Nikon FA advantages?

Uffe80

New member
Just landed a very-near mint Nikon FA Silver. Just as beautiful as all pre AF Nikon and with a wonderful sounding shutter. However, there are some things to ponder:


1. The FA doesn't have an exposure lock button/lever. I use this basic function all the time while shooting with my FE2 in A mode. The matrix metering in the FA was claimed (by Nikon) to make AE lock obsolete when the camera was released back in the eighties. However, since even contemporary pro segment Nikon DSLR sometimes fail to suggest correct exposure, I wouldn't trust this pioneer version matrix algorithm over my own experience, for instance in backlight conditions. Has anyone worked out a convenient method to provide something like AE lock, part from switching to manual mode?


2. In program mode, there seems to be no way to display what aperture the camera is choosing. Perhaps spoiled by the info flow in modern cameras, I feel a bit blindfolded and a bit out of control (of the camera settings, not mentally). For instance, when I compose an image in A or M mode with f2.0 and focus on an item far away but keep something in the foreground, I know from experience that the foreground is going to be blurry without having to press the DOP lever. But in P mode on the FA the aperture could be anything between the lens' two end positions, causing completely different looks. I suppose that photographers in the eighties would've reacted the same way to this missing information, or what?


Greatfull for your input!


Thanks


Ulf, Sweden
 
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rickHo

Senior Member
IMG_0735.jpg (my FE)
Hi! you can at least use older pre-Ai lenses on the FE. this is the reason why I got the FM instead of the FM2n. if I am not mistaken, the FE has a trigger lock much like the FM as well. :eek: :eek: :eek:
 

sgtpetter

New member
Hi, Ulf. I also have an old Nikon FA and completely agree that the lack of aperture information in program mode is troublesome. As is shooting the FA in low light, as the LCD is not artificially lit. That being said, I really enjoy shooting the FA, but for nighttime shooting I tend to bring my Canon A-1 even if the shutter sound and film advance smoothness is a joke compared to the FA.
 
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