Yeah - big fan of the FM / FM2n (I've also got the latter)
The FM3a always really appealed, but the more I think about it the less it appeals. Although it's a mechanical shutter, the electronics are still pretty complex and if they die, there's so few of them that there's very little way of repairing it with salvaged parts. I've also heard that because they are not as reliable as the previous FM / FM2 iterations
I've been pondering the same thought recently but applied to analog cameras. Analog cameras have evolved over time, approximately according to the following:
- fully mechanical
- mechanical shutter with light meter
- electronic control of shutter, mechanical advance
- fully electronic shutter and advance
Broadly, what I'm finding after digging in to restoring some cameras is that most of the cameras from the first stage can still be fixed and made to perform close to when they were new. The second still work, but the light meter can die (simpler light meters may be repairable, later ones not so much). The third and fourth stages - once they die, there's no repairing them. And when you look at digital cameras, there'll be very, very few of these that last long into the future.
This bears out the 'Lindy Effect' mentioned in the article.
One of the nicest data through sound implementations I came across was in a kid's toy (often the best source of innovation)
It was a "Bob the Builder" play set and when you wheeled around a digger, etc the main base would play a matching sound. I immediately started investigating and was impressed to see no batteries in the movable vehicles. I realised that each vehicle made a clicking sound as you moved it and the ID was encoded into this which the base station picked up. Pretty impressive to do this regardless of how fast the vehicle was moved by the child.
Not cheap, but you can get a Leica that doesn't even have a screen, it's all manual and just treats the sensor as though it were film stock. One of the things I like about the Leica digitals is that they are still rangefinder cameras so your experience of using them is still through the viewfinder and much more akin to an analog experience because of the manual focus / exposure / speed control. Now I just need to save up :-)
As others have said, the Nikon Zf is a nice manual feeling digital option too.
The FM3a always really appealed, but the more I think about it the less it appeals. Although it's a mechanical shutter, the electronics are still pretty complex and if they die, there's so few of them that there's very little way of repairing it with salvaged parts. I've also heard that because they are not as reliable as the previous FM / FM2 iterations