If you see a sudden glut of Instagram “influencers” sporting a classic Nikon in their pictures this weekend, there’s a reason.
Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot posted a quartet of images on her Instagram feed, each an identical shot of her holding the camera to her eye.
The images – in black-and-white, despite apparently showing Kodak Portra 400 specs on the rebate – were shared on Tuesday, but without any additional information. Is Gadot a film fan? Or are film cameras this season’s must have accessory?
It was initially thought the camera was an FM, but it may in fact be its sister camera the FE, another classic Nikon from the 1970s.
The post will do little harm to either’s reputation as a gem of a camera. Launched in 1977, the FM was intended as a replacement for Nikon’s FT-3, and influenced a whole range of cameras, including the superlative FM2/FM2n, which remained in production from the early 1980s until the early 2000s.
The FE, on the other hand, was a semi-professional model adding aperture priority and an electronic shutter.
And if the Gadot posts suddenly has you itching for one of these cameras, prices are considerably lower than the premium compacts that have become an Instagram staple: Collectiblend says a good condition FM with standard lens should only cost you $200, and the FE is even cheaper.
Well, unless her 31.3 million followers suddenly inflate the prices, that is.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
31 million followers?! I honestly never heard of her before 😄
Wonderwoman.
Another celebrity non-entity.
I still prefer my indestructible Nikkormat FTN as back up to my fantastic Nikon F2. I’m also partial to the quite excellent, and far smaller, Pentax Spotmatic.