Money not an object. You want a film cam. You already have a bunch of Nikon AF glass. This is for fun and mainly nostalgia, but okay, some actual ART, but not professional work. Do you totally regress and get an F3HP manual cam, an F4 -- the first good AF pro film Nikon -- or the last "state-of-the-art" film cam, the F6???
I started with an F Photomic FTn in 1969. Over the years, I had and used the F2, FM, FM2, FE2, FM2n, and F3/T bodies ... Loved them all, really, never got involved with the AF models. And had acquired a kit of about a dozen favorite lenses.
That all changed in 2003 when I sold nearly everything to move into digital capture.
Lots of water under the bridge since, and I found myself in 2011 being gifted with a black Nikon F Photomic FTn. I'd already re-acquired a couple of my favorite lenses from the past to use with other cameras, so I had a nice 50/1.2 AI-S, a Micro 55/3.5 Pre-AI, and a Nikkor-H 85/1.8 pre-AI as well to use with it.
Another friend gave me a sorely neglected 1964 F plain prism. The shutter was jammed from sitting for a decade in a basement bottom drawer without a lens on it, but otherwise it was clean and without corrosion. I had it overhauled, it's perfect now. I gave the black F Photomic FTn to another friend who desperately wanted it. And along the way an 18/3.5, 28/2, and 105/2.8 Micro came to me.
So a few weeks or months ago, that same friend handed me the F6 he'd been using. I'd never held one before. Smaller than the F4-F5, tight and professional feeling. Loved it immediately.
I found a nice clean one, perfect shape, for less than $700. I had the pre-AI lenses AI'ed so I can use the metering. I bought a Type A screen for it, and a remote release, and a couple of other little bits.
Two bodies, F and F6, the first and last of the great pro Nikon film SLRs. Six lenses ... sheesh, I really should get one or two AF lenses too. So I'm back in the film Nikon camp to play. Nostalgia can be an expensive thing, eh?
Thankfully,
The Reduction is continuing well so despite getting an F6 body and a couple of other bits, the closet is getting emptier week by week.
G