Nikon L35AF Camera

Product Information

All this adds up to a very interesting lens for me. Especially the high contrast and vignette. It is those character traits that have appealed to me in many a compact camera! A confused conclusion

The Nikon L35 AF Review: Everything You Need To Know

The price of this camera seems to have risen dramatically in the last year and it no longer seems to be reasonable by any stretch. I also try to make photography as easy as possible, which means that I think you should be able to carry your camera at all times, the L35AF is a little bulky and I know it would stop me from shooting with it quite as often as I might like. And now that my pet peeve of pedantic accuracy in something as inconsequential as an article discussing decades-old film cameras has been satisfied, it’s time to more closely examine Nikon’s underwater point-and-shoot wonder-camera. What is the Nikon L35AW Much like the later AF3 functions are somewhat limited. There is a grand total of 5 controllable features on this camera, but just like when using the AF3, sometimes it makes you wonder just what else you could possibly need from a point & shoot. The shutter

Features and Controls, or Lack Thereof

Canon also says this method should be used when trying to selectively focus. Since the camera uses a central spot in the viewfinder for focus, whatever is in the middle of the frame when the shutter release happens is what will be in focus. Obviously this becomes a problem when shooting subjects that are off-center, as happens constantly in photography (rule of 3rds, am I right?). By using the self-tim-err… I mean, “Pre-Focus Lever” it’s possible to selectively focus, recompose, and press the shutter release button again to snap the shot. Again, this is too cumbersome, especially considering the ease of use found in Nikon’s half-press method. DX coding on films was also introduced in the year I was born. The Nikon L35, DX Codes, Microsoft Word and me… Clearly not the best of years… Anyway, fortunately (since I’m not a fan) DX coding didn’t make it into the Nikon L35. Instead, the ISO is set via a ring that rotates around the inner part of the lens. It maxes out at 1000iso on my camera, though early models maxed out at 400iso The Nikon is probably the most underrated brand in this category of cameras. In 1983, Nikon released its first autofocus compact camera, the Nikon L35AF.Theearly models coveredspeeds from 50 to 400 ISO,butlater versions were included 1000 ISO. In today’s market, the one with 1000 ISO is more expensive and desirable. I didn’t actually shoot a single photo with the flash, but I did shoot a few photos without it. What I mean by this is that on those occasions the camera decides flash is required, it is possible to override this decision on a shot by shot basis – which is exactly what I did a few times. The slightly-uncomfortable-to-press button on the front of the camera is the automatic-flash override. If, upon half pressing the shutter, the little red LED in the viewfinder lights up to tell you the flash is going to fire when you don’t want it to, simply release half press, press and hold the override button and you will find that the little red light won’t light up when you half press again – and as such the flash won’t fire.

Nikon L35AD2 (L35AF2) Point-and-Shoot Camera Review Nikon L35AD2 (L35AF2) Point-and-Shoot Camera Review

I mentioned earlier that this was the third fully automatic point and shoot camera I owned. One of those other two cameras, the Canon AF35M from 1979 was one of it’s direct competitors. To be completely fair though, the AF35M pictured to the left is 8 years older than the Nikon. A more fair comparison would be between either a later variant of the Canon and the original Nikon L35AF from 1983. Since I don’t have those two exact models to compare, I’ll just say that despite their age gap, the two cameras still share a lot in common. Known as the Autoboy in Japan and the Sure Shot in the USA, Canon’s AF35M launched in 1979 (four years ahead of Nikon’s L35AF) and immediately became a sensation. This was Canon’s first compact camera in which focus, film advance, film rewind, and exposure were all handled by the camera. For the first time, inexperienced shooters could produce consistently excellent photos due to Canon’s innovative and technologically advanced automation systems. The L35AF does this, too, but at a fraction of the price. The best way I can describe its look is a razor, surgical sharpness, especially at the center, with a bit of a boost to contrast, and just a tiny hint of vignetting when shot wide open. To change the ISO there is a small ring around the lens which you have to rotate, you will see the ISO number change in a small window as you rotate it, some L35AFs go to 400 and some go to 1000, the 1000 ISO camera is slightly more desirable. To load the Nikon L35AF with film

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As mentioned the shutter button has a relatively long throw. I suspect that this is due to the fact that it has to action the metering, the autofocus and the autofocus distance readout in the viewfinder before it triggers the shutter. When it fires the shutter, being a leaf shutter it is fairly quiet, though like many shutters of its era does have a bit of a squeak to the sound. Thankfully, like a lot of the Nikon cameras that followed it, the automatic film advance doesn’t action until you release the shutter button, meaning that if you are trying to be discrete you have more of a chance. That said, even the film advance isn’t all that noisy. I’m not going to tell you it’s whisper quiet, but it’s more quiet than I remember my AF3 being. The viewfinder I’ve worked with many Nikon L35 AF, AF2 and AF3 cameras over the years and I’ve discovered the quality of this retro beauty. It’s a mixed bag, with some common issues and amazing shots, it’s well worth finding out if it’s worth trying one out. Then there’s the battery door. Like the on-off button this isn’t stury enough to last for years. I guess I’ll have to Gaffer tape mine soon as it hardly stays closed. The good news is: the L35AF takes standard AA batteries (two of them), that can be had anywhere for cheap. The hardest part to get going on L35AD2 is installing the CR2032 battery to power its mostly useless date feature that would burn digits into your photos. It only shows years up to 2019, thus if you really want that on your film, it may make the most sense to just show the day of the month and time. My copy also had all of that in Japanese. In low light, when shots are taken at (presumably) wide-open aperture, images become particularly soft with substantial loss of detail. In these same situations we see heavy light fall-off (vignetting) resulting in darkened corners of the frame. While this can be fixed in post-processing, it’s unlikely that most users of this camera are going to scan and edit every shot. Distortion, chromatic aberration, flaring, and ghosting are all pretty well mitigated, though there is some color-fringing in high contrast situations.