Description
The FE2 is a battery powered electro-mechanically controlled manual focus SLR with manual exposure control or aperture priority auto exposure. It has a match-needle exposure control system using two needles pointing along a vertical shutter speed scale on the left side of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in 60/40 percent centre weighted light meter versus the actual camera settings.
This system continued until 2006 with the Nikon FM3A.
The major improvements in the FE2 compared to the FE are silicon photodiode light meter sensors, internal printed circuit electronics, provision for through-the-lens (TTL) off-the-film (OTF) electronic flash automation (essentially identical to the system introduced in the Nikon FG in 1982) and a quartz oscillator timed, bearing-mounted, titanium-bladed shutter reaching an ultra-fast top speed of 1/4000th second (plus world’s fastest X-sync to 1/250th second). This design is an improved electronically controlled version of the mechanical shutter introduced in the Nikon FM2, with eight honeycomb-patterned blades instead of nine and shutter curtain travel time further.
