Bill Smith's Photography

May during the first half was more like mid to late April, grey and damp. Luckily during my visit west to Oakville was part of a trip to Burlington Camera and then a trip back to Oakville to meet with my friend Dana for lunch at the King's Arms.  I chose one of my Nikon FE's and Kodak Tri-X 400 for film, a sort of mom and apple pie combo. Ilford HP5 seems finer grained but Tri-X there's a bit more of a bite. The FE was Nikon's answer to the Olympus OM-2 and two provided both manual control and aperture priority in a smaller lighter package. The controls on the FE are very instinctual to use and gladly recommend this camera to those dipping their two into the analogue world.  Camera: Nikon FE, Nikkor Ai lenses.  Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilfotec HC 1+31. 

 We're at the other end of this trio of Fomapan 400 negatives, and a bookend, if I started off with my Leica R5, the Nikon FE2, is probably the closest competing camera body when they were both on the market in the 1980s. While Leica's R5 had features, the Nikon FE2, had two modes, full manual mode, and aperture priority, and shared a lot under the skin with the Nikon FA. If Nikon held off another six months the FE2 would have come with Matrix metering but product planners were hell bent on getting Matrix Metering on the market.  The philosophy of the FE2 would be under the file,  simple and rugged.  While I own both the R5 and FE2 and love both cameras, if I were to recommend a system, Nikon will win every single time for practical reasons. Nikkor glass is cheaper and almost as good as Leica R glass, and are more repair techs that will be able to work on the Nikon FE2 as there are more parts available.  Camera: Nikon FE2, Nikkor Ai and AIS lenses.  Film: F...