Recommendations for autofocus 35mm film P&S to go with my Olympus Trip 35

southernjessie

southernjessie

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I have a really nice Olympus Trip 35 and am looking to add another small compact film camera, this time with autofocus. Something from 28mm - 40mm would be ok. I'd like the image quality to be at least as good as the Trip's and of course, something reliable. About the same size or smaller would also be preferable. I saw the other thread for the XA but it seems to have a few issues, plus I don't know if its IQ is really good.

What do you folks use or recommend as a small, high quality P&S autofocus camera?
 
Olympus mju-II seems to tick all your boxes and is capable of cracking images.

Downsides are that it's keen on firing the flash and if you turn it off, it'll be on again after you close the camera, and if you want to use the spot meter, you have to turn it on for each shot, it doesn't stay on once the shutter's fired.

I haven't found either to be an issue, though. :)
 
Strappy said:
Olympus mju-II seems to tick all your boxes and is capable of cracking images.

Downsides are that it's keen on firing the flash and if you turn it off, it'll be on again after you close the camera, and if you want to use the spot meter, you have to turn it on for each shot, it doesn't stay on once the shutter's fired.

I haven't found either to be an issue, though. :)
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+1 for the mju (y)
 
All the plastic Nikons I've bought from boot sales all worked and gave good results e.g. AF210 There so many Nikon compacts when you see the range and I would say any model would give good results......just to add to your confusion the Canon and Minolta ones I bought worked and were good as well, but lets say stay with Nikon ;)
 
Mju-II does tend to attract a premium though I'm not sure if there is anything as sharp for less money with out the bloody flash.
 
+2 for the mju-ii. It ticks all your boxes, and is beautifully designed too. Only flaws, if you can call them that, are as mentioned about the flash and spot meter...minor irritations at best.

There are obviously more expensive options like the Contax T2, Nikon 35Ti etc which are probably marginally superior, but for little more than small change, I don't think the mju-ii can be beaten.
 
+3... the mju-II is the very best pocket carry anywhere small completely automatic camera in the world... unless you ever want some control rather than just really good pics, of course. The mju-1 is not half bad either (f/3.5 rather than f/2.8, so maybe half a stop or so slower). Both are miracles of packaging, and I haven't heard the same sort of issues as with the XA. I think you'd be advised to steer clear of the mju zooms, and if buying from the fleabay check what you're getting.

More picky; the viewfinder is a little small, you'll have no idea what you're focusing on (but with a 35mm lens it generally isn't so critical) and the clamshell slide I find a PITA (goes the wrong way and the bump sits just in front of the shutter button, many times I've pressed it vainly and missed my shot...). But it's brilliant. Everyone should have one as their carry-anywhere camera.
 
Thanks guys - I just had a look on evil-bay and they seem to go for around £50-£60. I've read some reviews which also say the lens is incredibly sharp...the only downsides are ones that you've mentioned (very small VF, no idea what you're focusing on, annoying flash!)
 
ChrisR said:
+3... the mju-II is the very best pocket carry anywhere small completely automatic camera in the world... unless you ever want some control rather than just really good pics, of course. The mju-1 is not half bad either (f/3.5 rather than f/2.8, so maybe half a stop or so slower). Both are miracles of packaging, and I haven't heard the same sort of issues as with the XA. I think you'd be advised to steer clear of the mju zooms, and if buying from the fleabay check what you're getting.

More picky; the viewfinder is a little small, you'll have no idea what you're focusing on (but with a 35mm lens it generally isn't so critical) and the clamshell slide I find a PITA (goes the wrong way and the bump sits just in front of the shutter button, many times I've pressed it vainly and missed my shot...). But it's brilliant. Everyone should have one as their carry-anywhere camera.
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h'mm I thought the Yashica Ts with Zeiss lens was the one to get...mind you I have the T5 and with testing half a roll of film through it (Compacts are boring to me ;)), thought the lens was sharp but so other modern compacts were too.
 
Ricoh GR series (GR-1/1s can be got for around £100/150ish) if you can push the boat out, nicer than the mju's if you ask me. mju's are still nice cameras mind.
 
I go with the above recommendations for the Mju ii. I've had a couple over the last few years after having used them, decided that I prefer more manual control and then realising that they're such simple cameras that deliver really good results!

http://flic.kr/p/edCNHx

This shot was taken by my 6 year old son :0)

http://flic.kr/p/edJrNu

If you keep an eye on gumtree they do show up from time to time for less than eBay prices due to them looking like simple basic 35mm cameras.

Cheers
Steve
 
The Nikon Zoom 300 I am selling in the classifieds takes good piccies :-)
 
One slight oddball you might like to consider is the Canon Sure Shot AF35M II. It's a bit bigger than a Trip or a Mju but has a good 38mm f2.8 lens and sometimes can be bought very cheaply indeed, as it looks a bit plasticky (which it is!) I managed to get one for £1.50 in a charity shop. The motor wind is noisy and the flash is turned on with a simple push button which pops it up. The autofocus is quick. It's not in the GR1 or Contax/Yashica T league but it has a lot of bang/buck.
 
My local camera shop was selling a mju-ii for 20 quid recently, so bargains do exist. I hummed and haa'ed, then of course decided to go back for it and it had gone. Not that I needed it of course, since I have one, even though mine looks pretty awful as it has been abused over the years. Never put a foot wrong though and can match my Nikon SLRs at its best.
 
NickT said:
One slight oddball you might like to consider is the Canon Sure Shot AF35M II. It's a bit bigger than a Trip or a Mju but has a good 38mm f2.8 lens and sometimes can be bought very cheaply indeed, as it looks a bit plasticky (which it is!) I managed to get one for £1.50 in a charity shop. The motor wind is noisy and the flash is turned on with a simple push button which pops it up. The autofocus is quick. It's not in the GR1 or Contax/Yashica T league but it has a lot of bang/buck.
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Canon are good as well, in fact it would be difficult to separate them all from the sharpness of the lenses...I bought so many compacts (I used to pass them to my wife for a joke :D)...well my son recently bought her a digital compact and now they all in a drawer somewhere Oh well, but she does miss the simplicity of just P&S film and can't quite work out a complicated digital.
The only ones I didn't like was Xa2 with separate flash attachment and the Olympus 105g zoom as the pics weren't as sharp as a fixed lens although my wife didn't notice the difference.
 
I have a Mju 1 with fixed 35mm f3.5 lens and it works very well. Extremely pocketable and good image quality. The flash issue isn't as bad as you might think as the default position is "AUTO" rather than "ALWAYS ON"; so it should be firing only if the light is below a certain level, which makes sense if the user is a beginner and wants to guarantee a reasonably exposed shot.

I only paid £3 for it, at Tynemouth market.
 
Another mju 1 user. Highly underrated compared to the mju 2, and I prefer the controls on the top.
 
Well, I actually still have my old Canon Sureshot Supreme that I bought as a teenager and took with me to all the countries I went. It has a 38mm f2.8 lens and from what I can remember took pretty good pics. The only two things are 1) whether it's IQ is as good as the 'really good' compacts like the GR1 and 2) I had a look at it last night and the shutter button was very stiff, to the point of having to exert a lot of pressure to fire it.


NickT said:
One slight oddball you might like to consider is the Canon Sure Shot AF35M II. It's a bit bigger than a Trip or a Mju but has a good 38mm f2.8 lens and sometimes can be bought very cheaply indeed, as it looks a bit plasticky (which it is!) I managed to get one for £1.50 in a charity shop. The motor wind is noisy and the flash is turned on with a simple push button which pops it up. The autofocus is quick. It's not in the GR1 or Contax/Yashica T league but it has a lot of bang/buck.
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southernjessie said:
Well, I actually still have my old Canon Sureshot Supreme that I bought as a teenager and took with me to all the countries I went. It has a 38mm f2.8 lens and from what I can remember took pretty good pics. The only two things are 1) whether it's IQ is as good as the 'really good' compacts like the GR1 and 2) I had a look at it last night and the shutter button was very stiff, to the point of having to exert a lot of pressure to fire it.
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Well I wouldn't worry about comparing the IQ from a canon sureshot to an expensive compact as if you are using a compact it's for snaps not for serious photography or pixel peeping e.g. The Nikon AF210 (others are just as good) you can see is good for snaps but the limitation is the flash for anything over a small distance.

Nikon AF210 bought for 50p, some old OOD colourplus film (bootsale) for testing and either Tesco or Asda dev and scan with the usual touching up for spots and brightness etc and the usual problem of a finger in the way ;)


Indoors the flash fired automatically and made the difference


The flash is just not powerful enough for a decent shot


Yashica T5 shot if you want to pay up to £125 you can have a Zeiss lens..OK the lens look a good performer but how much better compared to a cheap compact from a well known make?
 
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i got a trip that does AF, bit of black plastic brick, need to sort the battery contact so its actually reliable xD
 
NickT said:
One slight oddball you might like to consider is the Canon Sure Shot AF35M II. It's a bit bigger than a Trip or a Mju but has a good 38mm f2.8 lens and sometimes can be bought very cheaply indeed, as it looks a bit plasticky (which it is!) I managed to get one for £1.50 in a charity shop. The motor wind is noisy and the flash is turned on with a simple push button which pops it up. The autofocus is quick. It's not in the GR1 or Contax/Yashica T league but it has a lot of bang/buck.
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I'll second that, I have one and it's a nice little thing to use with decent results! I picked mine up for £3 in a charity shop, when my parents saw it they asked me where i got it from, they thought i had found it in the loft as they used to have one when it was new!

Canon also do another version which is slightly bigger but boasts a 40mm f1.9 called the AF35ML, i managed to pick one up for £5 on ebay because the owner thought the ISO catch was broken, turns out it was just extremely stiff! Canon also made attachments for this camera that were a wide angle and tele add on too (if i remember correctly!)

D3S_7545-600.jpg
 
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