Wallace Koopmans Artlog

I don’t make all my decisions around what camera to use based solely on their photographic ability, if that were the case I would have settled on a few really good cameras and that would be the end of it.  I also use some cameras just because they are interesting or were a technological milestone.  The APS film format was a dead end that a few camera makers went down but not for long with the advent of digital cameras right behind them.  Although when they did make APS cameras they were more innovative than they had been for years and some of the design touches made it into the digital camera realm.  The Nikon Nuvis S though is pure APS design and it stands out for it.  Taking the idea of the clamshell a step further than a simple lens cover when closed nothing but the flash remains exposed.

The camera is made from metal instead of plastic and sports a 22.5-66mm lens with 6 elements (two of which are aspherical).  That works out to a focal length equivalent to 28-83mm on 35mm film which is nice and wide just what I like.

It is a nice looking camera both closed and open, and that’s some bad outdated APS film.

What happens when you accidentally leave that little switch on the P on that cheap point and shoot film camera?

It wasn’t until I received my developed film that I realized that the little 28mm f3.5 lensed Nikon AF600 I had been using was set to panoramic mode for most of the roll.  Through sheer luck or questionable compositions of putting the main subject in the center of the frame some of the images actually looked alright.

When the camera wasn’t set to panoramic mode it actually equated itself well photographically at least in the center of the frame.  But like a room that hasn’t been vacuumed in a while it’s probably best not to look in the corners.

What is bigger than an SLR but isn’t an SLR. A brick is bigger and the Nikon Zoom Touch 800 is too. So what do you get in exchange for carrying the biggest point and shoot film camera on the planet? Well an under whelming specified 37-105mm f3.7-9.9 lens. A big sticker that tells you that the lens has ED (extra low dispersion elements) is also provided. That’s a good thing because with a lens that slow and with such a limited zoom range it needs to provide some quality (the lens not the sticker). Besides being able to prop doors open with it, it also seems to work pretty well as a camera but it really is as big as an SLR.

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.

I shot another roll throught the Nikon L35AF this time without the silly lens adapters.  Thats better, it’s now as good as all the rest of the 35mm focal length autofocus point and shoots hardly anyone remembers.

Hello 1983, keep the hair we will keep the cameras.  Nikon refers to this camera as the “Pikaichi” which apparently translates as “Top notch” and they were quite proud of it.  The lens is unique in that it has a focal length of 35mm yet is a Sonnar design which is more commonly associated with 50mm and above.

It seems to be a pretty good performing lens, unfortunately I used the Cherry wide angle and telephoto adapters on most of the pictures so the true performance is somewhat obscured.  The nice thing about this adapter set though is that they come with lenses for the viewfinder so you get the proper field of view but putting them on and taking them off is cumbersome.  So what I like about this camera is the little focus distance scale in the reasonably large viewfinder and the feel of the camera.  While not a light camera it fits nicely in one hand with its front grip and textured pad for your thumb.  See the early 1980’s weren’t all bad.

Great naming Nikon very descriptive you should have thrown in AS for the apherical elements though that would have really capped it off and then you could have saved on paper by not even writing the specifications.  Except I have no idea what Lite Touch means in this context, and I’m frankly afraid to Google it.  You can also tell this is a good camera by the gold coloured trim (sarcasm).

So the lens as described has ED, (no not difficulty extending) extra low dispersion glass elements and also aspherical molded glass elements, but what this really means beyond the marketing is that the lens will tend to have better correction for distortions.  And I think the results bear this out, I was quite pleased with the quality of the images from this camera and its several useful controls, I particularly like the infinity focus setting.  Of course the lens may provide decent image quality but some of that may also be the conservative nature of it’s range.  38-120mm is neither that wide nor that long and the maximum aperatures of 5.3 to 10.5 aren’t just not fast but are slow (yes I know I could have written that clearer but Nikon could have made the lens faster and then I wouldn’t have had too).

Three later models took the zoom out to  130,140 and 150 mm before Nikon stopped developing new point and shoot 35mm film cameras around 2002.

One final point, don’t you miss the ability to irrevocably imprint the date on your images, I know I do.  This is the true embedded data forget EXIF.

The B.C. sugar refinery warehouse building is very photogenic and I couldn’t pass it up when I was at the Vancouver waterfront recently.  There is little point to me writing about it’s history as there  is an excellent article in the Vancouver Sun that covers it all.  Sugar Coated History

No Mulberry bushes though, I don’t even know what they look like.  But these were all shot one morning with my Nikon P7000 when I went for a walk, on a cold…

A walk a long the Trans Canada trail in Burnaby B.C. gave some interesting industrial views.  I shot these all with the Nikon P7000 which is much improved in operation since the latest firmware update (Version 1.2).  One of the problems addressed by this update was the focus system.  It is the one area that really caused me issues particularly focus at the long end of the zoom. Previously it often failed to lock focus despite having a good contrasty subject and lots of light.  Now the camera focuses without problem at all focal lengths. Also improved is it’s ability to focus in low light, and the overall speed of focus. It really can’t be over stated this is a major update that anyone with a P7000 should consider doing. The P7000 has become my default carry everywhere camera with it’s very effective 6.0 to 42.6mm  (28-200 equivalent) zoom.  The P7100 that replaced it uses the same lens and sensor so while it may have improved operation the final result will be the same, for this reason the P7000 is an excellent deal while they are still available and I would buy another one despite all the other cameras competing in this class.