Monday, Dec. 10th 2012
Black and White
Recently, I've been quite astounded by how cheap one can acquire and shoot film cameras. About a month ago, I purchased a Nikon FE from ebay for around $100. It had new seals. It was tested. And it even came with a new watch-sized battery. The seller was Blue Penn Cameras. The battery will last around five years. I attached a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens AF-D that I already had. They can be found for under $200 and they're quite good.
The Nikon FE was made from 1979 to 1983. At the time, it was considered a pro-sumer camera. Not quite the professional F line, not quite the low-end cameras. As for features, it only has what you need.
It has a fairly accurate and reliable light meter, shutter speed (aperture is adjusted on the lens), automatic mode, a self timer, flash sync, and not much more. Ken Rockwell writes on his site: "The Nikon FE is one of my favorite Nikon cameras of all time." That praise is hard to beat.
While shooting with my Nikon D7000, I'm always thinking about ISO, dynamic range, noise reduction, vibration reduction, and all the other amalgamation of technology. There's too many distractions. With the FE, I focus more on composition. What actually matters. Will I stop shooting with my D7000? Hell no. Is the FE a good creative exercise and an enjoyable camera to shoot with? Hell yes.
After shooting an expired roll of Kodak T-MAX 400 on it, I sent it off to North Coast Photographic Services to be processed. This was my first time using them. I was quite impressed with the results. The development of the film was flawless, and their enhanced scan was very well done. I'll be sending more rolls of film their way soon.
The flickr set can be seen here.
What's really interesting is when you compare the cost of film to digital. With the Nikon FE averaging around $100, and a much more modern Nikon F100 around $250, it's a very cheap alternative. With current scanning technology, 35mm film is equivalent to 24 megapixels. That's D3 territory. That's also $5,000 territory. Even the D7000 (16 megapixel) itself is close to $1,500. With that difference in money, you could shoot quite a few rolls of film before even approaching the initial cost of digital.
Although the Nikon FE is around 40 years old, the construction quality is amazing. It will easily last another 40. With a bit of care, it may even outlast me. I know that it will last longer than the very overcomplicated, yet amazing, Nikon D7000. My seven year old Nikon D70s has even begun having some issues with writing to memory cards. These circuit board issues will not plague the mostly mechanical Nikon FE.
The Nikon FE feels amazing. Having spent my life growing up around plastic toys, and later plastic tools and cameras, it really is amazing to hold this steel camera. In the event of zombie apocalypse, I'm grabbing this camera for self defense. It's made to last. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience holding the Leica M series. I'd love to be able to compare.
I don't recommend film for everyone. If you're interested in photography, have the basic understanding of aperture, shutter speed, and can read a light meter, you have no excuse. You can buy everything you need to shoot your first roll of film for under $200.
Updated on Saturday, Feb. 15th 2020