Nikon L35AF Camera

Product Information

I bought an L35AW recently and was excited about the possibility of taking it surfing, until I read a blog post where a guy used his in a pool for the first time and the camera leaked, damaging his film and ruining the camera. So, it probably didn’t surprise anyone that Nikon took their sweet time to release their first fully automatic compact camera with autofocus when the original Nikon L35AF debuted in 1983. But when they did, they didn’t screw around. That first camera had a 5-element 35mm f/2.8 Sonnar-Type lens that offered sharpness unrivaled in the compact segment at the time. The lens did not feature the Nikkor label typically associated with Nikon SLR lenses, which caused some confusion for Nikon as rumors spread that the lens was built by a third party. This was only a rumor though, as the 5-element lens was both designed and built in house. The designer of the lens was Nikon’s own Mr. Koichi Wakamiya who had designed other Nikon lenses such as the Series-E 100mm f/2.8 and UV Nikkor 105mm f/4.5S.

The Most Underrated Film Camera? | Nikon L35AF Review The Most Underrated Film Camera? | Nikon L35AF Review

When you use a fully automatic point and shoot camera, absolutely everything is done for you. There’s nothing interesting or unique about the process. Its no different than using a modern digital point and shoot camera, with the exception being you cannot preview your shots after taking them, and you’re still limited to the number of exposures in the film. So this is somewhat of a review of one I kept – my favorite one: Nikon’s “Pikaichi”, the L35AF – but more like a field report on the pros and cons of other models as well.With the Nikon L35af, the attraction seems a little less obvious to me. Yes it is a camera with a wonderfully simple level of function that does indeed make you wonder what else you co Andrew – no, the seals on mine hold up very well. The first thing that breaks is usually the battery door or the on/off/shutter button. Image quality from the 35mm f/2.8 is excellent. There’s no distortion, there’s very little vignetting, there’s hardly any aberrations even when shooting in direct sunlight, and those that present do so in an elegant way. Images are punchy and sharp from corner to corner. Micro-contrast is high, and with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 and capability of metering film up to ISO 1600, it’s easy to shoot in low light. The lens doesn’t say “Nikkor,” but it doesn’t need to when the results are this good.

Nikon AF3 - One roll review - 35mmc Nikon AF3 - One roll review - 35mmc

Emblazoned around the front element of the lens is the word “macro”. You might expect that this claim would relate to some ability for the lens focus close, well the reality is actually only 45cm. I probably wouldn’t go as far to call this “macro”, but perhaps relative to its contemporaries it was. Regardless of this slightly questionable designation, the shorter-than-some close focusing is quite useful, and actually in my limited experience it worked quite reliably. To clarify, there was a run near the end of production of the original L35AF that had the ISO increased to 1000, but kept the Sonnar lens/filter thread and L35AF name. There was never a run of L35AF2’s with the Sonnar lens to my knowledge. So there is no “flash mode” button, basically – here you see the camera with it’s flash popped up and charged, as the camera decided it’s too dark – but if you do not “agree”, you do actually go to “flash off” mode by pushing the flash itself down!Along side the vignette, the Nikon L35af’s Sonnar lens is also very contrasty, and is capable plenty of resolution. Not only that, but it doesn’t seem to lose too much of this resolution into the corners. When combined with a film like XP2, the result of this is really punchy photos. The Nikon L35AF was released in 1983, making it one of the earliest and greatest autofocus cameras. The Nikon L35AF2 (Or One Touch) was released in 1985 and was an equally brilliant camera. The Nikon L35AF3 was released in 1987 and is slightly less desirable than the first two. What Kind Of Photography Is The Nikon L35AF Best For? I mean 5 element… the later versions used a 4 element Tessar design again, which are fine lenses just give a bit different character to the images. What is nice about the third version is that the automatic flash can be cancelled just by pushing a button, it also has ‘macro’ (70cm) and the autofocus has many more steps then the original.

Nikon One Touch AF3 (1987) - mike eckman dot com Nikon One Touch AF3 (1987) - mike eckman dot com

There is quite distinct vignetting, a by-product of a lens design not really aimed at wide angle.For me though, it really adds to the look.It is not specifically strong and has a subtle graduation, but if you are looking for edge to edge constant exposure, this may not be to your taste. I agree that the second L35AF2 version has the Tessar lens. But the first version had an increase to ISO 1000 during mid-production. It’s this version I’m referring to and is identical to the original camera including the Sonnar lens and the ability to take filters.The lens is something really special on the L35AF and has it own look. It just a shame they don’t produce cameras like it quite the same any more. The Nikon L35AF is one of the best 35mm Point And Shoot cameras available. Housing a 5-element F 2.8 Lens with an incredibly high standard of autofocus. It shows the focusing distance through the viewfinder which allows you to see if you’re in focus as you’re shooting, a real rarity for point-and-shoot photography. The pop-up flash is reliable and exposes accurately, it can be held down to stop it from firing. The Nikon L35AF is perhaps one of the best point-and-shoot cameras available, it does have some common issues that are certainly worth considering before purchasing this retro beast.