Legends are made of these

As good as it gets? I think so. My example of this amazingly robust camera was built in 1978 and used by my father as a newspaper photographer until 1986 when it was retired in favour of a Nikon FA. It returned to work 1 week later... and served another four years with no servicing, only minor maintenance and best of all, no down-time.

I have been using this same camera for all levels of photography since its second retirement, travelling over many continents with it, and it still delivers flawless photographs reliably and consistently. Being mechanical, very rarely are any problems experienced and then usually only briefly.

The photomic head release is slightly loose and will release one of the two mechanisms occasionally but with no real danger of complete detachment so far... Metering is still quite accurate. The sheer bulk of the camera contributes, I believe, to overall stability with clear, crisp images able to be captured whilst hand-held at slow shutter speeds.

The F2 still facilitates the photographer's artistic abilities without providing all the wizz-bang of the modern, melted plastic variety.

As the F2 is now a firm sentimental favourite, I bought an FM2 about three years ago with the intention of easing the work load of the F2. Does anyone want to buy an only slightly used FM2???

In conclusion, a camera, no matter how much loved and how reliable, needs to judged on its image quality and it is on that basis that the F2 is still held in such high esteem. The best? Who knows. But damn good none the less.