Nikon F3 vs Nikon FA?

I found both of them at a store which thry both have the same price, so i want to know which one should I get? What are the pros and cons? Is it a big deal between Center-weighted average metering and Mattix metering mode? Are there any alternatives?

The FA is an amateur-level multimode - decent enough if you have AIS or Series - E lenses, otherwise, you only have aperture priority and manual.

The F3 was a genuine professional SLR with the ability to interchange finders and screens as well as lenses and capable of 6fps with the dedicated motor drive, it's also built to last.

The FA gives more options, the F3 is an excellent shooter, fast becoming a collector's piece. I'd grab the F3 with both hands, but it's your choice.

I think Nikon F3 HP SLR Film Camera Body 35mm F3/HP High Eyepoint Viewfinder is better of the 2:

http://www.amazon.com/...0002G05BQ/

Its features are:

- This a professional grade 35mm SLR camera.
- The viewfinder allows the whole screen to be seen with glasses on.
- Great durability.

Read this review by a user about the overall performance of the camera:

http://www.amazon.com/...K6DNVSC8R/

Black Nikon FA film camera if you want to have another look:

http://www.amazon.com/...004SJX1BY/

Depends on what you want. They're both excellent cameras but each in its own right. The FA was a late 80s highly advanced amateur camera, the F3 a professional grade camera model from the early 80s which had a production run that lasted until 2000.

If you want a versatile shooter, I'd go for the FA: it has all of the metering and exposure modes also found on a modern digital camera. I wouldn't worry too much about the matrix vs.non-matrix mode. Many if not most cameras from that era still relied on the centre-weighted average metering and were capable of excellent shots, matrix metering is just a refinement and I remember that slide film exposures especially, didn't always work out that well when using the early verions of matrix-metering.

The F3 is an epic camera, but since its a professional tool, chances are that it has been heavily used and needs a thorough check-up to see whether the shutter speeds need to be resynchronized, the seals are still serviceable etc. Its range of exposure modes (aperture-priority only and manual) too, is more limited than that of the FA. And last but not least: what made the F3 such an excellent camera -other than the fact that it's built like the proverbial tank- is that it's a system camera in the strictest sense. To get the most out of an F3 you could exchange items such as the finder prism, the focus screen, dioptric eyepiece lenses, add a motordrive etc. To suit your specific needs. These items add functionality (and value) to an F3, without them it's just a very heavy, somewhat limited camera by today's multi-everything standards. A standard F3 can be found for anywhere between $ 250 and $ 400. The rare variants such as the F3/t (titanium) and P- (Press) versions however, fetch obscene prices at auctions. If you happen to find one of these at a reasonable price, buy 'em whenever you can. They're worth at least $ 2, 500 if they 're in reasonable nick.

If you want to do some old-fashioned, all-manual photography you might also consider a Nikon FM or its successor, the FM2.It has the same legendary build-quality as the FA and F3, but without the automatic metering (you must match the aperture and shutter speed yourself using the built-in meter) in a reasonably small, reliable package.