The Gold Nikon FA

The black version of the Nikon FA was my first real Nikon camera. It was a joy to behold with the pro motor drive.

Nikon FA, 1983-1989

Nikon has long been portrayed as having leadership in the professional camera market since the introduction of the Nikon F in 1959. When the Nikon FA was introduced in 1983,  it was truly a revolutionary camera. It will be most remembered for it's innovative metering system - an early testbed for the current and much copied 'Matrix Metering' system commonly found in many Nikon AF cameras. It was also the first Nikon camera body that had shutter priority and program automation exposure control.

This was in addition to the traditional favoured aperture priority AE and fully manual exposure control. Furthermore, TTL OTF flash metering enhanced the FA's flash capability and made the FA the most sophisticated multimode manual focus Nikon ever. To supplement the FA's immense capabilities, a host of other changes occured during the early part of the eighties. Firstly, a new line of Nikkor lenses called the AI-S (Automatic Indexing Shutter) and a new dedicated motor drive 
This was in addition to the traditional favoured aperture priority AE and fully manual exposure control. Furthermore, TTL OTF flash metering enhanced the FA's flash capability and made the FA the most sophisticated multimode manual focus Nikon ever. To supplement the FA's immense capabilities, a host of other changes occured during the early part of the eighties. Firstly, a new line of Nikkor lenses called the AI-S (Automatic Indexing Shutter) and a new dedicated motor drive MD-15 were introduced. Depite all these, the FA still retained its backward compatibilitiy with the huge Nikon system. The flash was the SB-16 model.
There is one on ebay for $3000 US


Note that the camera needs either two S-76 or the easier to find LR44 batteries.

Now drool on this..............

"In commemoration of winning the "Camera Grand Prix" prize, Nikon FA Gold was released in Japan (Nippon). This was based on the FA, and its silver color parts such as top and bottom covers are gold-plated and the lizard skin was used for leather cover.

It was a limited edition housed in the box of paulownia wood and priced at 500,000- Japanese Yen, even the coupling ring of the barrel of AI Nikkor 50 mmf/1.4 normal lens attached was gold-plated and Nikon logotype on its lens cap was also gold-plated ......such an elaborate work.

Nippon Kogaku had made so far gold-plated cameras in small quantity which were used for commemorative gifts to dealers, but the FA Gold was the first gold-plated model that was for sale.