My brother decided to gift me his Nikon FG with the 50mm f/1.8 series E lens. He told me he only ran a couple dozen rolls of film through it in the 1980s and hasn't used it since. It sure is small, and reminded me of when I was first deciding on what platform I wanted to use. At the time (c. 1979), I was considering a career in photojournalism and was using a Vivitar XC-3 as a high school student (newspaper and yearbook), I had considered the Olympus OM-2, Pentax ME, Nikon FE and Canon A-1. I settled on the Canon and that's pretty much what I have for 35mm cameras (with a couple of exceptions). The Olympus and Pentax were really too small and I was enamored with the A-1's multiple AE modes and fractional shutter speeds by virtue of its electronically-controlled electromagnetic shutter. Plus, the LED numerals in the viewfinder were pretty cool for the era. 
The biggest gripe I have about the A-1 is the lack of good manual exposure info in the viewfinder, which pretty much made it useless for that. But overall, it has served me well for the last 44 years and has been a good partner for my F-1n and F-1N.
The size of the FG is a bit small for my hands but it's definitely manageable. It is not as wide, not as high, and not as deep as my A-1 but they are pretty close. I put in a couple of LR44 batteries and it fired up right away. I like the fact that it has a mechanical 1/90 shutter in case the batteries fail, something my A-1 lacks. The manual exposure information in the viewfinder is also great. Its shutter speeds are not as long as the A-1 but nothing a cable release can't take care of. I also like that it has a metal shutter curtain (although the cloth shutter curtain in my A-1 is perfectly fine). The Nikon 50mm is almost the size of a pancake lens and I can easily see myself using it on occasion. I just ran a 10 exposure roll of Pan F+ through it and processed it with Perceptol; the film is hanging to dry now. Probably make a few prints this weekend.
Overall, a very nice and capable camera.
The biggest gripe I have about the A-1 is the lack of good manual exposure info in the viewfinder, which pretty much made it useless for that. But overall, it has served me well for the last 44 years and has been a good partner for my F-1n and F-1N.The size of the FG is a bit small for my hands but it's definitely manageable. It is not as wide, not as high, and not as deep as my A-1 but they are pretty close. I put in a couple of LR44 batteries and it fired up right away. I like the fact that it has a mechanical 1/90 shutter in case the batteries fail, something my A-1 lacks. The manual exposure information in the viewfinder is also great. Its shutter speeds are not as long as the A-1 but nothing a cable release can't take care of. I also like that it has a metal shutter curtain (although the cloth shutter curtain in my A-1 is perfectly fine). The Nikon 50mm is almost the size of a pancake lens and I can easily see myself using it on occasion. I just ran a 10 exposure roll of Pan F+ through it and processed it with Perceptol; the film is hanging to dry now. Probably make a few prints this weekend.
Overall, a very nice and capable camera.
