Nikon FE with a 50mm f/2

shaunly

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Here's a question for the old school guys. I just picked up a Nikon FE with a 50mm f/2 Ai and a sb-18 flash for $95. Camera and lens is in MINT condition. I thought it was a pretty good deal and a fun camera start shooting film on. Ill post some pictures when I get home from work. What do you guys think?
 
Nikon FE was my first real camera, except i got mine with a 35-70 f/2.8D. Sold the lens, kept the body.
 
Yeah, that's about right....it's not a "steal" at that price, but the FE was always a decent Nikon. I owned one, and really liked it. The 50/2 I have owned two of,and still have one. It has a 6-bladed diaphragm, and is a really nice small lens that shoots great at around f/5.6. Prices on 35mm film equipment from the FE era have sunk very low, so $95 is not really a super-good deal.
 
Yeah, that's about right....it's not a "steal" at that price, but the FE was always a decent Nikon. I owned one, and really liked it. The 50/2 I have owned two of,and still have one. It has a 6-bladed diaphragm, and is a really nice small lens that shoots great at around f/5.6. Prices on 35mm film equipment from the FE era have sunk very low, so $95 is not really a super-good deal.

Thanks Derrel. Any recommendation on film? I want to shoot B&W only. Low cost is a plus too =D
 
Black and White Film Reviews

Well, depends on how you want to make the final images "viewable" and how you want to develop the film. I thin k the chromogenic B&W films, which can be developed at places that develop color negative film (RiteAid,Walgreens,WalMart, local labs, basically any lab that develops and prints color prints can develop chromogenic B&W film for you). With a chromogenic film, you can scan the negatives quite well,and easily, and the pictgures will look pretty good on-line or when inkjet printed.

If you are printing "wet", in an actual darkroom, and using an enlarger, "traditional" B&W films from KOdak and Ilford, like Tri-X and HP-4 are fine. THese films do not scan as well as the dye-based chromogenic B&W films, and the scans these films make look pretty grainy. Older traditional style films often are hard to scan well, and REALLY look much better when darkroom enlarged as they were intended to be.
 
I just packed up my FE when I got the D90, it's a GREAT camera! My FE came with a 50mm 1.8 series E Nikon lens as the standard lens. I put a couple of Vivitar zooms on it and I love using it. I would still be using it if wasn't for the processing sucks around me and I didn't enjoy taking photos and having them turn out like crap all the time and I always had undeveloped rolls sitting on my counter.

Enjoy the camera!
 
I owned an FE back in the mid-1980's. I liked most everything about it. It was a nice camera,and just like its companion, the Nikon FM, it could accept a couple of pre-AI condition lenses I used to have, which were an early 1970's model 35mm f/1.4 and a 50mm f/2 that was pre-Ai, as well as a 135mm f/2.8 O.C. Nikkor that was also pre-AI.I later sold it and bought an FE-2, and hand AI'd the lenses with a file!
 
Spend $40~50 on a daylight tank and the chemistry and shoot real B&W film. Go ahead and get a flat bed scanner that will scan 35mm, it can be done.

And get some filters. I like orange but yellow, and red are good too. You can't really do what filters do in Photoshop (at least in a couple days that is ;)).
 
I just inherited an FE along with a bunch of lenses. I don't think it had been used in over 20 years... everything, including the battery, still worked. It's an amazing camera. Congrats.
 
The FE or FE2 are my favorite film body to use. They're small and light, yet still all metal. I especially like the analog meter vs. the led or lcd meters in other nikon film bodies.

You got a good deal for a "mint" body and lens. If you put that camera up on ebay and advertised it as mint with pictures to prove it you'd get your $$ back for the body alone.
 
Thanks everyone! These are some great tips. I'm excited to start shooting film. :mrgreen:

Here are some pictures of the FE and 50mm f/2 Ai. I love old school MF lenses.

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Your 50mm f/2 had a nice AI-conversion performed on it! Nikon used to charge $35 for the AI-conversion work. Robert White is still performing similar, expert-level conversions.
 
Your 50mm f/2 had a nice AI-conversion performed on it! Nikon used to charge $35 for the AI-conversion work. Robert White is still performing similar, expert-level conversions.

Really? I thought mine is just the Ai version that came out in the 70s. I believe the non Ai one your talking about is the 50mm f/2 Nikkor-H, which were around the 50/60s. That needs to be converted to work with modern DSLR body. This was something I read up before, so I could totally be wrong.
 
BTW, CC on the pictures? It was shot on the counter of my store during work with available light and a white envelope as the back drop. =)
 

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