DX-override P&S camera wanted

D

drec

Rangeflounder
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Dec 4, 2004
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Hi all,

I shoot with a Nikon F3 (sacrilege!)... which I only got after figuring that I wasn't having as much fun with my Leica M4-P because of its lack of AE.

Now, I'm interested in getting a P&S, preferably one that can easily fit in a pants pocket-- so, no Hexar AF. As well, I'm interested in letting the camera focus for me. So, no 70s rangefinders. As well, nothing new, so no Fuji Klasse.

The hitch: I will be using bulk film in canisters that are not DX-coded. Many of the p&s' that I read about, such as the Nikon 35ti or the Contax TVS, are auto-DX and resort to ISO100 in the absence of such. I was wondering about the Yashica T4 Super or earlier incarnations. What about the Konica Big Mini?

As a bit of an oddball, I'm actually interested in a Nikon L35AF that gives adjustable ISO as well as optional flash, but with auto-everything else.

Anyways, could you please give me your suggestions? Much appreciated!
 
The "pants pocket" will probably rule out most of the early AF point and shoots, unless you wear your pants quite loose and/or have big pockets. The L35AF is a nice camera, but might be a little big for the pants pocket, as are the early Canon Sure Shots, and the Minolta and Konica early AF cameras.

The one that I own that has the lowest profile is the Canon AF35M2/Sure Shot 2/Autoboy 2, it and the L35AF also have built in lens caps, which would be useful for "pocketing".
 
Thanks! Those look pretty humongous! I remember the L35AF that I had before being smaller than it looked in the pictures. Any of these still look to be smaller than a Konica AF, which I'd really like but...
 
Definitely the GR1-V in my book .... it's part of the reason I bought one. They are small, incredibly light and unbelievably competent ... make that brilliant!

Not so cheap though ... mine cost me over $400.00 from the classifieds.
 
I know that you said "no 70's rangefinders", but the Konica C35 Automatic and Olympus XA are so fast and easy easy to focus that they might as well be autofocus ... and are tiny. Just something to chew on.
 
I'd go for the AF35MII, I picked one up the other day myself and the only thing I can fault it on is the lack of a filter thread; apart from that, it's pretty awesome.
 
Or alternatively, the XA2 which seems to be everywhere, is dirt cheap and is zone focus (so there is even less to do if you are consistently shooting in the same ranges).

Hmm. Still trying to think of a better fit but I haven't done much with autofocus cameras. I was trying to think of a higher end camera that might meet you needs but the manual iso constraint hurts.

What iso films do you use? If it is mostly 100/400, the simplest course of action may be to just pick up some encoded cassettes.
 
Hey, just fyi I have an L35AD (AF with dateback) in the classifieds now. But just so you know, the iso dial only goes to 400.

I use DX coded bulk carts at 400 with my hp5. I'm mostly excited to get my GR1s back from repair so that I can push it in a p&s. Before the dx carts, I had to set compensation to +2 to expose it correctly (because it defaulted to 100).
 
I'm joining XA2 pool. Lately I realized that mounting side flash makes it EASIER to handle as without flash it's almost too small. Manual ISO, manual advancing, manual (scale) focus - all covered by automatic exposure. Other great cameras are bigger. GR1-V...is it P&S camera or credit card with a release button? :D XA2 costs about $10, I guess.
 
Duh... I guess I didn't think of DX-coded cassettes! I see where I can buy them.

Thanks for the suggestions! Options have just expanded.
 
It's worth pointing out that you can hack the DX code on the film cassette. For example, to change ISO 200 to 100, all you need is a tiny piece of well-placed tape.

Also, it helps to know what happens when you put a non-DX cassette into your camera. For example, the Epic defaults to ISO 100. So if you want to rate any roll at 100, all I need to do is tape over the entire DX code.
 
Yes, but my default preference is 400 and it gets a bit more creative to set the canisters up for that. I think I will just splurge on 10 ISO400 canisters and be done with it.
 
Beside the old timers it's only Ricoh Gr1v, Minolta TC-1 and Konica Hexar AF that could be set manually. (but it's not compact even though people insists on that). Else electric tape and scratch the DX-code on the cassette. You just need to memorize a couple of combinations like 800 and 1600.
 
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