I have half a dozen cameras, and this is by far my favorite. Takes better pictures than nearly any digital now available or affordable (and I've used several Nikon DSLRs - it takes forever to set the white balance, too). Simple, brilliant, and dependable. The FE has a metal body, accepts all Nikon-mount manual and AF lenses, even those pre-AI. Smooth shutter and film advances.
Since it's manual you;re actually responsible for the quality of your photos - point and shoot is useful for some instances, but there's not much knowledge or creativity involved.
FEs can be found on eBay at very low prices - E series lenses are a good choice for those balancing optics quality and price. Takes an SB-10 speedlight, which is a little strange looking but gets the job done.
Features manual shutter and aperture selection, self-timer, depth-of-field preview, battery indicator, double exposure capability, AE lock, bulb-capability, and hot shoe mount. Shutter speeds from 8 secs to 1/1000 sec, plus M90 (no battery required for 1/90 sec shots, and bulb (as long as it's depressed, shutter's open) settings for time exposures. Tripod threads, flash sync mount. Takes two 1.5v silver S76 button batteries.
The only problem I've ever had was the shutter freezing open at extremely low temperatures, but even those images came out fairly interesting.

This was my first SLR, which I got from my uncle for free. It's been with me in freezing temperatures in Japan (okay...not freezing, but COLD...I'm from Australia and have a low cold threshold) to the sandy beaches of tropical Australia and even though I don't have a camera bag, and rarely have the lens cover on, I still end up with some pretty good photos (I wish I could say awesome but no matter how great the camera is, the photographer is not!).

Oh and as a general note, if you are taking outdoor photos in Australia, you should under-expose by a couple of stops because the sun is WAY too bright here. I thought I was going blind or I'd suddenly become bad at judging light.