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They were (are) really fine looking and handling cameras. I had an OM2n and an OM1n pair and it was fantastic how easily you could switch between them. Controls in exactly the same place and little distraction to the process of photography. The aperture control being around the lens mount in line with the lens focus and zoom controls I always preferred over the top plate dials and made aperture priority shooting incredibly easy. I still, 99% of the time, use either aperture priority or full manual modes.
My old manual Nikon lenses (back in the Nikon F2 days) are fast, too bad non of them are automatic. Last time I priced ebay, they were not going for much.
Not sure about what you mean by the ‘manual’ reference there. Since 1977 (ok back end of the F2 era) when AI, AI-s lenses came in you are good to use on just about all modern Nikon digital bodies for automatic aperture. Matrix metering on these will also work just fine on bodies that allow ‘lens data’ (focal length and max aperture) to be entered into the camera. But they are manual focus. Autofocus only coming in on AF. AF-D lenses. Those were screw drive but there are also a lot of modern bodies that have that drive (excepting mainly the low end D3000/5000 range). I think there are still a few AF-D in the current range (I have a second-hand 24mm f/2.8 AF-D which is very good). And I have the 105mm f/2.8 AF-D Micro for macro photography bought second-hand for a very good price; in many ways it’s better (why buy autofocus and VR when you don’t use it) than the current model for pure macro work which is all I need it for.
So 40 year old lenses largely remain compatible with many current bodies. Which is pretty extraordinary really. Although keeping that backward compatibility possibly hinders some of Nikon’s lens development these days – only recently have they introduced electronic aperture controls. Canon have been doing that for a long long time.
I believe it’s even possible to have the original F mount (pre AI) converted to AI but I would guess possibly more expensive than buying an AI lens. I’d expect that very good examples of the early F mounts are likely to me more collector territory these days.
What I couldn’t believe was a friend who bought a Canon (5DS) and then promptly got into buying some very good but old Nikon lenses that he really enjoyed using with an expensive converter. So no metering, which is a pain. When I pointed out that the lenses worked just fine on modern Nikon bodies and lent him one to try he promptly went out and bought a Nikon D750 and traded in the 5DS and converter. Now there’s nothing wrong with that Canon at all (it’s excellent) but it’s not really the best tool to put Nikon glass on! (Unless that is, you are into video. I understand old Nikon glass with mechanical aperture, no metering and manual focus is often considered preferable to the automated versions that can be detrimental to video. I guess that’s why Novoflex still make such converters and why these lenses are not totally dirt cheap on eBay…)
Bought this new a looonnng time ago with money I saved from a summer job. I was just 12. Its a beginner model that leaves out shutter speed settings (auto or manual only), but there are work arounds. In a few weeks I am going to try to reproduce some IR photos I took about 20 years ago that later got stolen. Still works great and I believe is still the lightest SLR ever made.
It has been invented and was quickly obsoleted about 5 years ago. Bought one hoping to breathe new life into an old SLR. It worked but was cumbersome. That was when I transition to mirrorless cameras.
How fast are they? I would not mind getting my hands in a 50 mm 1.2… My 50mm 1.4 was quite used when i picked up a dozen years ago, metal housing, made in Japan. It’s my favorite indoor/baby lens, I’ve been using it like crazy the past few months. Can’t beat a solid 50mmm, everybody should have at least one.
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