RobertW Loc: Breezy Point, New York

Leica M6 did everything I could possibly ever want from a camera, and the Hasselblad with an 80mm was amazing too!

jsmangis Loc: Peoria, IL

I agree, I owned both of them.

KLambar Loc: New Jersey

I had the Minolta XG-M then purchased the Minolta Maxxum 800si which I still use today.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

I liked my Nikon FM2...

rikhar Loc: Ct. shoreline

I had a Besler-Topcon. Has anyone even heard of them

1Feathercrest Loc: NEPA

I owned a K1000 which I found to be a nice film camera. I also owned a Newly made Leica M3 with a lot of accessories which I absolutely loved. Unfortunately i went through a period of next to no earnings and had to sell all my Leica equipment to pay for the birth of my daughter (whom I wished I had named "Leica").

Goldyrock

Yes they were made like tanks.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

It's a toss-up between the Petri FT II and the Pentax K1000. The Petri was an easy to use camera with ultra sharp lenses; once you learned how to us it, its through the lens light meter was superb. the Pentax was sold at Kmart and was the most popular DSLR in America at one time because of the price (and quality). My K1000 worked for years and years. It may still work, but I put it on the shelf when I went digital.

AndyGarcia

"Best" SLR is so subjective. So here's my very subjective view (LOL). For me Nikon FM and FM2. Such beautiful cameras not too small and not too big. Just perfect for me. Funny thing is my Fuji Xt1 with some vintage manual focus glass attached reminds me a lot of my FM2. Of my Nikon DSLRs the D300 also takes me back to the Nikon film cameras for some reason. So there's my biased 10 bob's worth. Pura Vida.

ajcotterell

As a Marine Corps photographer for 24 years, I used 4x5 Speed Graphics and Crown Graphics a lot, Graphic View cameras quite a bit, and occasionally an 8x10 Deardorff View Camera. Rolleiflexes were frequently used. Occasionally a Leica M-4, when my officer-in-charge allowed. But my go-to, stand-by, most useful camera was a Nikon F with a 58mm f/1.4 lens, bought for my own use in Japan in January 1961 It was a no-frills, black finish camera that I used almost daily in and around Japan from 1961 through 1965, when I deployed to Vietnam. I used the Nikon in Vietnam for a year and a little bit, then til 1977, when I retired and used the F even further while earning a BFA in photography. The "BEST" camera? For me, the Nikon F, hands down.

AndyGarcia

Truly a great SLR.

sightsea

Great nostalgia. But I would still shoot film today if I had a reliable source of fresh, slow, 35cmm film. Any ideas?

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

My favorite for many years was a Konica T3"N".... No B.S. Just a straightforward and utterly bulletproof camera with the most essential features and "buttery smooth" manual operation. Great lenses, too.

Then I fell in love with Canon E0S-3.

DTran

The FE and FM models were introduced for 2 reasons. First at the time around 1977 Nikon got caught in the compact SLR war started by Olympus so they introduced the FM/FE which are smaller than the Nikkormat. However, the Nikon's were still the larger ones compared with the Olympus and the Pentaxes (MX and ME). Nikon also wanted to change the name to all Nikon instead of Nikon and Nikkormat.
The FM3a was a kind of remake and was introduced much later in February 2001. I read an article at the Nikon website that it was difficult at the time to purchase the galvanometer (which is similar to that of the FE but not the same as the FM because the FM had LED) used in the meter for the FM3a. One significant feature added to the FM3a is that although it has A mode like the FE's it has a full mechanical shutter speed from 1 to 1/4000 second. It's the only Nikon (or any 35mm SLR that I know) that support A mode yet has the full range of shutter speed functional without battery. The Canon new F1 and Pentax LX have a number of shutter speeds that would work without battery but not all of the shutter speeds.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Absolutely, without any doubt, this would be the Nikon F5! Used to have three of them. Also liked my good old Pentax Spotmatic. I have 2 F5s in my camera closet along with a Pentax Spotmatic. All work! YMMV.