Archiver
Veteran
I'm wondering what compact and semi-compact P&S cameras were available in the 80's. It's a kind of retroactive thought experiment in which I think of what gear I could have carried everywhere at that time.
My camera in the early and mid 80's was a Kodak disc camera. Quite small and able to fit into a jacket pocket, it did more or less what I wanted, albeit with reduced frame size.
The Olympus XA series were going well during the 80's, too.
Dad bought a Nikon L35AF 2 in the late 80's, and we still have it. The original L35AF was released in 1983.
What other good quality P&S cameras were around in the 80's? Perhaps with the possibilities of manual focus and turning off automatic flash?
My camera in the early and mid 80's was a Kodak disc camera. Quite small and able to fit into a jacket pocket, it did more or less what I wanted, albeit with reduced frame size.
The Olympus XA series were going well during the 80's, too.
Dad bought a Nikon L35AF 2 in the late 80's, and we still have it. The original L35AF was released in 1983.
What other good quality P&S cameras were around in the 80's? Perhaps with the possibilities of manual focus and turning off automatic flash?
Greyscale
Veteran
Manual focus would make it not a point and shoot, that would fit more into the compact rangefinder genre. But there were a lot of great autofocus cameras introduced in the 80's and earlier, starting with the groundbreaking Konica C35AF in 1977. The Minolta Hi-Matic AF and AF2 were other early entries, as was the Nikon that you mentioned. Canon introduced its venerable Sure Shot/Autoboy line in 1979, and the Canon ML (Super Sure Shot) of 1981 is still highly desirable, and regarded as one of the true classics of its generation.
David Hughes
David Hughes
Hi,
There were a lot more than you'd think as Photokina in 1982 or '83 featured several demo's.
For P&S's with primes or zoom I'll add these; Canon T80 (really a SLR but not what most people would call an SLR despite a very sensible design); Konica A4; Minolta AF-S and AF-S Zoom 90; Olympus AF-1, AF-i mini and AZ-300 Superzoom (an early bridge camera) and the Pentax ESPIO 120 (but that could be a typo' in my notes) and the Pentax Zoom 90.
There's lots more because Honeywell's AF system was used once available and I vaguely remember copied. Trying to get the date of introduction for many camras is difficult. I like prime sources but often have to rely on things like the copyright date on the instructions or the sales leaflet but a few miss that off.
BTW, a lot of them had ASPH lenses in then and faster lenses that we are used to nowadays. (Edit: this was a mistake "Canon's f/1.7 is a case in point" as the P&S I was thinking of is F/1.9 and scale focussing... ) And, BTW 2, most of them are large P&S's but the Olympus AF-1 mini is compact as we know it and a nice performer too.
Regards, David
There were a lot more than you'd think as Photokina in 1982 or '83 featured several demo's.
For P&S's with primes or zoom I'll add these; Canon T80 (really a SLR but not what most people would call an SLR despite a very sensible design); Konica A4; Minolta AF-S and AF-S Zoom 90; Olympus AF-1, AF-i mini and AZ-300 Superzoom (an early bridge camera) and the Pentax ESPIO 120 (but that could be a typo' in my notes) and the Pentax Zoom 90.
There's lots more because Honeywell's AF system was used once available and I vaguely remember copied. Trying to get the date of introduction for many camras is difficult. I like prime sources but often have to rely on things like the copyright date on the instructions or the sales leaflet but a few miss that off.
BTW, a lot of them had ASPH lenses in then and faster lenses that we are used to nowadays. (Edit: this was a mistake "Canon's f/1.7 is a case in point" as the P&S I was thinking of is F/1.9 and scale focussing... ) And, BTW 2, most of them are large P&S's but the Olympus AF-1 mini is compact as we know it and a nice performer too.
Regards, David