Do you know, I would put you off the autofocus film bodies altogether! You have that with your digital system.
If you want to get the full film experience, I would send you down the route that came up earlier - FM2 or FE2. They have a clockwork shutter, built from etched titanium in a honeycomb pattern - an absolute work of art. The later ones had plain blades, same as the later F3 and F4. They work fine, but the craftsmanship in those early shutter blades and the rest of the mechanism was like a SWiss watch - really beautiful and smooth to use.
The FE2 uses button batteries to power the light meter and shutter, with a clcokwork 1/250th setting as a fall back if your batteries die in the field, at least you can do something, but only have 1/250th until you can replace the batteries (a 20p piece is handy for this! Use it as a screw driver to undo the cover. My thumb nail was never enough!)
The FM2 is all mechanical workings with a battery only to power the light meter. Both of these use the matched needle system, a swinging needle in the left of the finder shows where the shutter needs to be to match the aperture chosen. Your shutter set was marked by a green indicator strip - superimposed on the shutte speed list. It was simply a translucent green strip, so again, nothing to go wrong. All you had to do was alter the aperture shutter to match the green strip with the swinging needle. It was actually pretty accurate (centre weighted with 80% bias) and you could judge a bit either side according to your background by just having the swinging needle a bit over or under the green strip.
Don't forget, film is more forgiving than digital, so you don't need 1/10th EV accuracy! 1/2 EV is close enough and after a while you will be able to judge it more accurately than that.
The FE2 and FMs are built superbly, the manual wind on can be completed in a series of short strokes, or one long one, up to you. You don't have to select which, you just do it. The wind on lever can be wound with your thumb with the viewfinder to your eye and finger on the shutter button. I could shoot and wind nearly as fast as a motordrive when I was suing these full time - excellent ergonomics, lightweight bodies but really well built. A motordrive was available that used 8 AAs (I have ogt one somehwre in a box...haven't seen it for a bit!) - Oh, and they have 1/250th flash synch, also first camera to have 1/4000th. Speed from 30 seconds - 1/4000 plus bulb.
Another option, quite a bit less common, but a step forward in that it had shutter priority too, was the FA. Again, a pro spec body, it couldn't use the MFD12 motordrive, but had its own dedicated motordrive, the MD15. I had one of these too. Same 1/250th synch speed and 1/4000 top end. 30 secs, bulb and also T (time) - this turned the battery off for long exposures to save power.
P,S,A and M available. The shutter priority system n this camera was superb. You set your shutter speed and it worked its way down the matching aperture, until it reached wide open (f2.8? f1.4? whatever) then if there was insuficient light it started to knock off the shutter speed until it was balanced to the aperture....so you got "correct" exposure, you might get camera shake, but you might not - at least you didn't just run out of options. You could see this in the viewfinder....plenty of info in the viewfinders of all 3 so far.
F4 (probably better to get the S version) these are built like brick outhouses. Absolutely solid build, but more relaince again on electronics. First of the matrix metered bodies. AF, using a screw drive for AFD lenses and also works AF1 or AFS lenses with their own motors. Single point AF, in the middle of the frame and a small aiming point too - good for accuracy, but not as good as modern, so you would probably be disappointed with it, or even frustrated after your modern body - hence my suggestion you might as well go for manual focus. AFS, AFD and AIS lenses or before will all work on ANY film body. It is only the G lenses that start to come unstuck. Nikon compatability works the other way - old lenses will work on modern bodies.......they haven't really thought about photographers buying new lenses and bodies and then looking to go backwards!
The modern series of F100, F401, F801s (a good camera in its day) F90X etc...all VERY plastic in comparison to the older ones I have suggested. PLUS, the FM2 or FE2 will, if in good condition, always be of interest to collectors - because of the firsts they set: 1/250 flash synch and 1/4000 fastest shutter speed.
Your modern photography will benefit greatly from the experience you will gain by manual exposure, or matched meter A, and manual focus and film winding....it will slow you down and make you think a bit more. You will also gain a fundamental understanding of whais happenign....useful when it comes to understanding the decisions your modern camera makes fo ryou....most times it hasn't a clue what you want and just goes for the safe middle ground.......
