40 Years With the Nikon FE2: A Companion That Never Quit

It’s easy to lose track of how quickly new cameras come and go. In a digital era where product cycles last 12 months, photographer John P. Wineberg’s relationship with a single tool feels almost radical. In his recent vlog, “40 Years With This Camera!” he celebrates the Nikon FE2 and the 50mm f/1.8 lens he bought as a college student in 1985. His video is more than a gear chat; it’s a reflection on what happens when you spend decades with a single piece of equipment and how it shapes the way you see.

Wineberg admits that he flirted with digital cameras for a time but always came back to his FE2. Now he plans to record short morning vlogs about his process, and his opening episode tells the story of a machine that has accompanied him on hundreds of rolls of film. The FE2 isn’t just metal and glass; it’s a mechanical notebook filled with lessons. It rode with him through Greece, Italy, France, and the American West, and the negatives from those trips still await scanning. Despite decades of use and even a bent ISO dial that had to be repaired, the camera continues to function.

There’s a reason the FE2 survived. Nikon built it as a premium alternative to the cheaply made SLRs flooding the early 1980s. Instead of plastic parts, it features a vertical-travel shutter made of titanium honeycomb blades that cross the film plane in 3.3 milliseconds. The shutter can fire at 1/4000 sec and sync flash up to 1/250 sec, and if the batteries die it keeps running mechanically at 1/250 sec or Bulb. Nikon also introduced an inertial damping system to reduce mirror shock. These features made the FE2 a favorite of professionals and enthusiasts who needed reliability in harsh conditions. Prices on the used market reflect that reputation, as a good example still fetches $300–$500.

What Wineberg values most, however, isn’t the spec sheet. He speaks about how the FE2 feels in his hands and how different it is from his Leica M6; the Nikon “feels like home.” Using the same lens since 1985, he’s built muscle memory around its manual advance and match-needle meter. Each time he looks through the viewfinder, he recalls learning to slow down, meter by feel, and compose deliberately. That accumulated experience is why many photographers hang on to film cameras even after switching to digital. Shooting film forces you to be intentional because each frame has a cost. There’s no LCD to review and no endless buffer. The FE2 teaches patience and craft in a way that encourages quality over quantity.

Why revisit a 40-year-old camera today? Film bodies like the FE2 remain excellent learning tools. Their simplicity and rugged build have aged gracefully, and they offer a tactile feedback modern digital systems often lack. Wineberg’s reflections remind us that slowing down can foster growth. If you’re curious about film but grew up digital, his video is a gentle invitation to try something new. You might appreciate the quiet click of the titanium shutter or the creative constraints of working with a single lens. At the very least, you’ll understand why some photographers never let go of their favorite camera. Watch the full vlog to hear Wineberg’s stream-of-consciousness musings and see images from four decades of shooting.