Camera: Nikon EM SLR
Location: Tampere, Finland
Film: Kodak Color Plus 200
Lens: Nikon 45mm f2.8 P

The Nikon EM is an Aperture Priority, 1980's film camera, with a very small form factor and highly affordable price. It offered nothing groundbreaking upon its release, and is often passed up by film photographers for its unfamiliar history. Simply put the Nikon EM is not an extraordinary film camera, it's also not a bad camera by any means. This underwhelming middle-of-the-road camera is just perfect for me, and might be for you too.

First off, the Nikon EM just looks awesome aesthetically, it's so simple and classic, an amalgamate of the thoughts in my head when I head the word "SLR". There is a gaudy EM logo on the pentaprism which I cover up with black tape and really changes the look of the camera (for me) for the better. The biggest benefit for me about the Nikon EM is it's price and availability. This camera can easily be had for under 30 to 70 Euro on nearly any website you can find it. So why is a cheap film camera such a good thing? I have a needlessly expensive taste in cameras, and each morning before I embark on my day I need to choose my camera wisely. Most often I need to consider the country I'm in, the weather that day, and what activities I have planned. Some days the circumstances call for a film camera that does't require me to be its bodyguard, a camera and can not worry about scratching, dropping, or getting wet and breaking.

Somewhat contradictory to the benefits of using a cheap film camera, I have on my Nikon EM a lens worth nearly 10 times that of the body, the Nikon 45mm f2.8 P. There are plenty of cheap Nikon F mount lenses with good quality that I could have put on this, but as the Nikon EM is the smallest Nikon SLR ever made, I too wanted to pair it with the smallest Nikon F lens ever made. I still am careful when I take out this camera, but in most cases damage occurs with scratches the film cameras body over time. Additionally a tiny retro-looking camera that says NIKON on it is less likely to sparkle in the eye of the common thief compared to something like LEICA.

My point about the Nikon EM is, that if you can break through the stigmas of cheap SLR cameras and aperture priority, and just give it an honest try, you might just like it and end up with a huge bang for your buck.

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