Unsure about my Nikon 35Ti

[Jamie123]

So a while ago I decided to get a small quality 35mm P&S and what I saw from the Nikon 35Ti was pretty nice. I went ahead and ordered one from KEH and so this became my 35mm film camera (I shoot mf otherwise). I shot quite a few rolls with it and was pretty pleased with the results but found the camera to be a bit too heavy of a brick to take with me everywhere. Even in a coat pocket it adds quite a lot of weight.

Then about a month ago I walked by a camera store and saw a nice Olympus Mju II in the window for little money. I got it on a whim and loaded it with some Portra 400NC. I found that it is a great joy to use as it's really light and I can take it almost anywhere. I was also surprised by the quality of the lens which, dare I say, is comparable to that of the Nikon. The only downside is the autofocus which seems to miss more often than not.

To make a long story short, I'm a little unsure about whether or not I should keep the Nikon around. On the one hand it's got great metering and autofocus which the MjuII is no competition for. On the other hand it's too heavy for what it is. I'm wondering, would I be better off with a more serious 35mm camera like a Contax G2 or a small SLR like an Olympus OM-something? I mean, if I'm going to lug around a heavy 35mm camera I might aswell carry it around my neck, right?

I'm not particularly keen on buying and reselling cameras all the time but I also don't want to keep around stuff if it's not right for me. I'm going on holidays in late August and am trying to get together the perfect light weight kit that won't annoy the girlfriend too much. I have a Bessa III for medium format and the MjuII and Nikon 35Ti for 35mm. I'm even contemplating selling the Nikon and getting a Fuji GA645 as a medium format back up in case something happens to the Bessa III. Anyways, some advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[btgc]

If you intend to use Mju a lot, got spare...or two of them. No matter how good they can be, build quality isn't to make it last, compactness doesn't adds to lifecycle.
I have Mju, and it's great while one doesn't use it too much. Probably weight of 35ti speaks for materials and construction, I can't say as I don't own one.

 

[semilog]

I'd rather use an mju II or a Yaschica T5 in heavy rain than almost any other film camera. Both cameras have superb lenses (I give the edge to the T5, but barely) and are weather sealed.

 

[Bigeejit]

Excuse me for hijacking the OP,but I picked up a T5 today and it's clean & working.Only thing is the film door is not a snug fit.It is a little "proud" of the back of the cam and I was wondering if this is normal on account of the rubber seal around the door.My T4 doesn't have this seal and the door fits snugly against the body.Will buy some film tomorrow and load the cam. anyway,just never handled a T5 'til today and am hoping it is gonna be o.k.Thanks.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

The Nikon 35ti will survive a fall. Will the Olympus take one?

Also, the Nikon camera has a titanium body and a panorama mode, in a nice, relatively fast lens, with a body that works like an SLR. If the Oly allows you to compensate the exposure when needed, and has a nice quiet shutter along with a matrix meter... Then, sell the Nikon and keep the other one.

Take care!

 

[sper]

I love my Oly Stylus Epic. The Nikon is a dope little point and shoot but c'mon, they're fetching 3 or 4 hundred dollars. I got my Epic for $50 bucks, and I use the hell out of it, like a $50 dollar camera should be used. I shoot chrome in it, scan 20 megapixel files from the Nikon Coolscan V and make beautiful 13x19s that look like anything my 5D II can do, except with grain instead of noise.

The thing I feel with the Oly is, use it like a disposable. You can't use it like the 35ti, there's no aperture priority, no focus distance, nothing. Just speed. You're gonna miss focus sometimes. I really had to work at locking that in. But it doesn't miss for me too often anymore once I got the hang of it, but when it does, ah ****, it's not my Bessa anyhow.

Leica Minilux's are cheaper than 35ti's if you really want cheap. You could consider that.

 

[btgc]

If the Oly allows you to compensate the exposure when needed

Only means for this are pre-lock exposure or use spot-metering, latter being RPITA for my o'rural fingers 🙂
Generally Oly does exposure quite well, except some tricky situations.

 

[Keith]

If you can live with a 28mm lens the Ricoh GR1s and GR1v series are a match for the Nikon but without the weight. The camera seems plasticy but apparently the body is magnesium which makes it very light. Auto focus is excellent and it has some great features that make it idealy suited to street photography ... you can prefocus the camera and lock it at that focus distance.

I haven't really bonded with mine due to the 28mm focal length but as a camera it's remarkable and hard to fault. I thought about the Nikon myself but the styling doesn't do a lot for me.

 

[f16sunshine]

The Nikon is loud, large, and cumbersome compared to my fab P&S Contax T2. As well the Sonnar lens has a rendering that is simple dreamy IMHO. Considering the T2 is usually half the price it is a no brainer. Maybe the T2 is more fragile but I don't know that for sure. The T3 is even nicer but more expensive and with same iq results. Probably you already tried one ( T2) if no... Go for it 🙂

 

[Jamie123]

I love my Oly Stylus Epic. The Nikon is a dope little point and shoot but c'mon, they're fetching 3 or 4 hundred dollars. I got my Epic for $50 bucks, and I use the hell out of it, like a $50 dollar camera should be used. I shoot chrome in it, scan 20 megapixel files from the Nikon Coolscan V and make beautiful 13x19s that look like anything my 5D II can do, except with grain instead of noise.

The thing I feel with the Oly is, use it like a disposable. You can't use it like the 35ti, there's no aperture priority, no focus distance, nothing. Just speed. You're gonna miss focus sometimes. I really had to work at locking that in. But it doesn't miss for me too often anymore once I got the hang of it, but when it does, ah ****, it's not my Bessa anyhow.

Leica Minilux's are cheaper than 35ti's if you really want cheap. You could consider that.

Yeah, the Nikon is certainly a lot more sophisticated than the Oly. The only issue I have with it is that this sophistication comes at a certain weight. For a 'just in case' camera more often than not convenience trumps performance (otherwise I'd be carrying my 6x7 camera with me all the time).

Not sure that the Miniluxes are cheaper than the 35Ti. In my experience they almost always fetch higher prices.

 

[Jamie123]

The Nikon 35ti will survive a fall. Will the Olympus take one?

Actually, recently when I was at a camera shop and bought the Oly the topic of the 35Ti came up. The shop clerk told me back when they sold them they were amongst the most problem prone cameras they had. It could be that he was wrong as I've never read about this elsewhere.
I'm sure the Titanium casing would survive a fall but what about the auto focus motor or the rangefinder?

I haven't really bonded with mine due to the 28mm focal length but as a camera it's remarkable and hard to fault. I thought about the Nikon myself but the styling doesn't do a lot for me.

No fan of the analogue display on the Nikon? 🙂
I actually almost bought a GR1v for a $150 a while ago but the sellers spam filter blocked my e-mails and so I missed out on the opportunity. Bummer!

The Nikon is loud, large, and cumbersome compared to my fab P&S Contax T2. As well the Sonnar lens has a rendering that is simple dreamy IMHO. Considering the T2 is usually half the price it is a no brainer. Maybe the T2 is more fragile but I don't know that for sure. The T3 is even nicer but more expensive and with same iq results. Probably you already tried one ( T2) if no... Go for it 🙂

I actually haven't tried a T2 but if you see one for half the price of a Nikon 35Ti, please show me where 🙂 . I paid $275 for my Nikon 35Ti in Ex- condition from Keh. If there's one thing about the T2 I'm not quite convinced about it's the contrasty lens but I could probably live with that. I'll keep an eye open for one.

 

[zanef2.8]

Had the 35Ti for a while myself and didn't like it that much because of bulk and weight. Bought a MjuII after that. Mju is good but is too automatic... I later bought an XA and really like it. you get a really good lens and have some controls over its operation. Rangefinder is also awesome to use. They are also cheap on ebay

I took the XA with me to India as my second/backup camera. If I am loaded with B&W film in my main cam, I load colour in the XA, vice versa. I think I got some good shots with it and posted a few on my flickr if you are interested - http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaneinzane/sets/72157622959568238/

 

[zanef2.8]

You are right. If you are going to lug around a heavy camera, you better lug around something more serious like G2, OM or Nikon FM with a pancake lens ;-) Have to say that FM3A goes very well with Voigtlander 40 f2 as a lightweight package 😛

 

[jsrockit]

The Nikon 35ti will survive a fall. Will the Olympus take one?

Also, the Nikon camera has a titanium body and a panorama mode, in a nice, relatively fast lens, with a body that works like an SLR. If the Oly allows you to compensate the exposure when needed, and has a nice quiet shutter along with a matrix meter... Then, sell the Nikon and keep the other one.

Take care!

Sometimes metal dents (and bends causing crucial knobs to be unusable) when it hits the ground and sometimes plastic bounces... metal is not automatically better always.

 

[jsrockit]

The Nikon is loud, large, and cumbersome compared to my fab P&S Contax T2.

To the OP, the T2 is still a brick.

 

[ReeRay]

Still got mine which I bought some 15 years ago. Been all around the world with me. One of the best 35mm film cameras I've ever owned and ironically I've only just today sold an image, via my stock agency, taken some 15 years ago with the 35Ti and Velvia. And this wasn't the first time. Paid for itself over and over again.

Cracking lens, panoramic mode, awesome metering and heavy?- nah! My Thai GF adores it - never leaves her handbag.

Keep it and treasure it.

 

[jan normandale]

check out an Olympus XA... go to flickr and look at the images that camera produces.. simply amazing. Then go to butkus site and look at the manual. I've had one for a long time.. it's still going strong. Outlasted my Minox 35 which is a comparable camera for size and weight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_XA

 

[kdemas]

For $275 you got an excellent camera in the 35ti. I owned the 28ti and certainly wish I had been able to get it for such a price!

As for your decision I think it comes down to ergonomics. There is no question the 35ti is a fantastic and versatile picture taking machine (don't you love the lit frame lines!). So if it's only about "image quality" you're at about the top of the performance curve with a few competitors. Oh yeah, it also has the coolest display ever put on any camera IMHO.

So why don't I still have my 28ti (which I do miss)? Size. For me I like to have this type of camera with me all the time, particularly when traveling, and for that some of my other cameras fit the bill a little more nicely. My Contax T3 is a jewel, so tiny with the same control over the picture taking process. The Ricoh GR21 was also just short of awesome, though they are very pricey.

So the bottom line, trust yourself as to whether the camera is a good fit FOR YOU. Others, including me, have our own take but only you know what really meets your needs.

Kent

PS- I know a wee bit about this luxury P&S segment as I've owned and, more importantly, used nearly all of the majors. Some of my P&S GAS included: Leica Minilux, Leica CM (great camera, no longer supported), Minolta TC-1 (if "small" is your thing, this is the camera), Fuji Klasse, Ricoh GR21, Ricoh GRV, Nikon 28TI.

 

[Jamie123]

check out an Olympus XA... go to flickr and look at the images that camera produces.. simply amazing. Then go to butkus site and look at the manual. I've had one for a long time.. it's still going strong. Outlasted my Minox 35 which is a comparable camera for size and weight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_XA

Not a big fan of what I've seen from the XA so far. Too much vignetting IMO. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

[Jamie123]

For $275 you got an excellent camera in the 35ti. I owned the 28ti and certainly wish I had been able to get it for such a price!

As for your decision I think it comes down to ergonomics. There is no question the 35ti is a fantastic and versatile picture taking machine (don't you love the lit frame lines!). So if it's only about "image quality" you're at about the top of the performance curve with a few competitors. Oh yeah, it also has the coolest display ever put on any camera IMHO.

So why don't I still have my 28ti (which I do miss)? Size. For me I like to have this type of camera with me all the time, particularly when traveling, and for that some of my other cameras fit the bill a little more nicely. My Contax T3 is a jewel, so tiny with the same control over the picture taking process. The Ricoh GR21 was also just short of awesome, though they are very pricey.

So the bottom line, trust yourself as to whether the camera is a good fit FOR YOU. Others, including me, have our own take but only you know what really meets your needs.

Kent

PS- I know a wee bit about this luxury P&S segment as I've owned and, more importantly, used nearly all of the majors. Some of my P&S GAS included: Leica Minilux, Leica CM (great camera, no longer supported), Minolta TC-1 (if "small" is your thing, this is the camera), Fuji Klasse, Ricoh GR21, Ricoh GRV, Nikon 28TI.

I would love a Cotnax T3 which would definitely be my first choice but it's too expensive for me. I actually ended up paying a bit more than $300 for the 35Ti with shipping and import taxes included but I know that I could probably regain most of the cost if I sell the camera locally. Any camera that I'd get to replace the 35Ti should be under the $300 mark so I don't have to spend more money than I can get by selling the Nikon.

I'll probably just end up keeping the 35Ti for now, though, as I'm going of vacation soon and time to sell and buy is running out. A couple of days ago I bought a Yashica T4 on an auction site so when I get it I'll see how I like it. I'll probably load the 35Ti with some slide film for my trip to take advantage of the excellent metering.