I've confirmed once again that working in a well-established lab is absolutely marvelous. I found this Nikon FE2 in a zip-lock bag in a drawer while searching for something else. They originally used it (in the 1980s) with an adapter to take photos through the microscope, so it had no lens, and the mirror was exposed to the elements for the last two decades or more. There was quite a bit of dirt, and what looked like mold, on the mirror and focusing screen, so I took it home and cleaned it. The best part is that since my main camera is a Nikon D90, one of my lenses (the 50mm you see above) fit. Upon further research, I found out that this is considered one of the best SLR cameras of the 1980s, and that it's known to be very reliable and tough. So, I bought batteries and film, and it seems to be working! It's really fun to shoot in film again, because it really forces you to be sure your composition is perfect before you release the shutter, especially considering that every shot costs a not-insignificant amount. And, there's a great sense of satisfaction in pulling the lever to advance the film.
I won't go into all the features of the camera, but one of my favorite things is that almost everything is mechanical: it runs on two tiny watch batteries, because the only things that need power are the light meter and the mechanism to flip the mirror. In fact, it can run with no batteries at all, albeit with no light meter and only at 1/250s exposure time. But still, I think that's absolutely amazing. Now I just need to figure out how I can keep using it after I'm done in the lab, considering that the university owns it...
