That said, I hate the shutter button of the L35AF, as I find it too “mushy”. My favorite shutter button of all compacts I tried during the years, as of now, is the one of the original Olympus XA. It was a real hair-trigger! Really useful for catching the right moment. But it does make the flash vulnerable. I found that over time, the little release system for mine stopped working. I lost some shots in the dark because the flash tried to release, but didn’t actually raise or charge. Be warned if yours is an older camera and you plan to shoot in low light. Image quality with the Canon AF35M is a mixed bag. Where the Nikon L35AF tends to be uniformly excellent, image quality with the Canon ranges from great to substandard, depending on shooting conditions. In bright light and at smaller apertures the Canon is comparable to the Nikon’s stellar performance. Contrast, color, and all the rest are excellent in these well-lit situations. It’s when things get dark that the Canon begins to fall behind.

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

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. 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 At 485 grams it weighs slightly more than the smallest point-and-shoots of its time, and with dimensions of approximately 134x81x56mm, it’s slightly bulkier as well. But this added weight and size isn’t overburdening, and the camera fits well in the hand. The hefty grip and rubberized coatings ensure this, and the added size is a happy trade to gain the L35AW’s durable and waterproof outer shell, which will survive submersion to approximately 10ft under water. Additionally differentiating it from the thousands of other point-and-shoot cameras of its time (surely there’s a “fish in the sea” metaphor here somewhere?) is its previously-mentioned lens. While it’s not the same lens as the one found in Nikon’s most famous compact camera, the L35AF Pikaichi, it is still an exceptional lens. Although the original L35AF was a huge success, the market for cheap point and shoot cameras was exploding and Nikon was pressured to update the model to stay competitive in the market, so in 1985, the L35AF2 was released. In the United States, this camera was marketed as the Nikon One Touch. It featured a few upgrades, but lost a few things as well. Loading film into the AF3 is simpler than ever. You simply pull the leader to the red line, close the door, and the camera does the rest.

Battery and Power

Compared to the Nikon, the Canon’s viewfinder is just awful. With Nikon’s point-and-shoot, the focus indicator intelligently actuates with a half-press of the shutter release button. In this way it’s possible for the photographer to see if the camera’s focused where it’s supposed to be focused before committing to the shot. With Canon’s camera, the focus indication happens on full shutter release, after the photograph has been taken. That’s just silly.

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

The auto-exposure system uses a CdS photo-resistor, and it’s one of the best metering systems found in a vintage compact. Even in the most challenging situations, such as night shooting and shooting in bright snow, under- and over-exposures are very rare. In two test rolls of 24 and 36 exposures, only two frames were off, and it was discovered that this was due to the reviewer being unaware of one of this camera’s strange eccentricities. Not so with the L35AF. The camera has a 35mm, five element lens. That’s some serious engineering for a point and shoot. And it’s fast, too, with an F2.8 aperture that lets in loads of light for cameras in its class. And you’re certainly right that the lens has character, after all it’s a Sonnar, my all-time favorite optical scheme. I shoot on different formats of film and on FF digital, but 3/4 or more of my lenses are Sonnar or Sonnar-schemes; I didn’t do this on purpose, it just happened after many years that the lenses that got “culled/sold” were almost always the non-Sonnar… 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 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.Shooting is a smooth and effortless process. A half-press of the shutter release button engages the camera’s autofocus system. This active infrared system measures the distance to any subject framed within the central focusing patch indicated in the viewfinder and simultaneously brings to life a focus distance needle display which indicates clearly the point of focus. This methodology lends itself perfectly to the “focus and recompose” method of shooting, in which the desired subject is centralized, the shutter release half-pressed, and then composition achieved before finally pressing the shutter release button completely. An in-viewfinder LED light doubles as both a “subject too close” and an “insufficient light” warning. If this illuminates (which it rarely does) either turn on the flash, recompose the shot, or both. Lastly, sometimes the camera can just be completely dead or the flash can be rendered useless, these would both have to be fixed by a professional if you wanted to get them sorted. My Opinion On The L35AF Even if the build quality is nice, what really earned this camera a special place in my heart are the results: man, that lens makes wonders! And it’s the combination of these last two features, its lens and its ability to dive, that places the L35AW into the upper echelons of classic cameras. There’s no other camera like it, in fact. Competing models from Canon and Minolta and Pentax don’t really compete in a meaningful way. The equivalent machines ( the Canon Sure Shot WP-1 or AS-6, and the Minolta Weathermatic 35, and the Pentax 90-WR, respectively), either aren’t truly submersible or feature less-worthy lenses, bulkier bodies, or clumsy controls. And let’s not talk about the Hanimex Amphibean or the cumbersome plastic shells made to encapsulate non-waterproof SLRs.