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.