FE-2 electrics

Oh truly, When sorrows come, they come not single spies But in battalions

My long lived and dependable FE-2 gave up the ghost over the weekend. First camera I ever bought, and still my favourite, over a rake of other Nikon bodies. Anyhow, one moment it was working, next moment it's like the electrics went completely kaput. Still advances fine, fires at 1/250 and B (the only battery free speeds on the FE-2) just fine, but the meter doesn't work and none of the electrically timed speeds will fire. Or at least they'll fire but the mirror locks up and the shutter remains open until I advance to 1/250 again, standard behaviour for an FE-2 without batteries. So I assume some contact somewhere in the camera has come loose or something. Tried cleaning the battery contacts, new batteries etc etc, I'm aware that I have to advance to '1' on the film counter to get the meter to operate etc etc.

Anyone any ideas ? I can't find a disassembly/repair manual for the FE-2 anywhere so if anyone has one available that'd be great. I'm no stranger to digging through the bowels of a camera though I never thought I'd have to perform open surgery on my FE-2

Hello,
from a former Nikon service man here in Munich, Germany I have the information that no electronics spare parts for the FE-2 are available and since many years no spare shutters since a friend of mine got the last one available in Germany at the end of the eighties. Used FE-2s cost about 150 € in a big Munich photo shop. It is said that some FE-2s have the tendency to suck the batteries empty in a short time, this is said to be a typical well known electronic defect of the main circuit board of some FE-2s.

I'm pretty sure this is just some loose connection though. It worked fine for years, was working fine one moment, and then the very next moment (after I'd put it down and picked it back up again) had stopped. So hopefully an easy enough fix, if I can get the top (or bottom) off. Yeah sending it in for service isn't really an option, I'd probably pay as much as I would to pick up another one from some shop or the auction site or something.

I came across a couple of 'out of service' FE cameras that did petty much the same as your FE2 - only slightly different. Each would fire at 1/90 (the mechanically governed exposure time), but also some of the others selectable on the 'speed dial'. Not all 'speeds' on the dial, and if I remember rightly, nothing at at all on 'AUTO'. These cameras are getting on a bit, and I think unfortunately more and more of them will die like this as their irreprairable electronics lose the 'will to live'. In contrast, the FM also occupying the same 'junk box' as the FE's continues to function.

Yeah it seems (from reading the interwebs) that there are a couple of potential points of failure on the FE and FE-2. ASA dial is one of them, which sounds like those FEs above. I've recently dis-assembled a couple of spotmatics that had similar problems. Just one point on the shutter speed dial wouldn't work, or rather one point on an internal brass or copper disk, corresponding to one EV. I assume it was because they were unused for so long that the contacts had corroded a little onto that one spot. Bit of light cleaning and they were as right as rain.

You might try cleaning the shutter solenoid - I think accessible under the bottom plate. This worked for me when my FE2 died.

Smudger said:

You might try cleaning the shutter solenoid - I think accessible under the bottom plate. This worked for me when my FE2 died.

Click to expand...

Cool I'll give that a go this evening, hopefully I can avoid having to take the top off ...