Nikon FE - still a great film camera

[melek]

I had been in Germany about four months, and it was time to buy a camera. I had already sold my Pentax MX, and the only camera that I had was a Rollei 35 T, which was a great little camera right up until I said to my wife, "Here, hold onto this for me," and I never saw it again.

I bought the FE body, the 50mm Nikkor and a Vivitar Series 1 35-85 lenses. At some point, I went back and bought a 28mm Nikkor, which is seen on the camera.

The FE was Nikon's response to the smaller cameras that had become popular because of the Olympus OM series. The FE essentially is the Nikon EL2 without the weight and the PX28 6-volt battery that fits under the mirror. And the EL2's battery draining issue.

I shot the heck out of the camera for the next two years and then even more for the next four years while in college and doing freelance work for my hometown newspaper.

The FE really sold me on the Nikon name, and I followed that up with the F2A a few months later. My only complaint about the FE is that the film advance has to pulled to the "standoff" position, otherwise the shutter release is locked. That has caused me to miss a number of shots.

Since I bought it in 1979, the only thing that it's needed, aside from batteries and film, has been new foam seals, which I installed about 10 years ago. I should replace them with my other type of foam.

Here's the original sales receipt from the Base Exchange (BX).

[PFMcFarland]

I had one for a short while. Well, actually for a long while, but it only worked for a short time. When it did work, I remember how great it was to have AE when I was shooting a 5K footrace. I got a roll and a half through it before the shutter conked out. Took it back to the used camera store I got it from, and they supposedly fixed it. Only made it through another half roll of film before it died again. I took it back to get my money back, and they said I'd had it too long to get a refund. So I took it to a repair shop, where I found out the shutter was ruined, and they couldn't get a replacement. "They made a huge amount of these cameras only a few years ago, and you can't get one little shutter?" I asked. I got one of those dumb looks back, so I just chalked it up to experience, and never did any business with that camera store again (or the repair shop). How Columbus Camera Group is still in business, I'll never know. I never pursued getting another one because shortly after I got the N90s.

I did like the way it handled, and was completely compatible with my FM, so I wouldn't have to buy anything extra for it. I thought I'd pity the person who wound up with it at the auction, but then they paid very little for it.

PF

[Julio1fer]

I got a black FE from my late father, with 55/2.8 lens. Later I bought a 28/3.5, same as yours. It handles beautifully,

[titrisol]

The FE is a great camera! It was the camera that got me into the Nikon bandwagon, which I entered kicking and screaming as I still love my dad's Spotmatic. I bought the FE2 from a gringo that came to Ecuador, and fell in love with it... until it was stolen in a trip to Peru (April 1995).

My uncle is a Nikon aficionado, and at the time, for him it was kind of anathema to have an electronic shutter...
however, this camera was lighter than the F/F2 and still very well made. The quality of the camera, and the precision of the exposure won him over though
I liked the fact that it can take almost all types of Nikkors built until that time, including the rabbit ears and the AI lenses. I believe that some modern lenses work as long as they have aperture ring (but can't attest to it). He liked the fact that the clunky exposure prism was not there and that made the camera easier to carry and sleeker n design.
It was a very rugged camera, I hiked with it on the Ecuadorean Andes, through the jungles, the coast and even in the Islands and got a few dents and bumps but it never failed.... and even when the batteries ran out I could still guesstimate exposure and shoot at 1/90

After that loss, I bought a Nikon N2002/F301 as a replacement, but it wasn't the same....

Years later I got a FE+lenses for free when it was going to be tossed away (2003 I think), I used it to take a lot of pictures of my kids.
I stil love it, great camera!
Nikon FE and some lenses

Also the lens family that came at the time Ai-S was outstanding. The 50/1.4; the 28/2.8 are just superb!

[Captain Slack]

That looks like the one I used to have! What a great camera! Really regretted selling it, but I'd switched over to Pentax M42 mount lenses and didn't really need the Nikon stuff anymore. If I were to go back, though, it would be the first camera I'd buy.

[Bennybee]

My first Nikon was an FM, bought right when they first came out. I took all my savings and went to the local camera store to buy a Nikkormat FT3, but the shop owner put an FM in front of me and I was sold ilmmediately! I never owned an FE but I used an FE2 once and I liked it very much. An FE or FM is the only camera one will ever need, together with some nice AI Nikkors. (I wonder why I gathered all that other stuff then...)