FE2 has a lot going for it. Titanium 1/4000 shutter with auto, TTL with an insane amount of cheap flash & gadget compatibility, mirror lock-up in self-timer mode, double exposure lever, camera repair techs still service them, and if you add a grip or motor drive you’re set
The upside I get from the on/off lever on my (nicely repaired) FE2 is that it prevents me firing off a shot in my camera bag every other time I pull my camera out. It's why the OM-2n, despite really liking the size and feel, is off the table for me. I blow at least 5 shots per roll accidentally. On the downside, because I shoot with other cameras, too, I forget about the need to pull it out to unlock, and I occasionally miss fast shots. Still a slight win to the upside, for me.
Yeah - shame that Nikon stuck with that bad design across all the FE series. As a strongly left eyed shooter I find it super annoying having the film advance lever so close to my eye. The F3 is my preferred Nikon camera for that reason, even though I like the finder on the FE2 better. (Olympus OM4T is my fav camera)
You should probably just shoot exposure comp 1 full stop over. All of your stuff looks grainy and underexposed. Washed out. (or maybe you weren't metering properyly to begin with. Analog shouldn't look that grainy/noisy if you had a proper exposure.
