My comparison of two high end Nikon P&Sc cameras

Huss

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Because I couldn't pass up on the price, and I was curious, I picked up 2 high end (in their day) Nikon P&S cameras. Both in like new condition, $20 each.
The first - Nikon ZoomTouch 800 - was about $500 in 1992!
The second - Nikon Zoom 800. This I think replaced the ZoomTouch and came out a few years later.

The ZoomTouch -ZT - is much bigger and heavier than the Zoom 800 - Z-
It feels more solid in your hand, but the trade off is there -size and weight.
But interestingly, while its lens is a 37-105 3.7/9.9, the much smaller Z has a 38-130 4.5/9.5 lens. ZT lens is 9 elements in 8 grps, Z lens is 6 elements in 3 grps.
But the ZT claims ED glass, so I guess it should give better pics? Time will tell.

Before peeps complain as to how slow these zooms are on the far end, I honestly just use them as fixed focal length wide angle cameras, with the zoom a bonus in bright light if needed.

Both have multi AF modes, with the ZT having more including focus tracking and being able to manually set focus distance w/o using focus lock. I pretty much only use single point with focus lock, but nice to know.

The ZT works with those multi button push hidden menu things. Not really handy but at least there is functionality built in there - more in a bit. The Z pretty much just has two dials, one of which lights up. Really nice.
Another advantage of the Z - on one of the dials it has a spotAF setting. So if you turn the camera on/off, as that dial is separate from the on/off dial, you never have to menu dive to set it. Which you do on the ZT. And it happens to be one of the last AF modes, so you have to cycle through all the others... eesh.

But a huuuge advantage - bigger for me - is the ZT allows you to set exposure compensation (Z does not) so you have a bit of manual control over exposure AND it keeps that setting even if you turn off the camera. This is great if you like to expose an entire roll at a different ISO setting. For me, it makes the ZT a winner just for that. Then again, this is before I have actually taken any images...

Anyway, Fuji C200 is loaded in both. It will be a few days before I get the results back. I'm just diggin' that you can get expensive high end P&S cameras in fantastic shape for pennies on the dollar as long as they don't have the name " Contax" on them...
🙂
 




One thing I did not mention - the Z winds the film all the way to the end, then winds back in as you take pics. Just like a Hasselblad Xpan!
 
One thing I did not mention - the Z winds the film all the way to the end, then winds back in as you take pics. Just like a Hasselblad Xpan!

Just like ...

DL54GqZXcAATvn8.jpg


😀
 
Nikon made some pretty stellar compacts in the 80-90’s

I like the tiny AF600 (Lite-Touch AF) and the Lite-Touch Zoom 120ED

The Zoom 120ED is very similar to the Olympus Infinity Stylus Zoom.

The Nikon 120ED has both ED and Asperical Glass elements! As advertised.

They are stupid cheap at 35$ USD or less. They are also pretty stylish with a champagne finish with gold accents. Very posh!
 
One thing I forgot to mention - the ZT uses an available but pain to find CR-P2 battery while the Z uses two CR2 batteries which are much easier to find and also are available as rechargeable.
 
"lens is a 37-105 3.7/9.9, the much smaller Z has a 38-130 4.5/9.5 lens"
--
I think those new prices for these cameras were mostly for the whole package being squeezed into a relatively compact shell, not so much for the quality. The only high end compacts from Nikon I can think of were 35ti and 28ti
 
"lens is a 37-105 3.7/9.9, the much smaller Z has a 38-130 4.5/9.5 lens"
--
I think those new prices for these cameras were mostly for the whole package being squeezed into a relatively compact shell, not so much for the quality. The only high end compacts from Nikon I can think of were 35ti and 28ti

The 35ti came out in 1993, a year after the ZT800. So for one year the ZT was Nikon's highest end P&S.
Just noticed that the Z800 came out in 1998 and had a bunch of aspheric elements in the lens.

What's cool about Nikon is that they maintain a database of their product history. Checking it out is quite fun!

https://imaging.nikon.com/history/products_history/1990.htm
 
High end in original price alone though no? Nobody was jonzing for these models back when they came out.

I sure didn't jonz for one in 1992! Especially not at $500!!! Using an inflation calculator that would be $895 today.
Handling this thing, it sure doesn't feel worth that kind of money if this thing was still made new today. But it was totally worth the $20 I paid for it!

I remember at that time I wanted a fixed focal length P&S for the faster lens. I think I had an Olympus Stylus/Mju - the one with the 3.5 lens. Did not like it as there was such a long delay between pushing the shutter button and it taking a photo.
 
Ok, just finished shooting a roll of C200 in each. Right now the ZT seems the clear winner. It nailed focus the majority of the time, while the Z often gave me one of those blinking lights cannot focus messages, so I had to recompose/find something else to focus on before it could achieve focus. Also the ZT was far more responsive, it pretty much took a pic when I wanted it to. The Z delayed, then took a pic, which I found annoying.

Gonna drop off the film, then see what actually shows up..
 
Huss, I am going to try negativelabpro on your recommendation. Your scans look great!

The blues are particularly appealing! C200 is the go to for my wife and I on vacations. She shoots her Nikon EM and I am more variable obviously 😉

These days with a F4s.
 
It's not on most people's lists but I was very impressed with the Nikon One Touch Zoom 90s AF. It performed well in a lot of difficult cases where and when I didn't expect it to. It's also fairly young by film camera standards..

Regards, David
 
It's not on most people's lists but I was very impressed with the Nikon One Touch Zoom 90s AF. It performed well in a lot of difficult cases where and when I didn't expect it to. It's also fairly young by film camera standards..

Regards, David

I don't doubt it. There are so many great cheap (now!) P&S cameras out there. I picked these two randomly.
 
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