Design History
Beginning in 1977 with the FM, there was a complete overhaul of Nippon Kogaku's entire Nikon SLR line. The 1970s and 1980s were an era of intense competition between the major SLR brands: Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Pentax and Olympus. Between circa 1975 to 1985, there was a dramatic shift away from heavy all-metal manual mechanical camera bodies to much more compact bodies with microprocessor electronic automation. In addition, because of rapid advances in electronics, the brands continually leap frogged each other with models having new or more automatic features. The industry was trying to expand out from the saturated high-end professional and advanced amateur market and appeal to the large mass of low-end amateur photographers itching to move up from compact automatic leaf shutter rangefinder (RF) cameras to the more versatile and glamorous SLR but were intimidated by the advanced learning curve required to operate a traditional SLR.
Both Nikon's F2 and the Nikkormats were prized for their toughness and reliability. Nippon Kogaku wanted to distill these qualities into a new smaller and lighter design. Nippon Kogaku continued with their unusually high standard of workmanship for amateur level SLRs. For the FM this meant the use of high strength machined metal parts, hardened metal gears, a bearing-mounted film and shutter transport, and a camera assembled to precise tolerances. As a result, the Nikon FM was one of the most reliable 35mm SLR designs ever built.
The Nikon FM sold very well compared to the competing mechanical Pentax MX (released 1977) and Olympus OM-1N (1979) cameras. It was also a very popular backup camera among professional photographers using the Nikon F2 and F3. Because of its durability and access to the Nikkor lens line, the FM came to dominate its market niche and was rewarded by the introduction of an improved successor, the Nikon FM2, in 1982. Time has proven the FM to be tough and reliable and it is now regarded as one of the finest SLRs of its generation.
Read more about this topic: Nikon FM
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