Kenneth Wajda Buying a Film Camera: NIKON FA

Discussing the NIKON FA
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Kenneth Wajda, a professional commercial photographer who still shoots film, walks you through the ins and outs of buying vintage film cameras, which ones to buy, which to avoid, how much to pay and other tricks for making sure you get a working camera and a good deal!
Tips on Leica, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Minolta, Yashica, Fuji, Mamiya, Rolleiflex, Hasselblad, Praktica, Exakta, Zorki and more!

[@Kinnup7]

I just acquired a Nikon FA with the Silver body. The shutter was stuck, but I fixed it. It now runs great. I can't wait to use it. Thank you for the very useful content.

[@merlinmarquardt]

Very informative review. Thanks.

[@milandragojlovich5500]

Great job explaining/teaching; keep it up. Thanks

[@kennethwajda]

Thank you for saying so!

[@milesian1]

I know this is an old review, but the FA is my favorite manual focus film camera and I just wanted to add that the MD-15 was designed for the FA, but that it is also compatible with the MD-12 winder. I have two FA bodies, in case the electronics fail on one of them.

[@mains8913]

Are they prone to failure? I mean sure these are 40 odd years old bodies but what issues can they have commonly?

[@milesian1]

@@mains8913 Not that I know of. The one issue I've had was touching the titanium shutter and messing it up. But that's user error.

[@mains8913]

@@milesian1 awesome, looking to pick one up as my first SLR that I'll use too, got an FE now that I'll replace seals on and sell it probably, neat little body but that suite of features on the FA is hard to pass up and I found a good deal on one. How hard is it to read the light meter screen on FA though in low light? That would be my biggest concern really

[@milesian1]

@@mains8913 I’d say it’s reasonably bright except in very dark situations. If you found a good deal don’t hesitate to pick one up!

[@stanislavnepochatov8381]

Looks like F3 but it's smaller.

[@jasonsmith5367]

Thanks for posting the request so quickly! :) I'm leaning towards the FE/FE2 after your suggestions, but I have just one follow up question about the FA after watching your review. For matrix metering vs center weighted on the FA, if I have the camera set on center weighted and am shooting in either Manual or Aperture Priority mode is that technically the same as what I would have on the FE or FE2 cameras also? I'm just getting back into learning film so I have a long way to go, but if I can start on Manual or AP and then work up to different types of metering does that sound like a good way to learn the differences?

[@kennethwajda]

Jay S. Yes, the center-weighted on the FE2 is the same as the center-weighted of the FA. The matrix-metering basically looks for a bright area at the top of the frame, assumes it's a sky, and factors it out of the metering equation. Truth is, film is not that difficult to get a good negative. It has a lot of latitude. Just shoot erring on the overexposure side, and you'll be fine. If you see a bright window behind your subject, meter away from it, to check the light in the room on your subject, so as not to have the camera fooled into thinking it's much brighter. Then you're learning to see light, which is the key to great photography. We don''t photograph stuff, we photograph the light on stuff. You can see some of my work at KennethWajda.com and my Street Photography at ColoradoFaces.com

[@agogobell28]

+kenneth wajda The FA's matrix metering is far more complex than you make it out to be. It's a very clever setup, and is programmed such that in non-manual modes, it's almost impossible to make a good exposure.
One feature that you didn't mention is the possibly-unique-to-the-FA closed-loop exposure compensation. In A or P modes, the camera meters the light right before the moment of exposure, AFTER it stops down, and nearly instantaneously adjusts the shutter speed on a continuously variable scale to correct for lens defects or fast-changing light conditions.
Of course, this is really only useful if you shoot slides or really contrasty film like Tech Pan (now deceased).

[@kennethwajda]

+agogobell28 Thanks for the additional info. Very good!

[@kennethwajda]

Huh. That's a lot. I don't see them here often. This was at a thrift store, the best place to look.

[@markheywood5626]

The plus & minus are exposure compensation.

[@kennethwajda]

Thanks.

[@Lavi-Aemilia-Astori]

So it is basically a A1 that looks like a F3 but better

[@kennethwajda]

Yeah, exactly.

[@lachsimzwaifel]

Easily worth 400 US Dollar here in germany

[@Dezdirectz]

lachsimzwaifel Dam yo

[@md-lc8gq]

Lol, they're around 190-240 on eBay Germany, most times less than the FE/FM series