For a long time the gripe has been that there isn't the modern equivalent of the FM2 (or FM2n, or FM3, or fill-in-the-blank from Nikon's long legacy of small manual cameras). While you can't get quite to the same all-metal body build quality in digital, if what you're looking for is small, light, manual control, you can do it today. My recipe:
- D60 (or D5000) body with Katz Eye focus screen. Small, light, competent, with good image quality. With a Katz Eye installed, you're ready for:
- Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5. Really small, really good on DX.
- Optional: 35mm f/1.8G DX Nikkor or 30mm f/1.4 Sigma HSM. Both are fine lenses and would make a nice "normal."
- Voigtländer 40mm f/2. Incredibly small, incredibly good on DX.
- Tamron 60mm f/2 Macro. Not yet out yet, but if it's anything like the old Tamron macro standby (90mm f/2.8), it'll be just fine.
- Optional: If you really need more reach, either the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D or the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 will do just fine in manual focus. But for lots of reach, the Voigtländer 180mm f/4 is the choice. Again, really small, really good.
Keep the 18-55mm VR kit lens for when you need all automation, and you've got the small, light, total control kit. The whole thing fits in an incredibly small bag with a bit of planning. I can fit everything mentioned above, all the optional items including my laptop, into a ThinkTank Urban Disguise 50 and still have room for more (may I suggest an SB-600?).
Still, I wish Nikon would do the right thing: take the D60 and offer a version with the following attributes:
- Sturdier build ala the FMs.
- Viewfinder optimized for manual focus. (Live View helps, but isn't a perfect solution.)
- Support for AI and AI-S via a CPU setting feature, ala the bigger cameras.
- Add a real mirror lockup.
That's it. Those little things are worth several hundred dollars to many of us. I believe there's enough market and enough profit margin to justify producing it. But if you really want to distinguish it and grab a market no one else is in, take out the Bayer and AA filter. A 10 mp monochrome camera done right resolves better than a 14mp Bayer camera. Add a user-selectable IR filter and you've created nirvana for a huge group of photographers. And it probably comes at no expense to your regular markets, as for almost everyone who wants one of what I describe, we one of your mainstream cameras, too. It's called growth, Nikon. Get it before someone else does.