The FM was one of two compact SLRs introduced by Nikon to compete in the consumer category of SLR systems with the Olympus OM line of cameras. The FM model was a fully mechanical body, with a TTL center-weighted gallium arsenide phosphide photodiode light meter that used Nikon's now-classic 60/40 percent center-weighted metering pattern. The auto-exposure counterpart to the FM was the FE, which had a match-needle light metering system,and a very accurate electronically-timed shutter that allowed either aperture-priority automatic operation,or manually adjusted match-needle exposure metering. Nikon, in introducing the FM, was responding to customer interest in a full-featured but compact SLR system. The FM was much smaller than the professional F and F2 line of Nikon SLRs, but retained the traditional rugged metal construction of its predecessors. Early production FM's had a knurled rotating collar/switch located concentrically around the shutter release button; this switch functioned as a shutter release lock when the camera was used alone; however,when either a Motor Drive MD-11 or MD-12 was attached, the switch was supposed to be turned after attaching the motor drive but BEFORE turning on the MD-11 or MD-12. Rotating this concentric switch to the ON position after the motor drive had been mounted and then turned ON would immediately lock up the camera,rendering the camera inoperable, and it was then necessary to remove the MD-11 or MD-11 from the camera base,and to touch the motor drive's exposed contacts with a penny to clear the jam caused by the out-of-synch camera/motor combination. Nikon FM's made after about 1979 or so dispensed with the rotating switch around the shutter release,and were not afflicted by this awkward mechanical/electric problem when using either MD-11 or MD-12 units. On these later production FM bodies, the shutter release lock was integrated into the film advance lever; quite logically,when the film advance lever was pressed close to the camera body's top deck,the shutter was locked,while pulling the advance lever away from the body disengaged the shutter lock.
In the photo of a chrome FM shown at the link referenced below at http://www.collection-appareils.fr/nikon/html/nikon_fm.php the camera shown in the photo is a later-production FM model which lacks the knurled ring around the shutter release,while the exploded diagram immediately below that photograph clearly shows an earlier FM which does have the knurled shutter release lock/motor drive interconnect switch.
The FM used a match-diode metering system with the then-new gallium-based photodiode system that was supposed to be better than the earlier cadmium sulfide or selenium-based metering systems that came before. When the small,round center red LED was lighted, the exposure was dead-on to within 1/5 of an f/stop. When the center LED and either the + or - LED was lighted, exposure was within one-half of an f/stop of recommended. When only the + or - LED was lighted, the exposure was off by more than a half stop. Not known by many people, the FM's metal-bladed Copal shutter unit would respond to incrementally turning the speed dial,and thus setting the dial between 1/60 and 1/125 second would yield an actual shutter speed of approximately 1/90 second. This feature was very useful,especially when shooting color slide film,and worked between all shutter speeds.
The motor drive MD-11 did not have an auto-off switch,and would often drain its eight 1.5-volt AA batteries if the unit was left on. The MD-12 was almost identical,but it would switch itself to a non-battery-draining sleep mode after a short period of non-activity,even if the MD-12's small ON/OF switch were accidentally left in the ON position. Many,many more MD-12 units were made than MD-11 units,and both units work with both FM and FE, and with later FM-2 and FE-2 cameras. The FM did NOT feature user-interchangeable viewfinder screens,and was equipped from the factory with Nikon's then standard K screen,which had a centrally located horizontal split-image rangefinder,surrounded by a microrprism doughnut,with the balance of the screen plain ground glass with a very fine Fresnel pattern that was virtually invisible. The K screen featured Nikon's fairly standard 12mm diameter scribed circle,into which about 60 percent of the light meter's sensitivity was concentrated,with the remaining 40 percent of the meter's sensitivity distributed across the outlying areas of the viewfinder's area. Although the viewfinder screen was not as bright as on some competing cameras, and was somewhat coarse by modern standards, the finder image was contrasty,and offered excellent focusing accuracy and repeatability using the manual focus Nikkor lenses of the era. Manually focusing lenses is easier on an FM than it is on most modern d-slr's,due to different viewfinder screen design parameters between the eras.
The FM was introduced in 1977,and since the conversion of the Nikkor lens lineup to Ai or Automatic Aperture Indexing was not fully completed at that time, the FM (and the FE) allowed for stopped down light metering with Nikkor lenses which did not have the AI-indexing ridge built into them.Using what have now come to be known as pre-Ai Nikkor lenses was accomplished this way: The photographer depressed a very small,round button on the left side of the lens mount area,and then flipped upward the small,chromed metal Ai coupling's aperture tab follower,which allowed lenses made prior to the Ai program to mount without damaging the spring-loaded Ai coupling follower. Metering at anything other than maximum lens aperture was accomplished by depressing the depth of field preview button with the right hand's middle finger to close the lens down to working aperture, and adjusting either the lens's aperture ring or the camera's shutter speed dial,or both,until the LED display indicated the exposure desired. At maximum aperture, one would of course turn the shutter speed dial until the LED's were where one wished. Ai Nikkor lenses featured a small,secondary aperture scale with all the f/stops in white lettering,near the back of the lens. These small,white aperture settings were visible when looking through the viewfinder of the FM and FE (and FM-2 and FE-2 models that followed) in what Nikon termed ADR or Aperture Direct Readout,which only worked when there was enough light to make the readout visible. In poor lighting,it was often difficult,or impossible, to view the ADR info in the viewfinder. Both chrome finished and black-finished FM bodies were made. All FM models had a round eyepiece,threaded to accept a circular,rubber-bumpered eyepiece lens that helped keep dust from entering the non-interchangeable viewfinder prism.
The Nikon FM fired at a respectable 3.5 frames per second (approximately) with an MD-11 or MD-12 motor attached,and was a workhorse camera that offered a smaller,lighter-weight,more-streamlined body than the fully professional F and F2 series bodies. Its shutter worked without any batteries or with dead batteries in the camera,and after removing the rotating shutter lock from around the shutter release, the FM became an almost bulletproof,very reliable camera that was not prone to hiccups or hitches. The FM's ability to mount and to meter with pre-Ai lenses was a very welcome addition during the late 1970's and early 1980's period. The camera balances very well with its motor drive added,and with the motor removed,is very small and compact and carries well. The camera has a front-mounted PC outlet,and does not need high-tech flash units--indeed, it pre-dated TTL flash,and did not perform TTL flash computations in any form,with any flash unit. X-synch was a respectable 1/125 second on all FM models. The FM was basic,simple,reliable,and well-engineered,and even with no batteries it would still shoot pictures,albeit without light metering functions.
Specifications[]
- Shutter Speed of 1-1/1000 plus B
- Hot Shoe
- Manual film advance and rewind
- Self-timer
- Depth-of-field preview
- Double-Exposure lever
Lens Selection[]
The FM was designed to accept AI and AI-s mount lenses, but can also accept F-mount lenses using stop-down metering. This means that virtually any lens made from the early F mount lenses up to modern autofocus lenses (albeit without AF functionality) can be mated to the body.
Links[]
- Nikon FM Review at http://blog.bkspicture.com/
- Manual available on the Favorite Classics section of .kyphoto.com
- Nikon FM, User manual on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand
- Nikon FM instruction manual - English at M. Butkus' www.orphancameras.com
- Nikon FM Statistic Price Info's at AuctionPriceTracker in English
- Nikon FM Statistic Price Info's at AuctionPriceTracker in German
- Nikon FM Statistic Price Info's at AuctionPriceTracker in Italian