Problem with FE2 film not advancing

I had a recent problem with my beloved FE2 that someone can perhaps shed some

light on. I shot several frames of a roll of film and then took it on a winter hike (with

camera in the case - temperature was about 24 degrees F) and shot a number of

pictures (maybe 14 or so). Towards the end of the hike, I noticed that the picture

number was still only about 8. Fiddled a bit (can't remember exacply what I did), and

then it seemed to work normally. When I got the film developed, it appears that the

film had not advanced when I was hiking and all the shots were multiple exposed in

one frame. The ones I took after that were fine.

 

Anyone have a similar experience or insights? It is possible I hit the double exposure

button or the button on the bottom that frees the film to rewind - but if so, I've never

done so before. I have used the camera quite a bit (mostly for hiking trips) and never

had this problem before. Overall, it is in good shape, and had a lube and look-over

about a year ago.

 

Any ideas or similar experiences (and resolutions) would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

I would say find a roll of old (e.g. expired) film and test the camera with it. Fire a bunch of shots and make sure that the frame counter advances each time and the roll is used up after 36 (or 24) plus a couple of frames.

 

You might have accidentally hit the multiple-exposure switch or the unlock button at the bottom, or they could have been stuck because of the colder weather, but 24F is just a bit below freezing and is not all that cold.

 

In case your FE2 continues to show problems with you test roll, we may be talking about repair.

I had a the same problem with my FE a year ago or so. I was doing night photography in Las Vegas. The problem wasn't the camera, but the operator. After reaching the 36th exposure I realized I was shooting a 24 exposure roll. Since that experience I always load my film in the light. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person this has ever happened to but it's still rather embaressing.

Thanks to Shun and Jim for responding... My current thinking is that I probably hit

something to cause this, but I'm trying to figure out just what I hit. One thing that I

perhaps didn't mention in my original posting is that the first 8 or so shots in the roll

were fine --- the ones from hike were all multiply exposed on one frame -- and the

rest after that were also fine. I agree the temperature was not cold enough to affect

the camera (but may have caused me to be clutzier than usual). There were no rips in

the sprokets on the film. I'm thinking I probably hit either the rewind button or the

double exposure button, but this had never happened before and I'm trying to figure

out what happened. I was trying to see if anyone else had a similar experience with

an FE-2 (or FE or FM2 or similar Nikon camera) and if so what their assessment was.

 

My plan is to watch out for this in the near future with this camera and if seems to be

a camera problem (rather than me making a mistake) to bring it in for repair. Again,

any insights are always appreciated.

 

Bob Y.