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NIKON FE2 REVIEW - The Best Nikon Film Camera
Jul 10, 2020
Matt goes over his favorite film camera of all time... the NIKON FE2. Find out why in this video and see tons of example photos and reasons why you should get a Nikon FE2! Keep up with Matt's work! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matt_moloney/ - Website: http://mjmolo.com/ Music by: - Soul Searching by Causmic - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCptYdIghPgmOl8opbjZrcuA - Greengrass by Drew Banga - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2us_EMiHZMASUCLwkrzyNA - Right Now by Rick Steel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgA0po6yo5406uGDEN2yPUw - Immortal by Jorge Hernandez - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI4niag1UAkIvbAU8vh9UFw - Sleeplessness by The Brothers Records - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOoKFMFX1SescccH4LAIeMQ --- MORE FILM VIDEOS! - How to Load 35mm Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4eEeztPViM - How to Load 120 Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49TE6tHFxU
View Video Transcript
0:00
all right so today we're going to be
0:02
going over
0:03
the best film camera from nikon there
0:07
ever was
0:08
which is the nikon fe2 right here we
0:10
have my old
0:12
nikon fe camera which is the one that i
0:14
originally
0:15
started with and now
0:18
it's kind of falling into pieces but
0:21
i still just keep it on the mantel just
0:23
to look at it because
0:25
it makes me smile when i see it so um no
0:27
but for serious
0:29
this was the first film camera that i
0:30
ever bought and used
0:32
and it taught me a lot about light and
0:34
how to use you know
0:36
film cameras now um the insides of it
0:40
actually broke i made a tutorial on how
0:42
to fix it a while ago
0:43
but after a while of the camera getting
0:46
jammed up and stuff it it eventually
0:48
broke so
0:49
now it's just always winding
0:52
whereas a regular film camera you know
0:54
you should click it
0:55
and it should stop after the first one
0:57
so
0:58
after it broke and it seemed like it
1:01
would be too expensive to fix
1:02
i decided to go ahead and move on to the
1:05
nikon fe2
1:07
which i picked up at my local camera
1:09
store here in boston
1:10
um for around 175 dollars with the
1:15
camera
1:15
and it came with this lens or no it came
1:19
with this lens actually
1:20
which is a 50 millimeter um f
1:24
1.8 lens this is a really good lens for
1:26
portraits and i still use it
1:29
mainly only for portraits but it's a
1:31
really good lens
1:32
specifically for that it's super sharp
1:35
i'll throw some pictures up now
1:37
with that i use with this lens
1:39
specifically
1:40
and i'll always go back to this when i'm
1:42
shooting
1:43
you know details skin tones or
1:47
just something for fashion or portraits
1:50
and
1:50
a little while after i had gotten this
1:53
camera about a year into using it
1:55
i was on a trip in japan and i knew i
1:57
wanted a new lens
1:59
specifically a 35 millimeter lens so i
2:01
picked up
2:02
this lens for around 50 dollars and it's
2:05
an f
2:06
2 f just 2.0 and this is my
2:10
go-to lens i always have it on the
2:11
camera now and i use it for portraits or
2:14
just street
2:15
documentary whatever i'm shooting um
2:17
it's super
2:18
super clean super crisp and i you know i
2:22
just stick with this all the time
2:24
i also have a uv filter on it too just
2:27
um to make sure i get the exposure right
2:29
all the time
2:30
but let's go ahead and just get into
2:34
the nikon fe2 and why it is the best
2:37
film camera on the market from nikon
2:40
uh so the first and foremost reason that
2:43
i would give
2:44
is just because of the build it's all
2:46
metal i've had this camera
2:48
for about four years now when i got it
2:50
it was in
2:51
you know pristine shape it was
2:53
completely black and everything
2:55
you can see i've scuffed it up quite a
2:56
bit but
2:58
even after dropping it after you know
3:01
having all my all this time in my bag in
3:03
my luggage wherever it was
3:05
it's still in really good shape it still
3:07
shoots just like it did the first day i
3:09
got it
3:09
and you know to me that's all that
3:11
matters if it can still do its job
3:13
that's
3:13
that's really important um
3:16
in terms of uh design and the actual
3:19
build of the camera as well
3:21
it's not as small and compact as a leica
3:24
camera would be
3:25
but at the same time it's not as
3:26
expensive and it's an slr so
3:29
because of that you're gonna have to
3:30
have a little bit more
3:32
um height to it and a little bit more
3:34
kind of you know width with the lens and
3:36
everything
3:37
it's it's not all going to be built
3:39
inside of the camera
3:40
like it would be on a rangefinder so for
3:44
for an slr camera this is actually like
3:47
what i would consider the superior build
3:49
just because it's really compact it fits
3:52
in my bag wherever i go
3:54
and it's just you know super easy to
3:56
carry whether you want to hold it
3:58
from the side or on the lens it's just
4:00
super easy to have in your hands
4:02
use it shoot and everything like that
4:05
one of my favorite things about this
4:07
camera is the tonal range that you could
4:09
that the camera offers so and what i
4:12
mean by that
4:13
is on the exposure ring you can see
4:16
all the different um shutter speeds that
4:18
this camera offers
4:20
when you first start buying 35
4:22
millimeter cameras especially
4:24
slrs you might find that they only go up
4:27
to
4:28
um one one thousandth of a of a second
4:31
rather than
4:31
one four thousandth which really helps
4:34
especially if you're shooting in bright
4:36
settings
4:36
so that's super super helpful on that
4:39
end of the spectrum
4:40
but also if you look at the other side
4:42
it goes actually to eight
4:44
second exposures as well so if you want
4:46
to shoot at night time and take
4:48
eight second long exposures that's also
4:51
super helpful and you can
4:52
you can you know really use this camera
4:55
for whatever you want
4:56
not just one or the other and a lot of
4:59
the beginner film cameras that you'll
5:00
get into
5:01
kind of won't offer that much tonal
5:03
range
5:05
another one of my favorite things about
5:07
this camera is the fact that there's
5:08
actually a built-in light meter
5:11
when i first started out i i knew that
5:13
there was a light meter in there because
5:15
when you look through
5:17
the viewfinder you can see along the
5:18
left side of the screen
5:21
the different you know lighting patterns
5:23
that are associated with the shutter
5:25
speeds
5:26
but in order to get this set up you have
5:28
to un
5:29
undo your battery by you know using a a
5:32
coin or
5:33
a lever or something unscrewing this and
5:36
putting in one of the flat batteries and
5:38
once you have it set up you'll be able
5:39
to use the light meter
5:40
and having this in your camera is super
5:42
beneficial because you don't have to
5:44
carry something
5:45
you know with you and always be metering
5:47
the light you can just
5:48
look through see your shot actually
5:50
there and meter the light and then
5:52
you know take your shot right away and
5:54
that's super beneficial especially when
5:56
you're shooting
5:57
street photos or you know documentary
5:59
photos where
6:00
you need to be moving fast you can just
6:02
do everything
6:03
you know right there if you want you can
6:05
one one thing i like to do
6:07
with the nikon fe the fe2 especially
6:10
is just to set my aperture when i'm
6:13
shooting street and then
6:14
only worry about the shutter speed while
6:17
i'm
6:18
you know moving moving around shooting
6:20
that way i'm not
6:21
always worried about changing the
6:23
aperture and then the shutter speed and
6:26
then focusing
6:27
that way i'm only focused on shutter
6:29
speed focus and then shoot right away
6:31
it kind of just makes your process a bit
6:33
quicker and
6:34
it really helps me so this camera is
6:37
really great for street photography
6:39
and let's just go ahead and take a look
6:41
at some of my photos now
6:42
that way you can get an idea of you know
6:45
some examples from this photo or from
6:47
this camera
6:48
one of the things that i always notice
6:50
when i'm looking at the nikon fe2 photos
6:52
that i've taken in the past
6:54
is just how you know how different i am
6:56
able to make a lot of them come out
6:58
and a lot of that is due to the wide
7:01
tonal range that i've talked about
7:03
before
7:04
because you can push the camera to so
7:06
many limits whether it's long exposures
7:09
or really really fast exposures and
7:11
bright lights
7:13
you're able to get a lot of a lot of
7:16
different kind of
7:16
color combinations a lot different you
7:19
know
7:21
exposure variations and things like that
7:24
that really help out
7:25
if you're trying to build a diverse
7:27
portfolio
7:28
you can see a few of these portraits
7:30
you're able to get
7:32
super crisp and sharp you know almost
7:34
digital like portraits if you want to
7:37
and at the same time when i'm feeling
7:39
kind of experimental or
7:41
feeling a bit like i don't know just out
7:44
of the ordinary trying to do something
7:46
different
7:46
you can really push the camera to those
7:48
limits as well get something super
7:50
grungy
7:51
super artsy and really just you know
7:54
find find yourself as an artist while
7:57
using the camera because it offers so
7:59
much
8:00
so much room to create with which i find
8:03
is
8:03
you know it's a really beneficial thing
8:05
for the camera
8:10
one of the last reasons why this camera
8:13
is really
8:14
um on my favorite list is just because
8:16
of the fact that
8:18
you know you can do so many different
8:19
things with it i love taking multiple
8:21
exposures with this camera and i have a
8:24
tutorial on how to do that below
8:27
and it's just really fun especially when
8:28
you're shooting fashion photos or
8:31
kind of artistic photos to just like
8:33
continuously overlay photos on top of
8:36
each other
8:36
without really knowing what the outcome
8:38
will be because when you develop
8:40
it and scan it it just looks so cool and
8:42
you know it's
8:43
it it's a different process than if
8:45
you're just to take a bunch of digital
8:47
photos and then
8:48
put them over each other in photoshop so
8:51
that's one of my favorite things to do
8:53
with this let's just go ahead and
8:55
get into loading the camera as well so
8:58
that you know how to get started with it
8:59
once you get your own nikon fe2
9:04
alright so loading the camera is super
9:06
easy and we have a full tutorial on it
9:08
that i'll link in the description below
9:11
but just to go over it quickly so we
9:13
have the full
9:14
you know startup for the nikon fe2
9:17
let's just go ahead and jump into this
9:19
so what you want
9:20
what you're going to want to do to start
9:22
is hold right on this
9:24
lever right here so you can see i i
9:27
swipe it right
9:28
as you swipe it right pull up on this
9:32
and then if you pull up strong enough
9:34
your camera will open
9:36
that way so this is called a dual
9:38
mechanism a dual opening mechanism that
9:40
way
9:41
if you accidentally pull this up you're
9:44
not going to be able to open up the back
9:45
even if there is film in it um you have
9:48
to kind of deliberately do it
9:50
once you have the camera back open go
9:53
ahead and leave that
9:54
up just so that you can get the film in
9:55
there and what you're going to want to
9:57
do
9:57
is place your film what i call upside
10:00
down with the leader strip facing right
10:02
like that go ahead and place it in there
10:08
once it's in i like to just put this
10:10
down so that way
10:11
it's just in and out of the way now go
10:14
ahead and pinch this leader strip to
10:16
make it easier once you are
10:18
once you get on the the take up spool
10:21
and just go ahead and pull some of the
10:23
film
10:23
forward and here you can see there's a
10:27
little take up spot in the spool right
10:30
there and just go ahead and put the
10:32
pinched film
10:33
right into there
10:36
once you have it in you can just click
10:38
your shutter
10:39
pull forward and it should just you know
10:42
automatically line it up
10:43
it'll straighten itself out and do it a
10:46
few times
10:47
so that you make sure your film is wound
10:49
up a few times i
10:50
i haven't done that and you open your
10:53
film up again at the end of the roll
10:54
and it still hasn't you know shot
10:56
anything and that can just be a pain so
10:58
once you've done it a few times go ahead
11:01
and close the
11:02
back snap it in shut so it's locked in
11:05
and then here you can see on that s so
11:08
that should be the starting frame
11:10
um it depends i've tried this uh you
11:14
know a ton of times and
11:15
i never know exactly when i'm on the
11:17
first frame so sometimes i just like to
11:19
wait until the shoot starts you know
11:22
take a few shots at the beginning that
11:23
way you can get
11:24
one with a nice film a film burn in it
11:27
as well
11:28
because i think that looks cool every
11:29
once in a while but
11:31
that's how you get set up with your
11:33
nikon fe2
11:35
from there you're going to want to set
11:37
your exposure to whatever
11:39
the box the box speed was this was kodak
11:42
400
11:43
so i'm going to go ahead and just pick
11:46
up
11:47
and just slide it over to iso 400
11:51
and if you want to push it or pull it at
11:53
all you can go ahead and set it to a
11:55
different speed
11:56
there's also an exposure compensation
11:58
tool right here
12:00
where if you press down on it you can go
12:02
you know go
12:03
plus or minus one or two stops um
12:06
and i know a lot of people do that with
12:08
exposed film or something like that
12:10
just to get a more even exposure
12:13
um so yeah once you've set your iso and
12:16
everything
12:16
you're ready to go now you need to just
12:18
go outside and
12:19
and get ready to shoot you'll set your
12:21
aperture set your
12:23
your shutter speed according to what
12:25
your light meter says on the inside of
12:26
your
12:27
your rangefinder or your viewfinder and
12:29
then after that you're ready to go
12:32
alright so that's it for the nikon fe2
12:35
review
12:35
this is my favorite film camera ever my
12:38
favorite nikon film camera ever and i
12:40
hope you're able to get your hands on it
12:42
if you do feel free to send us some
12:44
example shots that you have and let us
12:46
know what you think
12:47
if it's good if it's garbage what what
12:49
your opinions are on the nikon fe2
12:52
but anyways thanks for watching and
12:54
peace out guys
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[Music]
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you