I allways get it confused with the FA, but I own a FE as well and it is one of those cameras that capture the essence of a 35mm camera, with its basic “all you need and nothing g you don’t ” principle, mine is the all black version. It is a cool camera for the person who wants to get into film photography with something he or she can grow with… And I think Matt Granger honed his craft on a FE. Oh and by the way, I fell in the same trap as you when I got it, no batteries so the mirror stuck in the up position...until I tryed the B and M times. @@AzrielKnight
I bought one clean as a whistle with the same issue at a garage sale. $10 with a 50mm f1.8. Gave it away, nice camera. The person I gave it to just loves it.
I looooove me FE. Meter is accurate, viewfinder shows everything you could want, you can adjust everything without looking away. It doesn’t look like much, but I think it does everything you could want from a manual camera. Thanks for the video
I’ve got a number of these old Nikon SLRs, F,F2, F3,...... I love them all. Lots of old glass to chose from. Thanks for the video. Also really small town you were shooting in, no Timmy Ho’s around.
I have one of those too! My brother gave it to me after he stopped shooting film. It had been lying around for at least ten years without being used. I just picked it up and started shooting. Worked perfectly, didn't even need a new battery! Nice little camera. I like the size and light weight. And the shutter on mine is really nice and smooth. Not too clunky.
That's great Don. Sometimes when they are not used for a long time they lock up, but it sounds like everything is fine. I once found a AA battery, 25 years old or more and still holds a charge. They don't make 'em like they used to.
Oh shit, an actual REO Speedwagon. Those are quite rare to see in the wild. Also I was going back and forth about getting a second Nikon SLR, and after some thought I went for the N2020 I almost picked up an FE but, I thought that I'd like to try a more advanced model. I am thinking of picking up a Nikkormat at some point however. It's a little funny how my Nikon selection goes from the F, now to the N2020 and then directly to the D50. almost a stepping stone feeling to it. Anyway great video as usual Azriel When I finally get time and the whole situation of editing software figured out, I'll start throwing videos up on my second channel. I am thinking of starting out with my first 35mm SLR the Konica FC-1 and kinda going through them as how I got all the cameras, if I remember the order properly. Oh I also have a Kiev 19 on the way with the Helios-81H. That is going to be a fun addition to both the Soviet camera collection and the F mount collection. -Shane
Yeah, from most people I talk to the FE is one of those bodies that seem like it's a good spare body, I think it's a good shooter from the time I've used my friends, but I usually gravitate to older models more than the electronically controlled ones. (then again I am picking up a N2020 next week) Nikon has a few bodies that seem to fit somewhere in between the high end and more basic models. But I digress. the FE is a fine camera indeed.
My Nikon FE2 is one of my favorite ever cameras. 1/4000th max shutter speed, plus a flash sync speed of 1/250th. Pretty impressive specs for a 35 year old SLR. You mentioned you had issues with newton rings on your flatbed scanner. I've found that scanning with the emulsion side down on the scanner glass helps mitigate this.
Dark line on a scan from negative is probably not dirt as dirt would show white when reversed into a positive image (like the dust on the negative does). It's probably a "dead" pixel on the sensor, my Epson V600 made a dark line right from the box and the shop had the sensor assembly replaced under warranty.
I bought an FE last night and the seller just wanted to get rid of a "bag of dead cameras". I shared with him that if probably just needed new batteries and he didn't care. "$300 camera for 50 and all that other stuff too. Do you want it?" Yup. Sure enough - new batteries brought it back to life but I did double check on YT and found your video handy. I enjoy your videos, Azriel. Thanks for sharing, always. Are you from Alberta???
Great work, Azriel. It's always a joy when I have one of video of yours in my RUclips queue. Loved the intro. I'm currently shooting my second roll on my Nikon FE2 with 50mm 1.8 E. It's a solid combo. Your video is greater. One thing I would like to see on your videos is more closely presentation of the camera and they features as you had on your older review videos. You you consider going back to that?
Good review as usual. Nice shots as well. I've also been diagnosed with that terrible disease, 'Myownstupidity'. I've also found out I'm allergic to 'Otherpeoplesstupidity'. A truly debilitating combination!
Cool. BTW Tri-X has nothing to do with newton rings. Any film will produce them if your scanning process makes for them. Just use ANR glass. FE is amazing awesome super reliable and simple to shoot with camera. I had great results with it and love it.
Please explain "scanning process makes for them" because it's the curve of the film that creates it and tri-x is curvier than HP5 I own newton glass. It needs to be taped down, so I am down one strip of film, and one frame per film (covered by the tape) We agree the FE is amazing though :)
@@AzrielKnight Hey, so the rings are caused by contact of 2 smooth surfaces. In my experience even slightly curved film will create rings if there is contact to glass. But with using ANR glass fixes that. Usually ANR glass has one treated surface, that should touch film, and one regular. Check the reflections of some light source on both sides of ANR glass to see which side (more dissolved reflection) should touch the film. I first mixed it up, thought ANR glass isn't working, until figured to use proper side. Good luck, hope that helps, please let me know! Like your videos, please do more)
Cool channel from a fellow Canadian! I use the plastic, purpose built bags for rain shooting. They don't quite fit too well with a long telephoto though, the ones I got anyhow. I love seeing these older cameras.
Ah yes, my first camera. I don't use it as much now that I have my Minolta, but whenever I'd rather just go with aperture priority and focus on composing my shots the FE is always my go-to.
12 1/2 hrs. Not the closest, but you're a border state, so ya never know. I've had offers from people before it's always really nice and makes me wish I traveled more.
FE and its cousin, the mechanical FM, are both amazing and very capable "small" cameras; maybe I could say that I prefer the smaller Pentax MX and Olympus OM-1, but I've got to admit that the Nikon looks and and maybe it is, more solid and stronger... Beautiful camera!
Love my FE with the series E lens. I was expecting the lens to be crap but it's quite nice. The FE and series E combo is my go to night shooter. Also love the way the light meter works.
I agree. I never expect stellar results when I get a 50mm with the camera I'm trying. I'm like "oh, there's a 50 on here, hurrah..." This time I was like "hmh!"
I have the FE2 and I fing the ISO setting is hard to read on the ring, you can read it but not easily. Also the film advance crank arm that has to be pulled to put the camera ON is not something very user friendly for someone who is wearing glasses
Nice one, these are always a joy to watch. I'm lucky enough to have both an FM2n and FE, the FE was given to me by a colleague but I think it's actually my favorite out of the two. I had some lockups when I first got it, eventually took the bottom plate off and reflowed solder on the battery connections, which was easy to do and seemed to cure it. Had several of the Nikon 50mm lenses of that generation, the 1.8 and 2.0 I've used were fantastic. I don't like the 1.4, maybe I have a bad copy but image quality on mine is not very good. My favorite is the 55mm 2.8 micro if you can find a later one after they changed the grease to prevent oily blades. My only issue with these otherwise brilliant cameras is the wind lever is used as on/off switch and when it's in the on position standing off the body it gets in the way of my head. I got into the habit of keeping my thumb under it which makes it comfortable enough.
Oops, something I was intending to say but forgot... I've had little intermittent hairline scratches along the length of the film caused by the normal clear plastic 35mm printfile sleeves (presumably scratched by dust during loading into the sleeves, tri-x was especially bad due to the curl making it a very tight fit sliding into the pockets). I'd been using them for 10 years by that point but just upgraded my scanner and they were showing up on the new one. Solved by switching to side loading sleeves from archival methods to hold the film and then binder pages from printfile that take these for storage although there's probably no saving the hundreds of old rolls sadly.
I think they actually call them "side lock", my mistake. Archival methods # 31-101 are the ones I have. It's harder plastic with a couple of folds in it so they open up to drop in a film strip rather than having to slide it in from one end and it then locks closed. The local pro lab (back when we still had one) returned the entire roll of film uncut in a giant long sleeve of this type (the 220 ones were especially spectacular). Printfile makes special pages to hold these in a binder under the "ultima" name e.g. # 010-0135. I thought I'd give the actual item numbers because the website is confusing, these pages take 6 side lock sleeves but do not come with them. Unfortunately this solution costs more than the standard pages, and are a bit fiddly to use especially at first. A possible alternative for avoiding scratches are glassine sleeves although I'm told they are "not archival" (I've had film stored in them for 15+ years).
The problem I had may be a fairly special case (although I found others who'd had it online, that's where the solution came from) so a few further words of explanation. The scanner I had the problem with is one of the plustek 35mm models and seems to use a very harsh condenser type light source. The scratches are on the film base side, not the emulsion, and would show up only on this scanner. Holding the film up to the light or on my older epson flatbed they didn't show up, but by holding a flashlight at the correct angle I can see them. I confirmed this was what's happening by sliding some film strips in and out of the sleeves and scanning them each time, they got progressively more scratched each time they were sleeved. Some films seem more prone to it than others, Fuji Acros was the one I had the most trouble on. I live in an old building so it's next to impossible to eliminate dust and this may also play a role.
The list of cameras, which I'm absolutely sure they have manual exposure override; Nikon FE, FE2, F3, Olympus OM2, OM2sp, OM4, OM4Ti, Pentax ME, ME super, Program A, Super A (super program), I'm not quite sure about Pentax LX, And I can't vouch for any old Minolta or Canon, except Canon F1N, which has manual exposures from 1/60 to 1/2000. Nikon FM3/A has all exposures workable both in electronic an analogue mode available, meaning that camera will work in auto exposure, but also in manual mode without batteries. Hope this was helpful...
Something you'll also want to keep in mind is that the aperture priority mode on the FE can do funny things in really low light. Make sure the light meter is always reading in the 4-8 second range. If there is not enough light, the meter will sit at the bottom of the scale. This will cause the camera to think that there is absolutely no light, resulting in an exposure time of infinity. If you fire the shutter while the meter reads nothing, the shutter will lock open indefinitely until you switch the camera off. If you want to do exposures beyond 5-8 seconds, your best bet is to either use one of the manual (non auto) speeds or bulb mode and manually time out our exposure. Do not trust the aperture priory (auto) for long exposures.
You can ABSOLUTELY trust this camera for long auto exposures, I've taken plenty with the FE. "If there is not enough light, the meter will sit at the bottom of the scale. Thus will cause the camera to think there is absolutely no light..." Where on earth are you getting this?
My friend did a long exposure at night looking up at the starts and treetops under fire light and it exploded it perfectly. It seems to add reciprocity failure, in practice.
nice review. in older vids you'd point out some interesting and weird things about the history of the camera, which i always really enjoyed. maybe in future review vids you'll bring that back in? ; )
I still do those, but they take a long time to make. I require physical media, deep dives into google and more editing time. The general idea is I do a first impressions video and the ones that perform well move onto to T.O.C. at some point.
Thanks Renz. I did this 80s theme just before the explosion of 80's stuff. Always liked the 80's and was getting quite used to being "that guy" Now I'm slightly annoyed :P
So, I don't mean to complain - I love your content. But have you ever tried keeping the photos still? They're always a bit blurry because RUclips. I only say this because I want to see them in as much detail as possible!
Since you brought it up, the 50/1.8 E lens was the "kit lens" for the lowest tier SLRs: EM, FG and later the FG-20. Optically, it's a very good lens. The plastic body, lack of the AI meter coupling prong, and a switch from the AI (and AI-S) green-tinted optical coating to the more common (among other brands) purplish coating led many to assume it was inferior to the AI-S version your FE would usually be kitted with This is the same optical formula carried over to the AF version. My original FM-2 was stolen, along with the 28, 50, and 105mm AI-s lenses. I was fit to be hog-tied when the insurance company replaced the 28 and 50mm with the AF versions. I lost the battle but won the war. The replacement FM-2 ended up being the n variant (as in FM-2n).
The principle difference between the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 of that period and the 50mm Series E (here) is the coating, as you noted. The Series E lenses are single coated, whereas by then all Nikkors were multicoated (better contrast and color saturation). Apart from their plastic build, which turned out to be not a problem of durability as suspected at the time, the Series E Nikon lenses got a reputation as inferior. This situation resulted from two factors: (1) Nikon went to lengths to associate the series of lenses with their then-new, lower cost consumer models, the EM/FG/FG-2, and (2) some of the Series E lenses are truly Dogs, such as the 28mm. Many were of average performance quality, like the 50mm and 35mm. A few proved to be outstanding lenses, still prized and sought after: 100mm, 75-150mm zoom.
I tend to review whatever comes my way, and up here in Alberta. I have seen like 3 good Nikon's in the last few years. I hate to admit but I think Nikon was a more professional choice of the time and Canon was trying to make pros out of consumers, which is why you see so many more of them. So yes but not at EBay prices :)
@@AzrielKnight For sure, Nikon certainly was a more professional brand. And what you said makes a lot of sense. I'm hoping one will appear nevertheless. :) I have never used one but got the chance to test it at a fair, it was perfect. My biggest regret was that I didn't have any money on me because it was very cheap...
I love the safety on the back opening. Some backs are too easy to open. Result, ruined pictures. Yo Nikon not Nykon. As usual you Americans including Paul Simon can't pronounce it. I am proud to speak English and to be English
Thanks for the comment Neil. I agree on the pronunciation, I just don't care, as I don't want to be that guy. You can chalk it up to my very NOT american accent.
Love the FE, probably my favorite manual focus camera.
What makes it unique for you?
I allways get it confused with the FA, but I own a FE as well and it is one of those cameras that capture the essence of a 35mm camera, with its basic “all you need and nothing g you don’t ” principle, mine is the all black version. It is a cool camera for the person who wants to get into film photography with something he or she can grow with… And I think Matt Granger honed his craft on a FE.
Oh and by the way, I fell in the same trap as you when I got it, no batteries so the mirror stuck in the up position...until I tryed the B and M times. @@AzrielKnight
Good to see you moved the camera a bit in from the edge of the table. ;-)
I had inspiration :)
Those old rusty cars look amazing. Another great vid man.
Thanks Bill, appreciate that :)
I bought one clean as a whistle with the same issue at a garage sale. $10 with a 50mm f1.8. Gave it away, nice camera. The person I gave it to just loves it.
Love the shots of the old cars. I love doing this whenever I run across a neat looking one.
I looooove me FE. Meter is accurate, viewfinder shows everything you could want, you can adjust everything without looking away. It doesn’t look like much, but I think it does everything you could want from a manual camera. Thanks for the video
I’ve got a number of these old Nikon SLRs, F,F2, F3,...... I love them all. Lots of old glass to chose from. Thanks for the video. Also really small town you were shooting in, no Timmy Ho’s around.
Thanks for the comment Martin! For the record, I hate Timmy's anyway. ;)
Woo! Glad to see another video from you.
I have one of those too! My brother gave it to me after he stopped shooting film. It had been lying around for at least ten years without being used. I just picked it up and started shooting. Worked perfectly, didn't even need a new battery!
Nice little camera. I like the size and light weight. And the shutter on mine is really nice and smooth. Not too clunky.
That's great Don. Sometimes when they are not used for a long time they lock up, but it sounds like everything is fine.
I once found a AA battery, 25 years old or more and still holds a charge. They don't make 'em like they used to.
That's very true for both cameras and batteries :-) And light bulbs!
Glad to see you got the FE working Azriel! That REO Speedwagon shot was a fantastic find :D
Thanks Reece :)
Oh shit, an actual REO Speedwagon. Those are quite rare to see in the wild. Also I was going back and forth about getting a second Nikon SLR, and after some thought I went for the N2020 I almost picked up an FE but, I thought that I'd like to try a more advanced model. I am thinking of picking up a Nikkormat at some point however. It's a little funny how my Nikon selection goes from the F, now to the N2020 and then directly to the D50. almost a stepping stone feeling to it. Anyway great video as usual Azriel When I finally get time and the whole situation of editing software figured out, I'll start throwing videos up on my second channel. I am thinking of starting out with my first 35mm SLR the Konica FC-1 and kinda going through them as how I got all the cameras, if I remember the order properly. Oh I also have a Kiev 19 on the way with the Helios-81H. That is going to be a fun addition to both the Soviet camera collection and the F mount collection. -Shane
Thanks for the comment :) I'm trying to decide whether or not to sell or hold onto the FE for a bit.
Yeah, from most people I talk to the FE is one of those bodies that seem like it's a good spare body, I think it's a good shooter from the time I've used my friends, but I usually gravitate to older models more than the electronically controlled ones. (then again I am picking up a N2020 next week) Nikon has a few bodies that seem to fit somewhere in between the high end and more basic models. But I digress. the FE is a fine camera indeed.
My Nikon FE2 is one of my favorite ever cameras. 1/4000th max shutter speed, plus a flash sync speed of 1/250th. Pretty impressive specs for a 35 year old SLR. You mentioned you had issues with newton rings on your flatbed scanner. I've found that scanning with the emulsion side down on the scanner glass helps mitigate this.
Do you experience any loss in sharpness?
@@AzrielKnight I haven't noticed any substantial difference, at least at 2400 dpi.
Dark line on a scan from negative is probably not dirt as dirt would show white when reversed into a positive image (like the dust on the negative does). It's probably a "dead" pixel on the sensor, my Epson V600 made a dark line right from the box and the shop had the sensor assembly replaced under warranty.
I have encountered a line before on my scanner as well that turned out to be dirt on the scanning sensor. which creates a digital line.
Bought a locked up FE2 years ago....cheap....battery:-0)
I bought an FE last night and the seller just wanted to get rid of a "bag of dead cameras". I shared with him that if probably just needed new batteries and he didn't care. "$300 camera for 50 and all that other stuff too. Do you want it?" Yup. Sure enough - new batteries brought it back to life but I did double check on YT and found your video handy. I enjoy your videos, Azriel. Thanks for sharing, always. Are you from Alberta???
I am in Alberta. and wow! What a great find!
@@AzrielKnight , do you find yours to be a battery guzzler?
You are good my man. Your videos are fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Aristo
this is the one i've been waiting for , the safety switch on the rewind is the same on the FM and FE2 .
The sprawling metropolis that is Hasar. The city that never wakes lol 😉 Great pics as always Azriel ☺
Great little place though, wish I hit the cafe.
Shots came out great!!! I feel like I get stuck out in the rain more lately than not while shooting!
Hey Dude!! Love the podcast :)
Hey... happy for you mate. Good that the camera wasnt broken after all. 👍
Thanks Angelo!
That intro was great :-) seems to be a nice camera. Oh and pretty good pictures!
Thanks! x3!
Great work, Azriel. It's always a joy when I have one of video of yours in my RUclips queue. Loved the intro. I'm currently shooting my second roll on my Nikon FE2 with 50mm 1.8 E. It's a solid combo. Your video is greater. One thing I would like to see on your videos is more closely presentation of the camera and they features as you had on your older review videos. You you consider going back to that?
Thanks Sérgio. Yes, more shots of the cameras in future videos. Just getting back into the groove ;)
Good review as usual. Nice shots as well.
I've also been diagnosed with that terrible disease, 'Myownstupidity'.
I've also found out I'm allergic to 'Otherpeoplesstupidity'. A truly debilitating combination!
Cool. BTW Tri-X has nothing to do with newton rings. Any film will produce them if your scanning process makes for them. Just use ANR glass. FE is amazing awesome super reliable and simple to shoot with camera. I had great results with it and love it.
Please explain "scanning process makes for them" because it's the curve of the film that creates it and tri-x is curvier than HP5
I own newton glass. It needs to be taped down, so I am down one strip of film, and one frame per film (covered by the tape)
We agree the FE is amazing though :)
@@AzrielKnight Hey, so the rings are caused by contact of 2 smooth surfaces. In my experience even slightly curved film will create rings if there is contact to glass. But with using ANR glass fixes that. Usually ANR glass has one treated surface, that should touch film, and one regular. Check the reflections of some light source on both sides of ANR glass to see which side (more dissolved reflection) should touch the film. I first mixed it up, thought ANR glass isn't working, until figured to use proper side. Good luck, hope that helps, please let me know! Like your videos, please do more)
Cool channel from a fellow Canadian! I use the plastic, purpose built bags for rain shooting. They don't quite fit too well with a long telephoto though, the ones I got anyhow. I love seeing these older cameras.
Ah yes, my first camera. I don't use it as much now that I have my Minolta, but whenever I'd rather just go with aperture priority and focus on composing my shots the FE is always my go-to.
Thanks for the comment. yeah unless I'm trying to freeze something fast or blur something, the shutter just needs to be higher than my focal length.
Man I wish I could go out shooting with you sometime. Enjoy your sense of humor and your eye for composition.
Thanks man, where you at?
@@AzrielKnight I am currently in North Dakota so pretty far from you.
12 1/2 hrs. Not the closest, but you're a border state, so ya never know. I've had offers from people before it's always really nice and makes me wish I traveled more.
FE and its cousin, the mechanical FM, are both amazing and very capable "small" cameras; maybe I could say that I prefer the smaller Pentax MX and Olympus OM-1, but I've got to admit that the Nikon looks and and maybe it is, more solid and stronger... Beautiful camera!
Thanks for the comment Alfonso. I have little experience around Nikon but my ears will perk up when I see one now!
The Nikon FE great memory’s nice picture’s
Thanks very much Jan!
Love my FE with the series E lens. I was expecting the lens to be crap but it's quite nice. The FE and series E combo is my go to night shooter. Also love the way the light meter works.
I agree. I never expect stellar results when I get a 50mm with the camera I'm trying. I'm like "oh, there's a 50 on here, hurrah..." This time I was like "hmh!"
The problem I have when using it at night time is that it is difficult to see the needle,p- wish it had the system employed in the fm series
I have the FE2 and I fing the ISO setting is hard to read on the ring, you can read it but not easily. Also the film advance crank arm that has to be pulled to put the camera ON is not something very user friendly for someone who is wearing glasses
Yeah, setting the right ISO was a little fussy. I just chalked it up to not reading the manual.
Nice one, these are always a joy to watch. I'm lucky enough to have both an FM2n and FE, the FE was given to me by a colleague but I think it's actually my favorite out of the two. I had some lockups when I first got it, eventually took the bottom plate off and reflowed solder on the battery connections, which was easy to do and seemed to cure it. Had several of the Nikon 50mm lenses of that generation, the 1.8 and 2.0 I've used were fantastic. I don't like the 1.4, maybe I have a bad copy but image quality on mine is not very good. My favorite is the 55mm 2.8 micro if you can find a later one after they changed the grease to prevent oily blades. My only issue with these otherwise brilliant cameras is the wind lever is used as on/off switch and when it's in the on position standing off the body it gets in the way of my head. I got into the habit of keeping my thumb under it which makes it comfortable enough.
Oops, something I was intending to say but forgot... I've had little intermittent hairline scratches along the length of the film caused by the normal clear plastic 35mm printfile sleeves (presumably scratched by dust during loading into the sleeves, tri-x was especially bad due to the curl making it a very tight fit sliding into the pockets). I'd been using them for 10 years by that point but just upgraded my scanner and they were showing up on the new one. Solved by switching to side loading sleeves from archival methods to hold the film and then binder pages from printfile that take these for storage although there's probably no saving the hundreds of old rolls sadly.
side loading sleeves?
I think they actually call them "side lock", my mistake. Archival methods # 31-101 are the ones I have. It's harder plastic with a couple of folds in it so they open up to drop in a film strip rather than having to slide it in from one end and it then locks closed. The local pro lab (back when we still had one) returned the entire roll of film uncut in a giant long sleeve of this type (the 220 ones were especially spectacular). Printfile makes special pages to hold these in a binder under the "ultima" name e.g. # 010-0135. I thought I'd give the actual item numbers because the website is confusing, these pages take 6 side lock sleeves but do not come with them. Unfortunately this solution costs more than the standard pages, and are a bit fiddly to use especially at first. A possible alternative for avoiding scratches are glassine sleeves although I'm told they are "not archival" (I've had film stored in them for 15+ years).
The problem I had may be a fairly special case (although I found others who'd had it online, that's where the solution came from) so a few further words of explanation. The scanner I had the problem with is one of the plustek 35mm models and seems to use a very harsh condenser type light source. The scratches are on the film base side, not the emulsion, and would show up only on this scanner. Holding the film up to the light or on my older epson flatbed they didn't show up, but by holding a flashlight at the correct angle I can see them. I confirmed this was what's happening by sliding some film strips in and out of the sleeves and scanning them each time, they got progressively more scratched each time they were sleeved. Some films seem more prone to it than others, Fuji Acros was the one I had the most trouble on. I live in an old building so it's next to impossible to eliminate dust and this may also play a role.
looks like some of this is missing but I get the idea. thanks for the info. Def something to consider.
The list of cameras, which I'm absolutely sure they have manual exposure override; Nikon FE, FE2, F3, Olympus OM2, OM2sp, OM4, OM4Ti, Pentax ME, ME super, Program A, Super A (super program), I'm not quite sure about Pentax LX, And I can't vouch for any old Minolta or Canon, except Canon F1N, which has manual exposures from 1/60 to 1/2000. Nikon FM3/A has all exposures workable both in electronic an analogue mode available, meaning that camera will work in auto exposure, but also in manual mode without batteries. Hope this was helpful...
Thanks for all that. So you are saying that the ME Super's 125x is a mechanical override?
Azriel Knight Should be. I had a Pentax MG waaaay back in the day, (rebranded ME) and it worked...
Had a check just now and you are correct!
@@AzrielKnight 👍
Minolta SRT series are all mechanical. Battery just runs the light meter.
Something you'll also want to keep in mind is that the aperture priority mode on the FE can do funny things in really low light. Make sure the light meter is always reading in the 4-8 second range. If there is not enough light, the meter will sit at the bottom of the scale. This will cause the camera to think that there is absolutely no light, resulting in an exposure time of infinity. If you fire the shutter while the meter reads nothing, the shutter will lock open indefinitely until you switch the camera off.
If you want to do exposures beyond 5-8 seconds, your best bet is to either use one of the manual (non auto) speeds or bulb mode and manually time out our exposure. Do not trust the aperture priory (auto) for long exposures.
You can ABSOLUTELY trust this camera for long auto exposures, I've taken plenty with the FE.
"If there is not enough light, the meter will sit at the bottom of the scale. Thus will cause the camera to think there is absolutely no light..." Where on earth are you getting this?
My friend did a long exposure at night looking up at the starts and treetops under fire light and it exploded it perfectly. It seems to add reciprocity failure, in practice.
Glad to see it was just the battery, they are nice solid cameras otherwise.
Thanks John, I am happy too!
very nice intro dude!
Thanks :)
nice review. in older vids you'd point out some interesting and weird things about the history of the camera, which i always really enjoyed. maybe in future review vids you'll bring that back in? ; )
Do you mean "This Old Camera"?
yes i guess so @@AzrielKnight
I still do those, but they take a long time to make. I require physical media, deep dives into google and more editing time.
The general idea is I do a first impressions video and the ones that perform well move onto to T.O.C. at some point.
I thought your music you used is Stranger Things. hahahaha by the way, i love the quality content 100%
Thanks Renz. I did this 80s theme just before the explosion of 80's stuff. Always liked the 80's and was getting quite used to being "that guy" Now I'm slightly annoyed :P
So, I don't mean to complain - I love your content. But have you ever tried keeping the photos still? They're always a bit blurry because RUclips. I only say this because I want to see them in as much detail as possible!
That's a really good point and would save me editing time so win win. I'll try it!
How about a vid on some plastic compact? I've bought a olympus mju ii on a flea market for 5 bucks last week :)
I bought two of these last summer for $10 bucks and turned them around for $650...people are silly. :)
I was about to buy it with 50mm f1.8 and 35-150mm f3.4 but its sold as soon I got the battery for it
poop. :(
Since you brought it up, the 50/1.8 E lens was the "kit lens" for the lowest tier SLRs: EM, FG and later the FG-20. Optically, it's a very good lens. The plastic body, lack of the AI meter coupling prong, and a switch from the AI (and AI-S) green-tinted optical coating to the more common (among other brands) purplish coating led many to assume it was inferior to the AI-S version your FE would usually be kitted with This is the same optical formula carried over to the AF version.
My original FM-2 was stolen, along with the 28, 50, and 105mm AI-s lenses. I was fit to be hog-tied when the insurance company replaced the 28 and 50mm with the AF versions. I lost the battle but won the war. The replacement FM-2 ended up being the n variant (as in FM-2n).
The principle difference between the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 of that period and the 50mm Series E (here) is the coating, as you noted. The Series E lenses are single coated, whereas by then all Nikkors were multicoated (better contrast and color saturation). Apart from their plastic build, which turned out to be not a problem of durability as suspected at the time, the Series E Nikon lenses got a reputation as inferior. This situation resulted from two factors: (1) Nikon went to lengths to associate the series of lenses with their then-new, lower cost consumer models, the EM/FG/FG-2, and (2) some of the Series E lenses are truly Dogs, such as the 28mm. Many were of average performance quality, like the 50mm and 35mm. A few proved to be outstanding lenses, still prized and sought after: 100mm, 75-150mm zoom.
Have you tried the Canon Canonet yet? I hear good things about that range finder.
I have a couple episodes using it actually :)
@@AzrielKnight cool
Would you consider doing one for the Nikon FM2? That camera has a beast shutter (1/4000s max). Although it's pricier than the FE...
I tend to review whatever comes my way, and up here in Alberta. I have seen like 3 good Nikon's in the last few years. I hate to admit but I think Nikon was a more professional choice of the time and Canon was trying to make pros out of consumers, which is why you see so many more of them.
So yes but not at EBay prices :)
@@AzrielKnight For sure, Nikon certainly was a more professional brand. And what you said makes a lot of sense. I'm hoping one will appear nevertheless. :)
I have never used one but got the chance to test it at a fair, it was perfect. My biggest regret was that I didn't have any money on me because it was very cheap...
I've been burned at flea markets before so I'm extra careful. The FE I got at a charity, so I paid more than I'm used to. $75 CAD I believe.
@@AzrielKnight Yeah, gotta be careful, some cameras are just a ticking time bomb, sadly. :/
Nice 👍👍👍👍
Thanks :)
Review nikon fm3a
whats with the fake 80s filter? Its so tacky
That's. The. Point.
I love the safety on the back opening. Some backs are too easy to open. Result, ruined pictures.
Yo Nikon not Nykon. As usual you Americans including Paul Simon can't pronounce it. I am proud to speak English and to be English
Thanks for the comment Neil. I agree on the pronunciation, I just don't care, as I don't want to be that guy. You can chalk it up to my very NOT american accent.