However, there are some unusual features that give the camera an unusual look: the shutter speed selector is, as on many fixed-lens cameras, but few SLR's, a ring around the lens mount. The camera is a fairly conventional SLR in the layout of the chassis. The FTN was produced until 1976, with minor modifications. Its predecessor introduced the body type and most of the basic features, while the FTN added some much-needed fit-and-finish, and the FT2 and FT3 continued to refine the same body style.
The Nikkormat FTN represents the most common of the FT series Nikkormats, having been made for almost ten years. By introducing the metal-blade shutter type and pioneering the marketing strategy, the Nikkorex F paved the way for the Nikkormats. This Nikkorex was a step up from the other Nikkorexes, taking F-mount lenses and a clip-on meter, and in fact filled a new niche for Nippon Kogaku, what we might now call the "prosumer" niche, between amateur and professional-grade equipment. In a way, the early Nikkormats can be seen as the successors of the Nikkorex F, a Mamiya-made, Nikon-branded body with the original Copal Square (it was the first SLR to have it). The camera has an extremely reliable metal-blade focal-plane shutter, based on the Copal Square, known for its high X-speed, durability and accuracy. The Nikkormat series cameras achieved a significant following. The "N" may stand for "new." At any rate, it seems the manufacturers viewed this camera as not a new model but an update.
Nowhere on the body does the camera directly identify itself as an "FTN." The serial number begins with an "FT," probably continuous with the serial numbers of the FT, and there is a larger capital "N" nearby, adjacent to the external meter indicator. Introduced in 1967, the FTN is built on substantially the same chassis as the FT, but had center-weighted metering instead of whole-frame average metering, a shutter-speed display in the viewfinder, a few other minor changes, and, critically, a simplified process for mounting the lens. The Nikomat/Nikkormat FTN Nippon KÅgaku was a successful and lauded iteration of the Nikomat/Nikkormat FT series.