Camera Talk

Seeing PF McFarland's post in this forum about the Nikon Action Touch rang a bell for me: somewhere I had some photos that I took with a Nikon One Touch (some similarity in looks to the Action Touch) and there was a chance that I had brought that camera with me when we moved. After a little digging, I found my One Touch and matched it up on the Nikon website with model LF35AF2 which they describe as "Upgraded Nikon L35AF". ( Looking online I found that Nikon was quite fond of "Touch" when they named their P&S cameras so "the L35AF2" designation is a surer way to nail it down). Here's my camera. And I found one roll of photos from it that had been scanned by the processor.
This 1985 L35AF2 feels fairly rugged-- it had come through the Goodwill rough handling of P&S cameras --and still was working. The vf is fairly good and the powering by two AA batteries is welcome as is the comfortable size. There's no way to alter the exposure that the camera chooses and that's a negative-- the photo here of the big white car against the background of white buildings needed adjustment just to be acceptable. Photos of more normal scenes are just fine--most frames on the rest of the roll are good as they came out in the processor's scans. Finally, I guess that when Nikon built this One Touch, manufacturers hadn't yet figured out how to quiet down the P&S shutter and film advance.

In my look at P&S cameras that I can keep to use, the L35AF2 has a good size for me and what seems to be a good lens and is easy to hold; I don't think that it has the refinements that the Stylus Epic offers and I still want to see how it does with B&W film.

(Former) Pure Oil Station on Snelling Avenue, St. Paul I think that the Pure Oil station was built for a smaller car than this one
Mural under bleachers at old Midway Stadium (now torn down), St. Paul
A (real) pig sometimes brought out the first ball at Midway ballgames IIRC
Commercial Processing and Scanning

Bill Delehanty

Those early Nikon P&S cameras were good performers, Bill, but I hardly ever think of the One Touch as an improvement on the L35AF seeing as you loose the ability to mount filters and a hood. And it was quite a while before quieter motors were introduced that had enough torque to transport the film reliably.

A lot of folks I know that shoot the early Nikons say they will take the photo, hold down the shutter release instead of immediately letting it go, then put the camera in their jacket or pants pocket before releasing the shutter button so it can wind the camera on, thus muffling some of the noise of the drive.

PF

Phil, I think you're right: this was one of those "upgrades" that left out earlier features. I think that I had 2 of the original L35AF and sold them off at one of those "I've got too many cameras" moments. Now I just finished packing up two tubs of cameras and equipment for a fellow who will resell them on ebay; this is necessity now because I just don't have room to store a lot of stuff.