Nikon Zoom 300
The Nikon Zoom 300’s form was inspired when one of the designers dropped a bar of soap in the shower at Disneyland. I can’t prove that of course but everything points to it. It’s the shape and size of a bar of soap, the lens looks like it has Mickey Mouse ears and its slippery like a bar of soap. In addition I think they showered with the designer of the Canon Prima Mini who picked up the soap after it was dropped. Released in 1994 it is a relatively compact camera considering it’s 35-70 zoom lens rather than a fixed focal length. I can’t find any technical specifications for the lens but you can see that it has coatings that aren’t found on cheaper Nikons and it provides good results in the center of the frame with some coma distortion in the corners. There are a few over rides such as infinity focus and forced flash off which are in my opinion minimums when using this type of camera. The viewfinder though is a tiny little tunnel with a little light at the end of it, not a lot of fun to compose with. The final feature I will mention is that it has a lanyard on the side so it’s more ‘Soap on a Rope’ than Lux.
