So what do the Nikon FM and the Z fc have in common exactly? Well, in reality, not very much. It’s interesting that Nikon chose the FM2 – the FM’s successor – as the inspiration for the Z fc as the two really couldn’t be more different. Even the semi-auto FE and FE2 are a tiny bit closer, but both the FM and FM2 are fully mechanical, and so, obviously, also fully manual. Both were built uncompromisingly tough, which was partially based on an all-metal construction and partially on the simplicity of a camera using very little in terms of electronics. There’s a built-in exposure meter that requires a battery and drives a simple LED display in the viewfinder, but that’s it. The Z fc on the other hand…
The FM featured here is an old press and sports camera, so there’s plenty of scuffs and scratches, but everything is still working fi ne… metering, quickreturn mirror, shutter and film transport. The viewfinder has a few marks on it too but, since the focusing screen is fixed, it can’t be cleaned properly and you soon learn to live with them. The one casualty of its hard life is that the plastic depth-of-field preview lever has snapped off at some point, rendering this feature unusable.
The shutter goes off with a resounding ‘ker-lunk’ and the subsequent film advance is accompanied by the sound of intermeshing gear wheels. Quiet the FM most certainly ain’t, but it is definitely near indestructible as this 40+ years-old example attests.
The FM was launched in May
