Help Me Choose a Olympus Stylus Replacement

Adam W · Apr 18, 2021

My Olympus Stylus has broken (it won't rewind the film at the end of a roll.) Replacements are ridiculously expensive on eBay. Help me choose something else. My budget is a max of USD$100 and I want something that has auto focus and auto exposure, is high quality and reliable, and can fit in a pocket.

Thanks in advance,

Adam

John Bragg · Apr 19, 2021

Sureshot supreme. Cheap and very good.

Canon Sureshot Supreme by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

Emily and Elephant by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

Nicholas Lindan · Apr 19, 2021

The prices of point and shoots are nuts. Cameras that used to go for $20 are now going for $200. Yashica T4's are going for upwards of $800. Insane. For $400 you can pick up a Nikon F5 with 50mm lens.

The price of P&S zooms are much lower - I guess hipsters don't think they are fadish.

John Bragg · Apr 19, 2021

Nicholas Lindan said:
The prices of point and shoots are nuts. Cameras that used to go for $20 are now going for $200. Yashica T4's are going for upwards of $800. Insane. For $400 you can pick up a Nikon F5 with 50mm lens.

The price of P&S zooms are much lower - I guess hipsters don't think they are fadish.

I quite agree ! A Nikon F90X can be had for less than £100 with a lens and is a very capable performer. It will focus much more accurately too, which has always been my bugbear with the Stylus Epic. It gets it wrong too often for my liking. Something that the humble Canon Sureshot Supreme doesn't suffer from. It just nails focus, and has an f2.8 lens, and to top it all was once named as European camera of the year !

Helge · Apr 19, 2021

Chinon Auto 3001.
One of the Nikon PnS.
Anything with either a 3.5 or 2.8 lens from a reputable manufacturer, has a good chance of being good.
Design is important.
If it looks and feels like crap it most likely is.
But that challenges your sense and knowledge of design of course. ;-)

Craig75 · Apr 19, 2021

not autofocus but i always think the olympus xa2 is the overlord of compacts - such a quiet clever design.

Helge · Apr 19, 2021

Craig75 said:
not autofocus but i always think the olympus xa2 is the overlord of compacts - such a quiet clever design.

What’s especially clever about it? I mean it’s obviously good. But what makes it stand apart from other zone focusing cameras?

Craig75 · Apr 19, 2021

Helge said:
What’s especially clever about it? I mean it’s obviously good. But what makes it stand apart from other zone focusing cameras?

the fact they could make it so small, the clamshell sliding door, and i really like the lens on the xa series. 30 years later it was still one of the smallest camera designs ever made without any ergonomic compromises (i have average sized hands) and they are very easy to strip down and clean and do basic fixes.

Don_ih · Apr 19, 2021

Minolta Freedom II - it's cheap and has a 35 3.5 lens.
It's hard to beat just how small the Stylus is. But there are many, many slightly bigger, slightly slower lensed cameras that are just as good.
As for the XA - a zone focus camera is swell, if you remember to adjust the focus.

wjlapier · Apr 19, 2021

Look for the 3.5 version. The lens is super sharp and the camera is as small as your camera. Look around and you’ll eventually find one in your price range.

The Olympus Zoom 115 I had was pretty sharp and was affordable back when I bought it. I’ve tried many other Olympus zoom cameras and none were as sharp as the 115.

I came across a Fujifilm Zoom Date 60W I’ve used and it’s got a great sharp lens. Starts at 28mm. Looks and feels cheap but takes great photos.

Cholentpot · Apr 19, 2021

Craig75 said:
not autofocus but i always think the olympus xa2 is the overlord of compacts - such a quiet clever design.

I have two, one meters weird though. The prices though on these things now have put them out of my reach.

Huss · Apr 19, 2021

Nikon LiteTouch AF aka 600 AF.
Killer lens, tiny.

Christiaan Phleger · Apr 19, 2021

I most heartily endorse Huss's recommendation; I went thru several of those Nikon Lite-Touch when they were new and unwanted. A Stellar wide angle lens and the 3.5 f/stop is functionally close to 2.8. Its also the fastest responding small single focal length AF P&S with the Olympus Stylus (original 3.5 model) coming in a close second. When I was a news shooter we had a small posse of younger shooters who discovered these type of P&S and we would shoot and test them against each other (on ourselves mostly ha) and fast reaction shooting was the game. I used to have a small surplus medic waist belt pouch and I could fast draw the Lite-Touch, activate and shoot extremely quickly. The Lite-Touch did seem to be not very durable and no matter how gently I'd treat it they would crap out, I went thru at least 3-4 of them, normal price was around 100 US but when they were in the 'digital discount' era you could find them new in box for 30-50 US. Ha not anymore! I still wished I kept a couple of the dead ones for the lenses.

Cholentpot · Apr 19, 2021

Huss said:
Nikon LiteTouch AF aka 600 AF.
Killer lens, tiny.

Ok Mr. Huss.

You seem to have a read on sleepers. What other cameras would you like to share that you know of?

Adam W · Apr 19, 2021

Those Nikon LiteTouch AFs are going for a pretty penny on eBay.

Huss · Apr 19, 2021

Cholentpot said:
Ok Mr. Huss.

You seem to have a read on sleepers. What other cameras would you like to share that you know of?

Ricoh FF-1 and FF-1s (only real difference is the 's' has a self timer) is a crazy good Minox 35 type/size camera. The Sears mini 35 Programmed is the same thing re-badged and often can be found much cheaper as no-one knows it's a nice Ricoh camera!
I like them so much, I now have three.. Single stroke film advance, zone focusing w/handy 'everything in focus' detent (same like XA2) and another great lens.

A youtube reviewer who I like incorrectly reviewed it claiming it was overexposing. What happens is there is a little switch on the hotshoe, that when you attach a flash, sets the camera at the sync speed.
He went into bright daylight and attached a GoPro to the hotshoe, not realizing he was now drastically overexposing his shots as he was using the 1/60 sec sync speed..

Also it is a program only camera (you can adjust exposure by changing the ISO). Some reviewers say it is program and Aperture priority as there are aperture settings around the lens, as well as the "A" setting. The aperture setting is only for when you use flash. BUT... because the hotshoe switch sets the camera to 1/60 sec, you can manually set it to 1/60 by putting whatever you want on the hotshoe, then manually set the apertures (from 2.8 to 16). So there is that workaround for manual exposure!

Downsides? All mine have hazy VFs (the VF only, not the lens) which is annoying but still totally useable. The wrist strap is on the left side, which is just weird.

Huss · Apr 20, 2021

Adam W said:
Those Nikon LiteTouch AFs are going for a pretty penny on eBay.

Yup.. shot with Fuji Superia 400

Cholentpot · Apr 20, 2021

Huss said:
Ricoh FF-1 and FF-1s (only real difference is the 's' has a self timer) is a crazy good Minox 35 type/size camera. The Sears mini 35 Programmed is the same thing re-badged and often can be found much cheaper as no-one knows it's a nice Ricoh camera!
I like them so much, I now have three.. Single stroke film advance, zone focusing w/handy 'everything in focus' detent (same like XA2) and another great lens.

A youtube reviewer who I like incorrectly reviewed it claiming it was overexposing. What happens is there is a little switch on the hotshoe, that when you attach a flash, sets the camera at the sync speed.
He went into bright daylight and attached a GoPro to the hotshoe, not realizing he was now drastically overexposing his shots as he was using the 1/60 sec sync speed..

Also it is a program only camera (you can adjust exposure by changing the ISO). Some reviewers say it is program and Aperture priority as there are aperture settings around the lens, as well as the "A" setting. The aperture setting is only for when you use flash. BUT... because the hotshoe switch sets the camera to 1/60 sec, you can manually set it to 1/60 by putting whatever you want on the hotshoe, then manually set the apertures (from 2.8 to 16). So there is that workaround for manual exposure!

Downsides? All mine have hazy VFs (the VF only, not the lens) which is annoying but still totally useable. The wrist strap is on the left side, which is just weird.

Thank you, off to the races.

reddesert · Apr 20, 2021

I went through a period of trying P+Ses back in the early-mid-90s. I searched out a Nikon Lite Touch for the 28mm lens, and I had an Olympus Infinity Jr, which has a 35/3.5. So far as I know, both of them still work, though I haven't used them for a while. I only wanted fixed-focal length lenses as the P+S zooms were typically slow and slow to operate - the hipsters of today are not wrong to chase after the fixed-focal length lenses and pass over the zooms, IMO.

However, the elevation of some items to a cult is a little over the top. The Infinity Jr is a little fatter than the Stylus and won't fit into skinny jeans, but skinny jeans are out anyway.

The thing that frustrated me generally about P+Ses was the shutter lag - which a zone focus camera like the XA2 does not have.

summicron1 · Apr 20, 2021

+1 olympus XA or XA2 -- primo cameras, amazing lenses, compact enough to fit into a pocket without snagging on anything.

The price of other point and shoots always puzzles me. You can buy a screw-mount Leica for what some of them are going for. Or a Rolleicord.

Instead: Plastic point and shoot? I don't get it.

Nicholas Lindan · Apr 20, 2021

reddesert said:
...the hipsters of today are not wrong to chase after the fixed-focal length lenses and pass over the zooms...

No, no, no. Hipsters (anyone who has to call themselves 'hip', isn't) need to embrace zooms as much, much hipper. They need to drop those 28mm and 35mm lensed P&S's at rock bottom prices like the liability to hipsterism that they are.

Huss · Apr 20, 2021

John Bragg said:
Sureshot supreme. Cheap and very good.

Canon Sureshot Supreme by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

Emily and Elephant by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

Lovely photo.

Paul Howell · Apr 20, 2021

Fujifilm DL-50 35mm Film Camera

Adam W · Apr 20, 2021

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments, folks. I just bought an XA2 w/flash for $145 and an Sure Shot Supreme for $41 (tax + shipping included for both.) I blew my $100 budget, but I bought them from the Goodwill auction site, so the money goes to a good cause.

Adam

Huss · Apr 21, 2021

Adam W said:
Thanks for all the suggestions and comments, folks. I just bought an XA2 w/flash for $145 and an Sure Shot Supreme for $41 (tax + shipping included for both.) I blew my $100 budget, but I bought them from the Goodwill auction site, so the money goes to a good cause.

Adam

Dood, you coulda had a V6, I mean LiteTouch for $80 less.
Definitely went to a good cause - their CEO's 7 figure salary.

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