Single Roll Review: Nikon FE2, Back From the Dead

I’ve mentioned before I’m a big fan of Nikon film cameras and have at some point owned almost every model of SLR they’ve made. When I had my film renaissance, the Nikon FM2 and Nikkor 105mm AIS lens were number one on my bucket list of gear I wanted to own some day. Thankfully I was able to get that camera a handful of years ago in a box of gear from a retiring photographer. It’s, in my opinion, the finest mechanical camera made outside of Germany. As I have used it more, I keep reading that it’s electronic sister is just as good and in some ways maybe a little better. They both use the same lenses, the same shutter capable of shooting 1/4000 second but the FE2 is a little quieter and has a nicer light meter.

I watched online and looked at garage sales the past few years and pretty much gave up ever finding one at a reasonable price. I do not like paying $200 for a piece of a kit I already have almost the exact same thing of, but I was willing to pay $50 or so if one popped up. Then just before Christmas last year I found a facebook marketplace deal I thought was too good to be true. The terrible picture definitely had the FE2 I wanted along with 4 lenses and another camera I figured I could sell for half of what the package was going to cost me. I was so excited to finally get the camera I completely forgot to check the internals and was just distracted by how weird the guy I was buying it from seemed. It was a hard lesson learned, but about halfway home I stopped for gas and checked it out…the titanium shutter was totally destroyed. Long story short, I know there are lots of damaged bodies out there and most of them are super cheap. I just needed an ebay special with a shutter I could swap out. I ended up finding what I needed, combined all the best parts and now have what looks and feels like a brand new camera.

For its first outing, I took it to Ann Arbor to shoot a few photos of the parts most people don’t look for. Here are the fruits of my labor. Now after shooting the roll in some of the greyest days Michigan has to offer, the FE2 might very well be my body of choice. Not enough to take as my main vacation body this year, but maybe enough to take out as my daily driver.

Mistake in Estes Park

Rocky Mountain National Park, Nikon f100

Shooting film in the Rocky Mountains is nothing like shooting anywhere else. The light is usually overwhelming, and the skies are a shade of blue you just don’t see in the Midwest United States. Decisions need to be made carefully and in situations like this I don’t have a lot of experience. So, when we visited Estes Park Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park, I decided to use the most advanced camera I owned, a Nikon f100. Metering the light for exposure and being able to autofocus seemed to be the perfect piece of gear to capture shots at 10,000 ft above sea level. I had specifically chosen to bring a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 film for this part of the trip. 100 iso film needs a lot of light but makes images with very fine grain and super sharp. This particular film stock tends to be more reddish in tone and doesn’t make for great portraits, it makes for good landscapes though.

Rocky Peak, Nikon f100

Resting Estes Elk, Nikon f100

Estes Reservoir, Nikon f100

Estes Beach, Nikon f100

For the trip I had been relying on the cameras ability to read the DX code on my film rolls. DX codes are similar to a QR code and tells the scanner inside a camera what iso the film should be exposed for. The higher the iso number, the less light it needs, either by time or size the lens aperture opens. Unfortunately, the roll prior to the Ektar being loaded had no DX code and I had manually set it for 400. By not changing it back to automatic, I had overridden the camera and forced it to shoot with significantly less light than it needed. If I had remembered this, I could have asked the lab to adjust their development time to accommodate it, which would have made for perfectly good photos and just a little more grain than usual. By not adjusting and running it through at the box speed, I ended up with some pretty underexposed photos. Besides the importance of learning a valuable lesson I do think I ended up with some neat shots. There’s a real Lunar feel in the mountains, and a vintage vibe on what I was able to grab at the Estes Park reservoir.

RMNP, Nikon f100

Hoopin, Nikon f100

Split Rail Estes, Nikon f100

Power Struggle, Nikon f100

I learned a lot on this trip in 2022, the most important one being to make sure I’m shooting at the right speed.

Mid-Summer Milford Memories

Apocalypse, Nikon FE

Every year without fail I make the decision to go and wander the Milford Memories street fair. I almost never end up buying anything, preferring walking and watching all the people that come for the same reason, and admiring art people far more talented than me have brought to display. This year also happened to coincide with finding a lens I have wanted to try for quite a while, a Nikon 50mm f1.2. I own several similar lenses with a smaller aperture. Aperture is basically how large a lens can open to allow light in for a photo and the smaller the number is, the larger the opening will be. Allowing more light in also enables you to use a faster shutter speed which is very useful in low light situations. For this lens I could very easily pick one up at any number of camera shops or eBay, but I wanted this specific version. It is a 55mm not a 50mm, but it’s close enough. It was built around 1972-1974 and was designed to be used with the original Nikon SLR bodies, but in most cases cannot be used with newer cameras. Nikon had realized this and made a factory kit for easy modification to the lens to be used with all ensuing cameras, but these kits have become very rare. This kit on this lens were exactly what I have been looking to pick up for at least the past year. It’s a big slab of glass and metal that looks right at home on any of my favorite cameras.

Milford Memories is a great art fair because it’s not only massive, but also very easy to navigate and has shade over about half of it. The people watching is good and even on a busy day it’s not super crowded. There is music, food, beer and most importantly for the day I went, plenty of photo opportunity. On this day, I had chosen to bring my new lens and decided I would try to shoot some expired Fujicolor Superia 400. It’s typically a film I avoid because of the way it makes colors lean more toward green, but if ever there was a time for experimenting today was the day. I shot it at 200 iso, which would allow more light to be exposed to the chemicals and if done properly can give a nice vintage look even in harsh daylight. I have been working on getting more comfortable shooting photos of people, which is much easier in large crowds. One thing I’ve noticed about taking street photos more and more is nobody really cares. It takes a little time to get over being overly self-conscious of it, but I think I’m finally getting to a point I can confidently go out and photograph even individuals without feeling weird about it.

Arms, Nikon FE

Bros, Nikon FE

The main draw of this trip was the art fair, but I had forgotten about my favorite business in the city. Right at the end of the downtown strip is an auto dealer specializing in classic cars and trucks. I’ve been meaning to go shoot here for several years once the outdoor selection was something I was interested in. They’ve had lots of intriguing vehicles on the lot, usually one or two I would be able to make something with. This day they had so many square body trucks and SUV’s out, I had to get all the standard shots of them. It doesn’t take much creativity to get a fender, or a side shot of a classic car, and many people would say it’s overdone. I am not that kind of person, and when is the next time I will have access to a bright red 1975 Ford Bronco?

Nikon FE

Overall, it really was an excellent day. Spending time with my wife on a beautiful sunny day in a fun small downtown with new gear was a great way to start the slow summer wind down. These various festivals are so much fun regardless of the topic they’re celebrating. I’ve been to art fairs, carnivals, music, and beer fests. I have yet to leave any of them feeling disappointed when I set aside a few hours to wander amongst the people.

Retrospective Travel Blog: Chicago 2022

April 2022 was a turning point for me and the confidence I had in my photography skill. I had been watching lots of YouTube travel videos of my favorite creators and finally decided I would take ONLY a film camera on our planned trip to Chicago. Prior to this I was using a very competent Mirrorless Nikon 1 J2 I had gotten from a friend. It served me well in its bright orange super compact body, but it was time for me to just jump in and give up the security of knowing instantly what my photos looked like. This would also be a warmup for our next National Parks trip planned for later that summer, and to be honest it worked out better than expected.

When I was choosing what camera and lens combo to take, I ended up taking the only autofocus body I had at the time, a Nikon N8008s. It is a very early model, built sometime between 1992-1995. The autofocus is slow and noisy, but accurate once you get the hang of it. The light meter is also accurate, and I never worried about it getting the exposure just right in bright light, shadow or even at night while wandering through the theater district. It just works. I paired it with a zoom lens that is also not really known to be anything other than an “adequate” do it all tool. The NIKKOR 28-85mm 3.5-4.5 AF is a good match to the N8008s as they are both good at everything and excellent at nothing. I also wanted to take something I would not be terribly upset if either one ended up being broken or lost. I did end up having a heavy glass door slammed closed on the body but not even a scratch was sustained.

Walking with this hanging around my neck for 2 days was a little cumbersome, but it felt less heavy than most of the other autofocus cameras I’ve had. I also got more compliments on this one than I’ve ever gotten for any camera. Shout out to Zach at the Downtown LEGO store. I did make a mistake and loaded it with Black and White film before we went to the top of the Willis Tower, but it still made some nice photos. Much better than I took in the early 90’s when we went with my youth group, and it was still called the Sears Tower. The sunset wasn’t amazing, but it deserved better than BW film.

On the way back to the hotel all the streetlights were coming on and made the buildings feel like they were coming to life. We were staying in one of the hotels attached to a theater and those last few blocks of walking were brilliant.

 Chicago during daytime was slow to wake up. We made it to Cloud Gate (The Bean), and it was almost deserted. They were filming a scene for Chicago PD and said we could stay to the side as a part of the background extras. I was the only one interested, so we wandered back over to the sculpture, and I took what I would consider a selfie from the inside of it. I felt very much like I was working on a random college project and it was 1995 again.

The rest of the day was spent walking to and through the Museum of Natural History, Soldier Field and then some casual shopping while trying to avoid obvious tourist traps and dark alleyways. Of course, we did have to have Chicago Style Hot Dogs at Portillo’s…It was worth the 2-mile walk. Trying to squeeze a full Chicago weekend into just under 1000 words is tough, so I’m going to let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Overall, I was very pleased with how well the camera performed in so many different situations and have recommended it to multiple people looking for an inexpensive film camera. I got mine from KEH.com in excellent condition for around $60, and the lens came on a different body I bought previously. It can be had currently for around $50 and works with any manual focus Nikon body going back to the original F from 1959 and I still use it with my newest Digital D500. If you need a lens and I still have this one, I’d be happy to rehome it. These late 80’s to early 90’s autofocus film cameras are a steal of a deal for anyone that wants to learn to take a nice photo.