicly. Suffice it to say that I have some really memorable images of the people I love the most and much of that success relates to the fact that I have connected so well with this camera. It makes me want to photograph more and it makes me think more about how I want to capture the moments that I have it with me. Can one ask for more than that in a camera? Memories of the slight premium I paid over something like an FM2 have long since faded and all that is left is a camera I want to use to again and again and again to capture life’s fleeting moments. That’s priceless, no matter what the cost is.
- As an interesting aside, the “King of Bokeh” owes its street name to Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer. Interestingly, the appellation only fits within a pretty narrow set of parameters: “That lens has very coherent, very pleasing near-o-o-f blur at smaller apertures and middle distances, but at large apertures close-in it sucks.” That’s from Mike himself. You can read up more in this article and this one. ↩︎