Within a year of buying my first ever camera (1980 - Nikon FM) I was a full-on photo fanatic. Friends saw this and asked me then, had I not bought the Nikon, what camera brand/model would I have rather bought.
We have a number of other "old-timers" here and I was wondering if any have pondered this question themselves. Back then, what 35mm format camera would you have bought if money was not an issue?

For me, at the time, I had a huge "crush" on three other cameras, curiously all with German ancestry. My choices were: Rollieflex SL35 E, Contax 167MT, and Leica R3 Safari.

Luckily for me, I didn't know anything about any of them at the time I bought the FM. All of those companies went out of the camera making business some time back. Thank-you, Nikon, for hanging in there.