The Nikon EM was introduced 1979 as a lower cost entry into Nikon SLR systems.
It is a rather compact body with simplified controls, featuring aperture priority auto exposure, and manual shutter setting at 1/90 second. The lens mount is the same as other Nikon manual focus bodies of the time.

A friend in Pennsylvania gave this camera and lens to me after rescuing it, I think it was from a yard sale. Body needed some light seal foam and general cleaning, and the rewind crank was missing. I replaced the crank with one from an early model Ricoh body, the screw thread and pitch were the same.
The lens had considerable fogging and coating deterioration on the inner surface of the rear element. I was unable to remove the rear element, out of fear of doing catastrophic damage to the lens body, which is made primarily of plastic. Although the Series E 50mm f/1.8 lens has a fair reputation for optical performance, the build quality is not exceptional.

To test out lens and body, I loaded it up with a roll of ASA 200 CVS branded print film and went to the St. Louis Zoo this morning.
It was very cold, a bit windy, and the sun peaked through on occasion.
The zoo was not crowded. Hardly anyone there at all, in fact.

The lens, despite the damage to the optics, did not fail the way I expected. I saw no real evidence of flare or image fogging, but the images were possibly a little softened, and the color rendition maybe a little dull. But I did get some generally acceptable results.

Please click on thumbnail images to see enlarged.
All images are Copyright 2013 E.J.Kowalski.