Nikon FM3A at 20

The traditional form-factor of the 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) evolved in the 1950s was re over the next half century. For many folk during this period, the range of Nikon SLRs, from enthusiast, to semi-pro and professional, provided a ladder of increasing capability as their photographic journey progressed. In the semi-professional range, it seemed likely that the FM2n would be the end of the line for the all-metal, all-manual FM series of SLRs when it appeared in 1983. The world was moving on, autofocus had arrived, manufacturing processes were increasingly relying on plastics as the basis for the camera body, and it would not be long before digital imaging was banging on the door of traditional photography.

It was a surprise to many when Nikon launched the FM3A in the summer of 2001, two years after the D1 digital SLR. With manual focus, all-metal construction, no built-in winder and a marked absence of liquid crystal displays, it seemed to encompass everything that the SLR manufacturers were trying to leave behind at the time. It looked retro, even old-fashioned, and not a few photographers at the time scratched