35mm viewfinder cameras.

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colpepper

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About thirty years ago I bought my mother a camera to replace her tired old Instamatic. I can't remember the make but it was one of the well known Japanese manufacturers, possibly Fuji. Anyhow, it had zone focussing, four symbols with the equivalent distance in feet in a small window, chosen because I thought she'd find it simpler - she never did learn to load it herself.

Because it was so small I was forever borrowing it, especially on fishing trips. It had a good lens for a compact and was rarely caught out of focus. Viewfinder zone compacts are relatively under-represented on this forum, does anyone use or recommend one?
 
Well....I have a Nikon L35AF I can highly recommend, its not a manual zone focusser its AF, but the principle is the same.
In the viewfinder window it has 3 icons along a scale, "mountains" "head & shoulders" and "flower", don't take a genius to work those out...:D
Anyway, a half press of the shutter brings up an arrow on the scale indicating the focussing distance the camera on this occasion has chosen.
Its not correct all the time but the exposure is always bang on, even with flash and for a plastic fantastic lens its really very very good..
 
joxby said:
Well....I have a Nikon L35AF I can highly recommend, its not a manual zone focusser its AF, but the principle is the same.
In the viewfinder window it has 3 icons along a scale, "mountains" "head & shoulders" and "flower", don't take a genius to work those out...:D
Anyway, a half press of the shutter brings up an arrow on the scale indicating the focussing distance the camera on this occasion has chosen.
Its not correct all the time but the exposure is always bang on, even with flash and for a plastic fantastic lens its really very very good..
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Yep good camera I have the L35AD with data back...mine is older and more metal as there is rust on the back and on the hinges, well I can't complain as it was either 50p or £1 at the bootie.
With this camera there is an additional set of lenses sorta "add ons" for telephoto etc
 
I remember the L35AF, an altogether more sophisticated beast! Didn't the little Rollei have a guess-the-distance scale?
 
Take your pick, I would guess all these cameras give good results:-

http://www.mir.SPAM/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/models/htmls/compact.htm
 
colpepper said:
Viewfinder zone compacts are relatively under-represented on this forum, does anyone use or recommend one?
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I have used 2 - Rollei 35 with tessar lens and Minox EL

R-35 Tessar lens is absolutely amazing, I regret selling it now. The camera is lovely to use too, and the lens is retractable

Minox is average, the lens flares quite a bit. The colour is a bit muted ( somewhat like Leica :D). Sold it, and no regrets
 
Don't the Olympus Trips work in the same way?

Built in meter with zone focusing.

Nikon L35AF? I can remember selling them when they were new, good little cameras in there day.
 
Always intended to buy a little Rollei and somehow never got round to it. I fear it's the beginning of a sub-miniature fad, a sort of mid-life crisis with reloadable cassettes, slicing tools and home made developers. Madness in other words.
 
colpepper said:
Always intended to buy a little Rollei and somehow never got round to it. I fear it's the beginning of a sub-miniature fad, a sort of mid-life crisis with reloadable cassettes, slicing tools and home made developers. Madness in other words.
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Shame you didn't get into it a few months back. I had collected a whole lot of them and sold them all off except the 35RC. You could have got a ready made collection.

If you love the thrill of the chase, try to get the Voigtlander VF101. Lovely lens, lovely camera.

The one to avoid at all cost is the Rollei 35AFM. Has a Sonnar lens, but absolutely rubbish lens and even rubbish plasticky body. I think the lens might have been Sonnar design, but not made by Zeiss.

BTW, Sepia memories has my Rollei 35 for sale, it is absolutely perfect working condition. MWclassic have a few for sale too
 
Oh its a lovely little camera alright. Produces some lovely images even when wielded by yours truly.

Andy
 
colpepper said:
Had to Google that one but do vaguely remember it by the odd winder handle.
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Has a lovely history of development too - has the fingerprints of Voigtlander, Rollei and Zeiss. The only camera, I think. Very very rare.
 
I have a neat little Minoltina-P here that has both zone and the more usual scale focusing. Quite neat really, the standard scale is on the lens focus ring while the zone focus is inset into the light meter (with it's own separate needle) so you can focus and set exposure from the top/rear rather than having to look at the front of the camera.

Well, *I* think it's neat anyway :D
 
This has reminded me of a camera my uncle bought, c1975. It may have been a Yashica Minister, or something like that, and had an incredibly complex metering system that used EVs instead of shutter and aperture. He asked me how it worked and although I was using an OM1 by then I was utterly flummoxed by the thing and had to admit I had no idea. There were some weird linkages that seemed to combine focus, exposure and for all I know, wind on.
 
From memory - I sold it about a year back - the light meter gives the EV reading. Then the red triangle is aligned to the EV value on the ring - and this gives one set of shutter/aperture combination. Then there is another ring which helps change this combination - similar to the Hassy lens mechanism.
 
Having used (and dismantled) a Yashica Minister, I must say that it's EV metering is pure genius. The aperture and shutter speed are coupled such that you set a particular EV value (using the EV) ring based on the meter reading and then you are free to choose whichever aperture or shutter speed you like and corresponding parameter is set accordingly, thus maintaining your exposure. Pure genius.

I also own and love using my Nikon L35AF. The lens is spot on and the metering pretty foolproof. It even has a manual +2EV switch for shooting backlit subjects! AF can be a bit off, which is where the little symbols in the viewfinder are nice (since you can tell if the camera has obviously missed focus.) A highly recommended compact camera.
 
mustanir said:
Having used (and dismantled) a Yashica Minister, I must say that it's EV metering is pure genius. The aperture and shutter speed are coupled such that you set a particular EV value (using the EV) ring based on the meter reading and then you are free to choose whichever aperture or shutter speed you like and corresponding parameter is set accordingly, thus maintaining your exposure. Pure genius.

I also own and love using my Nikon L35AF. The lens is spot on and the metering pretty foolproof. It even has a manual +2EV switch for shooting backlit subjects! AF can be a bit off, which is where the little symbols in the viewfinder are nice (since you can tell if the camera has obviously missed focus.) A highly recommended compact camera.
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I agree its just so convenient. In fact many old Zeiss/voigtlander lens had that, including the contaflex and the Vito. Got to look out for the L35AF. How small is it?
 
Right. From memory my uncle was sold the Minister as a beginner's camera. The idea of aperture and shutter speeds ratios is difficult enough to get one's head around as a novice, combining them as EVs might be a great idea for an experienced user but a leap too far for a point and shoot merchant.

It's easy to forget how auto focus, wind and exposure brought consistent results to those for whom getting prints back was pot luck.
 
colpepper said:
Right. From memory my uncle was sold the Minister as a beginner's camera. The idea of aperture and shutter speeds ratios is difficult enough to get one's head around as a novice, combining them as EVs might be a great idea for an experienced user but a leap too far for a point and shoot merchant.

It's easy to forget how auto focus, wind and exposure brought consistent results to those for whom getting prints back was pot luck.
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Actually it wasn't difficult to use, once you got a hang of it. Its all about experience anyways, and the Auto all is always a stumbling block to learning the craft.

At least the Minster was RF rather than scale focus
 
Ambermile said:
I have a neat little Minoltina-P here that has both zone and the more usual scale focusing. Quite neat really, the standard scale is on the lens focus ring while the zone focus is inset into the light meter (with it's own separate needle) so you can focus and set exposure from the top/rear rather than having to look at the front of the camera.

Well, *I* think it's neat anyway :D
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Quick piccie of what I mean before said camera gets a TLA

minoltina.jpg
 
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