There were a lot of great cameras made by Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta, Konica, and others during the golden era of film SLRs, but IMO the best was the Olympus OM series, because designer Maitani started with the goal being an SLR and lenses which were small and light. The OM could do almost anything a pro Nikon could do, but cost less and was much less of a burden.
I don’t think I ever has a camera I was as comfortable with or as passionate about photography with than the Olympus OM-10. There were many reasons for this - my youth, my excitement - but I was never able to rekindle that passion when, after all of my Olympus camera stuff was stolen while traveling (along with 10+ undeveloped rolls of what I believed were the best pictures I had ever taken), I moved on to the Nikon system. That said, the FEs were just incredible, intuitive bodies that gave you tons of info through the viewfinder.
By the way - can anyone recommend an affordable, reliable mail-order 35mm development house?