Would you buy a Nikon FM2n in 2020?

zanxion72 · Dec 28, 2020

George Mann said:
No critical parts are made of plastic in a Nikkormat!

George Mann said:
I am a world renouned engineer, not an amateur! There are at least 5 plastic gears in the FM3a.
They may last the usable lifetime of the camera, but this camera is in no way a Nikkormat!

No critical parts are made of plastic in Zenit cameras too. I do not mean to insult any, but in the world of internet you should weigh your words more carefully.
Anyway, on my long way on the technical side of photography (much longer than you might think), I never came across an FM3a with a failed shutter. I've came across quite many Nikkormats with a jammed shutter. And guess what, the problem with all of them was a cog missing at least one tooth (the main governor at the base of their gear box). I was really disappointing as I was looking for a broken one to use for parts to repair my father's Nikkormat. Eventually I gave up and ordered a custom made cog from McMaster by sending them the broken one. At least I have now parts for my Nikkormat to make it outlive even me.

Try this. Go to ebay and search for broken Nikkormats:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr....l1313&_nkw=nikkormat+(parts,+spare)&_sacat=0

Now search again for FM3A:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=nikon+fm3a+(parts,+spare)

As of now, there is no broken FM3A available, but plenty of Nikkormats. I know that Nikkormat is much older than the FM3A, but at least for now, statistically the FM3A scores better than the Nikkormat.

Steve@f8 · Dec 28, 2020

At some point Nikon incorporated plastic big time - take the F100 as an example: camera back, camera back lock, rewind fork, and probably plenty more inside that can’t be seen. Smacks of cost cutting.

zanxion72 · Dec 28, 2020

Steve@f8 said:
At some point Nikon incorporated plastic big time - take the F100 as an example: camera back, camera back lock, rewind fork, and probably plenty more inside that can’t be seen. Smacks of cost cutting.

Plastic is not always just a way to build cheaper stuff. It can be a breakthrough for other innovations, for example a high speed shutter. You cannot expect there brass parts. I know no camera that has a shutter that can get to 1/4000 sec or faster with just brass parts (plain aluminum is too soft to resist to wear in such shutters). Also, not all plastics are of low quality and wear quickly.

George Mann · Dec 28, 2020

Steve@f8 said:
At some point Nikon incorporated plastic big time - take the F100 as an example: camera back, camera back lock, rewind fork, and probably plenty more inside that can’t be seen. Smacks of cost cutting.

Making toys, instead of tools.

George Mann · Dec 28, 2020

zanxion72 said:
I've came across quite many Nikkormats with a jammed shutter. And guess what, the problem with all of them was a cog missing at least one tooth (the main governor at the base of their gear box).

Only a small percentage of Nikkormats suffer this problem, which tells us that there was a casting issue at one point which affected the part in question.

zanxion72 said:
As of now, there is no broken FM3A available, but plenty of Nikkormats. I know that Nikkormat is much older than the FM3A, but at least for now, statistically the FM3A scores better than the Nikkormat.

Let's see. There was close to 3 million Nikkormats produced vs 112,000 of the limited production FM3a's.

The Nikkormats were ancient relics when the FM3a went in to production.

Steve@f8 · Dec 28, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
No actually [...] Do some research rather then making assumptions based on what you had for breakfast today.

Ooh, I’ll have to watch what side of bed I get out of.

DREW WILEY · Dec 28, 2020

Well, I have worked with engineers designing construction equipment of the highest order that was required to endure about a million times more shock and vibration than any kind of camera, and a lot of "plastic" was involved. Doesn't anyone here have a Materials Science degree? It's not like walking into Home Cheapo and picking up some outsourced toy that fails in 20 minutes. There are obviously amateur cameras in that category too. But there are thousands of kinds of plastic, including extremely tough low-friction machinable varieties. Housings are a different topic, with its own pro and cons. The last thing I'd ever want in a gear is brass. I'm aware of hundreds of kinds of that too. Diecast brass is quite different from ordinary melt-cast for example. Camera gearing has been made with both. One type is decent, the other is cheap trash, but neither is ideal. Things start changing when such alloys start drifting into the bronze category instead; but that's generally too expensive to be practical for camera use. I do have one view camera with machined titanium hardware. But in my experience dealing with quite a number of large manufacturers, they tend to assign their dummy engineers to cheaper consumer products, and their highly competent ones to pro gear. And all of us can probably recognize which Nikons are which.

Sirius Glass · Dec 28, 2020

DREW WILEY said:
Well, I have worked with engineers designing construction equipment of the highest order that was required to endure about a million times more shock and vibration than any kind of camera, and a lot of "plastic" was involved. Doesn't anyone here have a Materials Science degree? It's not like walking into Home Cheapo and picking up some outsourced toy that fails in 20 minutes. There are obviously amateur cameras in that category too. But there are thousands of kinds of plastic, including extremely tough low-friction machinable varieties. Housings are a different topic, with its own pro and cons. The last thing I'd ever want in a gear is brass. I'm aware of hundreds of kinds of that too. Diecast brass is quite different from ordinary melt-cast for example. Camera gearing has been made with both. One type is decent, the other is cheap trash, but neither is ideal. Things start changing when such alloys start drifting into the bronze category instead; but that's generally too expensive to be practical for camera use. I do have one view camera with machined titanium hardware. But in my experience dealing with quite a number of large manufacturers, they tend to assign their dummy engineers to cheaper consumer products, and their highly competent ones to pro gear. And all of us can probably recognize which Nikons are which.

Nylon gears do not need lubrication as much or at all and resist wearing out.

DREW WILEY · Dec 28, 2020

Most of the "photo magazines of the day" contained a lot of trash articles. There again, I've been in the trenches, having had both a large gear repair service (non photo, but otherwise analogous), and seeing all the total BS equipment reviews from career writers and half-baked mfg announcements by marketing types who couldn't tie their own shoelaces. On those instances I wrote the reviews myself, I was paid a hefty premium because they knew I actually did my homework first, including dissecting the equipment. The photo mags simply didn't pay enough to interest me.

zanxion72 · Dec 28, 2020

George Mann said:
Making toys, instead of tools.

Does a Zenit feel like a tool to you? Indeed you are right! I use one as a hammer.

zanxion72 · Dec 28, 2020

George Mann said:
Only a small percentage of Nikkormats suffer this problem, which tells us that there was a casting issue at one point which affected the part in question.

Let's see. There was close to 3 million Nikkormats produced vs 112,000 of the limited production FM3a's.

The Nikkormats were ancient relics when the FM3a went in to production.

All Nikkormats eventually wear out like that (btw there where 12 million Zenit cameras made, what does that number has to do with anything other than just that). On the other hand finding a failed FM3A is nearly impossible and that talks big for its reliability. Nowadays makes sense to go for an FM3A as it is most likely to serve you more than an a Nikkormat that nears or has gone past its life span.
Also, modern shutters especially of the pro spec'ed cameras are build to last a lot more cycles than the shutter of any Nikkormat.

Anyway, feels like feeding some troll in here. Suit yourself, happy holidays!

AndroclesC · Dec 31, 2020

Absolutely!

Ariston · Dec 31, 2020

Yes, but it would be a lot cheaper to buy it in 2015.

Jon Shumpert · Dec 31, 2020

I did buy one in 2020 and would do it again if the price was good. I picked up one about 4 months ago along with a 50mm f2 ais lens. It is in excellent condition and was tested by my local repair tech. The meter and the shutter speeds are good with the meter being less than half a stop under exposing. Maybe it's me, but I have been lucky when buying used Nikon equipment. The only cameras I have bad luck with are Pentax MX cameras. I have owned 3 and the flash sync was inoperable on all 3. Two of them had major shutter problems. It is sad because the MX is one of my favorites and one I hope to one day have a good working copy of.

Would you buy a Nikon FM2n in 2020?

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