How did THAT get into my camera bag?
Written: Jun 20 '03 (Updated Apr 11 '04)
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Pros: compact, ttl flash, 1/250 flash synch, matchstick metering
Cons: 1" max shutter speed in manual mode, no viewfinder light, center weighted metering
The Bottom Line: Fun and easy to use, unbreakable, and compatible with all your high tech Nikon gear. It's hard to beat.
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| uniq's Full Review: Nikon FM3A 35mm Film Camera |
If you had asked me 3 or 4 years ago if I would ever consider buying a mechanical camera the answer would have been a resounding no! I have grown so accustomed to having the ability to fully automate practically every aspect of the photographic experience that I would laughed at anyone who even suggested I buy one. That all changed when I had to send my Nikon F4 in for repairs and I was left without a film camera for a few weeks.
Let me give you a little background about myself so you can understand where I am coming from. I am most definitely not the target buyer for the Nikon FM3a. I'm only 33 and my first camera was a 110 Kodak, followed by a couple of point and shoot 35mm cams, followed by a point and shoot digital, followed by my first REAL camera... an Olympus E10 Digital. It was the E10 that spoiled me....auto everything, infinitely adjustable....the thing practically took the picture for you.... then I woke up one day and realized that my photography was not as good I thought it was. Oh I could impress my friends, but anyone who knew anything about photography would look at my shots and point out obvious technical flaws.
After awhile I took these critiques to heart and I started to read books like a madman. I started to put the E10 on MANUAL and I started to take control of my pics. Then I bought a handheld meter and I raised the bar even further.... and then I bought a film camera.. a used F4 that had all the bells and whistles but helped me to explore the finer points of photography....then I took some photography classes and got into LF photography...but that's a WHOLE OTHER story :-)
I found that in order to grow as a photographer I had to take a step back and learn the basic photographic theory that all those "auto everything" cameras claim to be able to deliver..... there is no free lunch..and an auto everything camera cant do much for you if you aren't a good enough photographer to operate it without all the bells and whistles.... and that is a hard learned lesson for me...and my simultanious exploration of fully manual LF photography alongside fully automatic 35mm photography led me to some interesting desires in cameras. I tend to look at a 35mm and wonder why it cant be as adjustable as an LF and I look at my Linhof and wonder why it cant be as automated as my F4 :-)
anyhoo.... so my F4 needed a repair and it was going to gone for a while and I wanted to shoot film. I use my digital to scout and also as my primary handheld camera. I almost always shoot Velvia so I practically marry a tripod when shooting film.... I needed a backup body and I had the following requirements..
1. It had to be compatible with as many of the Nikon accessories I already owned as possible (lenses, releases, flash etc)...and it had to be compatible with those Nikon accessories/lenses I planned on buying in the future.
2. It had to be built like a tank.... a camera is a tool and as a tool it's going to get dirty. I shoot in rain, snow, on the beach, in the winter. I don't care. If I'm awake...its the right time for photography. I bought my F4 more because of its rugged construction than for its features.
3. It either had to have a mechanical shutter or a "T" mode that used no battery power. I primarily shoot low light and I hate wasting battery power on electronic shutters.
4. If it didn'tt come with a motor drive it had to have one as an option and preferably on with a portrait shutter release to boot.
5. It had to cost less than $500.. remember, this was a spare body.
I looked through the Nikon line and I was very upset. There really was no perfect camera for me. I considered Nikon's consumer grade SLRs and quickly dismissed them. They were more auto everything than my F4 and almost all of them are plastic and almost all of them have electronic shutters that would suck my batteries dry after only a few 30 minute exposures. In addition, I felt I was paying mostly for features I would never use and not getting enough of what I wanted. That left me with a couple of other options... buying another F4, an F3HP, an FM10 or the FM3a.
I didn't want another F4. I love my F4, but I don't need 2. The F3HP just couldn't do enough to satisfy my needs and the price is ridiculous. The FM10 I almost bought but I realized that the price difference between the FM10 and the FM3a was not so much that I shouldn't consider the FM3a. Borrowing one from a friend made up my mind.... The FM3a was the best compromise for me.
I'm not going to bore you with all the technical specs. You can find those anywhere. Here is the link to the NikonUSA site for more info on the camera
http://www.nikonusa.com/usa_product/product.jsp?cat=1&grp=6&productNr=1667NCP
I am more interested in giving you my impressions of how it operates...how it satisfies and where it disappoints.
First off, the FM3a is a tiny camera in comparison to my F4s or my E10. I have portrait grips/battery packs on both and they are massive cameras. Even with the MD-12 motor drive the FM3a is much smaller than either of my other cameras...Just handling it is a very different experience than the larger "pro" models. It is elegant... like a Swiss watch and not chunky. I admit that without the MD-12 I find the camera to be a little small in my hands.
Since this is a mechanical camera with electronic "add-ons"...the camera is very uncluttered. You wont find any LCD screens or command dials or even a power switch. I am no veteran of classic Nikon cameras. I have never owned a Photonic or shot an FM10... but even I had no problem understanding what everything did. I did have to read up on a few finer points like how to use the match stick metering, how to load a manual camera (never done it before), what the button to the left of the lens was for (fill flash), amd how to rewind the film. I was shown how to load the film by the owner. It is not nearly as easy as an auto loader, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. I don't know for certain if I could have figured that one out without reading the manual or having someone show me.
If you add the MD-12 motor drive the camera operates a lot more like a traditional electronic SLR in that it turns on when you lightly depress the shutter...it advances the film automatically and it allows for 3.2fps shooting. It also adds a lot of bulk and reduces the elegance of the design. While I have never removed the motor drive off my F4 or used my E10 without a portrait grip I find I take the MD12 off the FM3A all the time when its not absolutely needed. I approach photography in a whole different way when I use the FM3a... its FUN! When you grab an F4, photography is a deadly serious thing..... it is a world of tripods and handheld meters and cable releases. When you use the FM3a you remember what it felt like when you picked up your first camera.
The matchstick metering is very unusual in my experience. In manual metered mode you set the shutter speed and you adjust exposure with the aperture. You can fine tune things a little bit by setting to higher or lower shutter speeds and then adjusting the aperture until the exposure meter on the left side of the viewfinder matches up with the "match stick" that the meter suggests as the appropriate exposure. It takes a little experience to make the process painless. If you pay attention with your other cameras and you already know roughly what shutter speed to use with which aperture then you will be much better at it since you are merely using the meter to fine-tune the exposure.
The shutter speed dial ranges from 1 second to 1/4000 second in 1 stop increments with no intermediate speeds possible...at least not in metered manual mode. In aperture priority mode the shutter speed is set electronically depending on the aperture you select and there are intermediate shutter speeds used....but it does not display these speeds to you. You can only tell that it is using a shutter speed (for example) between 1/2" and 1/4" you don't know exactly which one it is using. In aperture priority mode the slowest shutter speed is 8 seconds, which I find to be acceptable. In metered manual the slowest shutter speed is 1 second which I find to be a little disappointing because I don't like the idea of switching to bulb mode for a 2 second exposure. Since I prefer low light photography, my shutter speeds often fall into the 2-8 second range so I find myself switching to aperture priority mode just so I can get a longer shutter speed. Since the matchstick meter only goes down to 1 second, you have no clue if the Aperature priority mode wants to shoot 2 seconds or 8....so this is a case where I miss LCD screens.
The aperture setting is very different from most electronic cameras.The only problem is that the camera only displays the full stop numbers with no intermediate stop numbers .(information normally given on the LCD screen of most better camera)... so if I was using a spot between f5.6 and f8 I would know I was somewhere in between, but you'd be hard pressed to say that you were 1/3 over or 1/2 over.... since there is no number displayed. The reason I even bring this up is that I often use a handheld meter and if I could adjust the aperture in even 1/2 stop increments I could be more sure of my exposures and possible bracket less often. This is picky, I know...but I do think this was within the realm of design possibility. I admit that the exposure compensation dial does allow me to achieve the level of control I am looking for in metered manual mode...but things would be less complicated if I could just directly adjust the aperture in the first place.
Getting back to the metering. It is center weighted 60/40. I gotta say I am no fan. Its not that it isn't accurate. I have gotten pretty good at it,,,, its just that I spent a lot of time getting good with a spot meter and I think a spot would be more appropriate.
The front of the camera has the normal lens release button, a fill flash compensation button that reduces flash output by 1 stop, a self-timer and a depth of field preview.
The self-timer is very cool in that every time you use it you are reminded of just how complicated all the MECHANICAL things are inside this camera. You hear whirring and buzzing as all manner of gears and springs go to work. I love it. The self-time is activated by pulling the lever and hitting the shutter release. You have about 10 seconds. The mirror also locks up prior to shutter release so this is a great way to take tripod-mounted shots. I never even bother to use a mechanical cable release with shutter speeds under 1 second since the self-time is so easy to use. Unfortunately there is no other provision for locking the mirror.... either self-time or leave the mirror to its own devices.
Now this a manual focus camera if you don't already know..and I have to say that the viewfinder is very bright considering that there is no light to help things out. I do wish there was some form of backlight for the viewfinder though, since low light shooting often forces me to turn on a flashlight or point the camera towards a light just to set things properly. In daylight there is no problems with the viewfinder. Manual focus is quite accurate and easy to adjust....with a split circle pseudo-rangefinder type of focusing screen. I tend to manual focus on my F4 anyway so I don't miss it. In low light the focusing sensors are rarely adequate anyway.
The exposure compensation dial is very cool in that it modifies exposure by adjusting film ISA settings!. This means that your exposure compensation dial will work in metered manual mode!! I'm certainly not used to that. Both my other cameras change exposure via shutter speed...negating its usefulness in metered manual. The E.C. does vary shutter speed first in Aperature priority mode, then ISA ratings if it has to. I don't like the fact that it requires 2 hands to adjust the exposure compensation...it is an involved process. Oh, almost forgot. This is Nikons only mechanical camera that recognizes DX coding on film, so you don't have to set it manually. That can be good or bad. I suppose it's a matter of preference. I shoot Velvia at 40 so I'm used to bypassing the DX coding.
I like the fact that you can dry shoot this camera. I don't need to load film to see how it works with a particular lens, test metering etc. My F4 pretty much requires film to do anything.
Another great feature is its TTL flash hotshoe and its more than adequate 1/250-second max synch speed. That is a big advance over previous models...and makes the camera compatible with my modern Nikon flash units without having to resort to manual flash metering.... sometimes automation is good... :-) Of course it's an easy thing to override the metering and do manual calculations if you are so inclined.
I intended that this would be my backup film camera and that it would only be pulled out when my F4 was out of commission or when I needed to travel very light. I have found that I use the FM3a much more than expected...and here is why.
This camera is so fun to use! The matchstick metering is just about the coolest thing I have ever seen. On my F4 and my E10 manual metering is a real chore since you are presented with gauges and +/- numbers etc. With the FM3a using metered manual is way faster than aperture mode...especially when handheld. I never knew a manual camera could be so fast. With an auto everything camera you spend so much time overriding all the electronic gizmos...with the FM3a you just adjust the aperture focus.. simple as that....and once you get the hang of center weighted metering this camera can do anything the big boy cameras can do.
Up until I bought the FM3a I used my digital as my primary hand held camera. Taking family pics, vacation pics etc... I reserved the F4 for my "serious" work. The FM3a is so compact, yet so powerful....yet so easy to use that I find I bring it everywhere....and it is a far superior camera for extra long exposures.
The Fm3a also has a very real and very unexpected bonus effect. It is a very unimposing camera. No one is going to think you're Ansel Adams walking around with one of these. You look like a tourist who borrowed his grandpa's camera. How many of you have set up the tripod, pulled out the monster pro SLR and then had to contend with "Bob"... you know "Bob".. he's the one who knows everything about photography and will bore you to tears telling you about it? well "Bob" doesn't have time for the tourist with grandpa's camera... he only has time for the big boys with the expensive toys. This might even help you out with security guards at some places that allow tourist photos but raise a nose at "pros"... I put that in quotes because it seems to be a foreign concept that anyone but a pro would ever use a tripod....so right after I get yelled at by security they ask if I do weddings. When I tell them I'm an amature they usually ask "why?"
The unimpressive appearance of the camera also puts people more at ease...making street shots and candids easier to take. And I think it's less likely to make you a target for a thief. Whenever I go into a questionable neighborhood I use the FM3a... it looks less expensive, it doesn't mark you as a target. I never used to bring a nice camera on vacation. I took a cheap digital last time I went to Disney world because I was so worried about my F4 or E10 getting stolen along with all the gear required to make them work. But I am no longer afraid.. I grab my FM3a and a wide angle zoom and off I go. Its lighter weight also makes the camera more bearable to carry.
The FM3a is an amazing camera...and in the hands of a photographer (as opposed to an operator) it can do almost anything the pro cameras can do.....and its built better.
you will notice that I don't really bring up the cameras ability to work without batteries... well it can, but if you run out of batteries and don't have spares...I don't feel sorry for you. You could carry 5 extra sets in a single film container. I do see the benefit in extremely cold weather but the optional cold weather batter pack works well and is not expensive. Also, the camera uses so little juice that it is rated at 100 rolls per battery change. That's about 5 times better than any other camera I have ever owned.
who knew I'd have a mechanical camera in my bag... It may not be the best camera I own, or the most expensive...and it's certainly not the most impressive to look at, but it is a very powerful precision tool.... this ain't your grandpas Nikon.
what I like about the FM3a
1. ease of use
2. compact size
3. It's a manual camera with automated abilities as opposed to an automated camera that can be overridden
4. MD-12 gives it 3.2fps, portrait release, film advance, added bulk and electronic cable release potential
5. Can use all my modern Nikon accessories and can use just about any AI or newer lens up to the abilities of the camera....except G lenses
6. Matchstick metering has to be experienced to be believed.
7. Price.. this is a lot of camera for the money.
8. Exposure compensation works in manual mode.
9. unimposing appearance allows you to go under the radar.
10. as well built as any F series body
what I don't like about the FM3a
1. no viewfinder light
2. MD12 doesn't allow for auto rewind and requires an MR-3 portrait release.
3. aperture adjustment between full stops is guesswork... but that's the LF shooter in me being silly
4. center weighted metering as the only metering choice.
5. film loading is much more involved than on electronic SLR's
6. no eyepiece shade for long exposures
7. no dedicated mirror locking mechanism
8. no square insert on the film back for the film ID tag... zone system shooters need these for N, N+1 and N-1 identifier tags or for any multibody shooter who switches film types alot
no camera is perfect but I can honestly say that this is a camera that gives you all the essentials without anything you aren't going to use. It appeals to purists (who want to remember the good old day), pros and advanced amateurs (who want a feature-filled spare), and anyone who just loves photography and knows enough to realize that all the automation in the world cant make great pictures happen with the click of a button.
Note to Nikon... give the FM3a interchangeable viewfinders, a dedicated mirror lockup, 2-8 second shutter settings in manual mode and and eyepeice shutter and you have yourself the new manual "F"... throw in non-AI lens compatibility and you really do have a replacement for the F3HP as Nikon's top MF camera..... it would be alot easier to make the FM3a a true "F" than it would be to update the F3HP to the same status.
ease of use... 5 stars. No matter what your skill level you will be able to learn this camera inside and out within 10 rolls of film.....
Durability... 5 stars. Its like a Swiss watch...amazing to operate and built as well as any camera I have ever owned.
Photo Quality.. 5 stars. If you can't take great shots with this camera .....question your skills first and the camera's ability second.
Battery life... 5 stars. 100 rolls per battery change...even with the MD-12.... wow.
update April 11, 2004--------------------
I sold my FM3a a few months ago to make the switch over the AF bodies since I use med format and large format to cover my more "contemplative" photography. I no longer needed a manual 35mm setup... well I regret it.. I regret it every day. No , not the switch to AF, but the sale of my Fm3a. But I have remedied the situation and bought another one. I PROMISE that as long as I can buy film for it, I'm not selling it.
I was doing a shoot last weekend when I ran out of batteries for my F100. Mind you, I brought 18 extra batteries for it but the shoot went long and I ran 40 rolls thru the camera over a weekend. Anyway, so here I am with $5000 worth of camera and lenses and the thing won't take a picture because I was out of batteries. NEVER AGAIN!!!! I rushed out and bought another FM3A as my new backup body....and 40 new rechargeable AA batteries and a new charger.
It is my opinion that the FM3A is the most perfect film camera in the Nikon lineup. Really....and over the past few years I've owned EVERY professional grade Nikon produced in the last 2 decades. My FM3A NEVER let me down, but my F5, F100, F3HP and F4 have all let me down in the past in one way or another.
Epinions needs a 6 or 7 star rating system.... I want to raise my rating!!!!!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
uniq
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Member: Bob K
Location: Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, USA
Reviews written: 109
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
An unchallenged opinion is worthlessly held..... (someone important)
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