Pentacon FM: The East German Tank Worth Knowing

For £40-75, the Pentacon FM gives you a piece of Cold War camera history that shoots just as well as the politics that created it were messy. The auto-aperture mechanism snaps shut at the moment of exposure then springs back open — intuitive once you know it, baffling until you do. If you shoot film for clients or personal work and you're bored of the usual Pentax Spotmatic or Minolta conversation, this is worth a bench test. Not urgent. Not rare. But genuinely interesting for anyone who wants a mechanical SLR with a story attached.