The Nikon FE2

The Nikon FE2 has become a popular film camera during the analog resurgence of the 2010s and 2020s. This may be partly because it looks a bit retro, like the FM2, but it's also an option genuinely worth considering if you're in the market for a manual film SLR. I owned one from 2014 to about 2022. let me tell you about some of its features, and what I think are some of its pros & cons.

It features the Nikon F-mount and can take most F-mount lenses as long as the lens has an aperture ring and is not a pre-ai lens.

Note: Pre AI(S) lenses that are unconverted can not be used on the FE2 as it lacks the flip up tab on the mount that the F3, FE, and FM all have.

Despite lacking the flip up tab that its predecessor has the FE2 comes with a much higher maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 of a second. The camera also features the best light meter display I’ve used - match needle metering. The viewfinder is bright, clear, and large - making it easy to manually focus. The viewfinder displays shutter speed with two notches. One displays your selected shutter speed and the other displays what the light meter thinks the speed should be in order to get correct exposure.

This metering display gives you an immediate visual showing how many stops over or under you are. You can see immediately how you are exposing your film. I wish the Nikon F3 had this type of metering as it is the best I’ve come across as far as being intuitive to read. I much prefer this style of light meter than the one the just tells you if you are over, under, or on point.

When you are composing an image you may not want the frame to be ‘accurately’ exposed. You might want it to be under or over exposed for artistic reasons.

If if want my frame to be underexposed, for arts sake, and the FE2 meter is telling me 1/125 in I can just imagine how I want the center of the frame to look and adjust my exposure by eye to 1/250 or 1/500 easily.

On the other hand, if I am using my F3's +/- style meter I need to put the subject in the center of the frame, get accurate exposure, then adjust up or down depending on what I want. It's another step. In real life I would probably use an external light meter during any important photo session but I might wing it with the FE2's match needle meter in more situations than with other cameras.

The Nikon FE2 is well built without being overly heavy. It's easy to carry around due to the light weight but if you have larger hands it is not the most ergonomic camera to hold for longer periods. It’s not that the FE2 is bad, it’s just not as comfortable to hold as the F3, F301 or another SLR with that small grip built into the body. This is of course personal preference, maybe someone else prefers the handling of this style of camera.

A great thing for photographers thinking about picking up this camera is how simple it is to use. There is no auto-focus to think about just an ISO dial, a knob for shutter speed, then you set your aperture on the lens. This is one of the reasons the FE2 is a great choice for a beginner film photographer, it’s not just that it’s one of the cameras all over social media. It’s really simple to use, it’s a well built, and has all the features you'd ever need from a manual focus SLR.

The FE2 I bought was the second film SLR I bought for myself after the F301. The advantages it had over that camera were 1/4000 shutter speed versus 1/2000, it could do multiple exposures, and it looked more hipster! I’m not sure if that last one is a pro or a con? I kept mine a few years then on-sold it. Why? It had an issue with the battery connection and would drain its battery really hard. I’d pick it up, fire the shutter, and it would lock up. This happened on a lot of occasions. Someone was willing to take the risk and send it to get serviced so I sold them my FE2.

Would I have kept my FE2 if it didn’t have these problems? Yeah, I probably would have. It’s something I considered when I was buying my F3 last year. Should I spend the money on a better condition FE2 or FM3a in the hopes of getting a copy without issues? The FE2 is a camera with many positives. Ultimately my deciding factor was the F3HP viewfinder. I will post about why this was important to me soon. But I think an, FE2 in good condition, is a great option that a lot of photographers should consider.