My Nikon FE
| 3 min read
Well, I bought the FE. Got it at my local camera store, Eagle Photo. Used, of course, but in quite good condition. It appears to have been well loved but so far so good. I bought it with a ton of cheap, expired film so that I can test to see if it works correctly ect.
When I called their earlier today they told me they had the FE and a 24mm f/2.8 lens for very little money. I said great, I'll be there before you close. When I got there the FE was there and looked good but the 24mm they were talking about was an off brand Tokina. For the price, $69, it was worth some thought but it is a very old lens and I just didn't want to bother. The Nikon 24mm sells for three times the price and isn't up to todays standards... I can't imagine how awful the off brand would look. Not worth it to me. At least if I could take advantage of it using my digitals it would be fun to play with but having it limited to just the FE and of low image quality just doesn't make sense. I will have to keep searching for a wide angle prime. The only down side, so far, with the camera is that it is all black and I kinda preferred the look of the chrome one... Oh well. Doesn't affect the images and I have the camera now, instead of later. I'm going to shoot a half dozen rolls of film and then get them developed before my mini-vacation next week to make sure it all works. If it does, keep you eyes peeled for some talk about film versus digital.
I bought the camera because I want to know what it's like to have to work for the images. The FE will tell you what settings to change for the exposure but it won't do it for you. It will tell you if the image is in focus, but you need to turn the knob. I have to feed the film forward after every shot and then I need to rewind it when the film runs out. It's a very tactile experience that is quite satisfying, so far. In the coming months I may even get into developing the film myself. That will be a learning curve I'm sure but a fun challenge none the less.
Topslakr