MiNT is Developing a Brand-New Premium Compact 35mm Film Camera

[4season]

I wonder if this one will take away custom from the Pentax 17 or is there enough of a market for both cameras?

Is there enough of a market for either of the cameras? We shall see!

 

[Agulliver]

The two products seem to be sufficiently different that I doubt either will take from the other's market.

Whether this takes away from the *next* Pentax product, which seems likely to have more similarities, remains to be seen.

Thus far, it seems pre-orders for the Pentax 17 exceeded all expectations and have caught Pentax by surprise.

 

[BHuij]

I wonder if this one will take away custom from the Pentax 17 or is there enough of a market for both cameras?. On what may be a superficial glance this one seems to offer autofocus for what in GBP is about £130 more but takes only half as many frames as the Pentax 17 which is half frame

pentaxuser

I think they're pretty different cameras. The Rollei 35AF has fast, high quality prime lens with autofocus, manual exposure controls available, and the whole thing is really tiny. The Pentax 17 is auto exposure only, and zone focus with kind of a mid-tier triplet lens, and despite shooting half frame it's significantly larger than the Rollei.

Between the two, I personally would struggle to create art I was satisfied with using the Pentax. I'm too much of a control freak, and I generally want more resolution than half frame.

To me there's not a huge amount of market overlap.

 

[cmacd123]

Are plastic gears like that typical in premium cameras?

I would say so, My Minolta X700 uses a couple of large Nylon gears for the film advance. well designed Plastic gears are long lasting and self lubricating as well as quiet.

 

[Sharktooth]

While watching the JCH video it struck me that the wind lever was right above the viewfinder. This means that you have to pull the camera away from your eye to advance the film. I was surprised to see that the original Rollei 35 cameras had the wind lever in the same spot. I'd never noticed that before. I've never actually owned or used one, but I've thought about getting one many times over the years. The major obstacle for me was the lack of a rangefinder. This new one addresses that with autofocus, but now I'm thinking the wind lever is a no-go too. What do owners of the original Rollei 35 think of the wind lever position? Is it an annoyance, or does it not even bother you?

 

[armadsen]

The Rollei 35 wind lever’s size, shape, and position on the left struck me as unusual the first time I held one. But actually shooting with it, it doesn’t bother me at all.

 

[Sharktooth]

The Rollei 35 wind lever’s size, shape, and position in the left struck me as unusual the first time I held one. But actually shooting with it, it doesn’t bother me at all.

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Agulliver]

I might struggle with this as I use my left eye to look through viewfinders....but that would seem not to affect 90% of potential users.

 

[loccdor]

I might struggle with this as I use my left eye to look through viewfinders....but that would seem not to affect 90% of potential users.

I think there are more left-eyed people than left-handed. Myself, and big portion of my photographer friends use their left eye.

(just looked it up: it's 30%)

 

[Agulliver]

I think there are more left-eyed people than left-handed. Myself, and big portion of my photographer friends use their left eye.

(just looked it up: it's 30%)

How curious. I am right handed, well mostly, but have always used my left eye as my "master eye".

 

[Sharktooth]

Hmmm .....
I wonder if the dominant eye thing is more related to practical opportunity, unlike handedness. Cameras are geared towards right handed people, since the shutter release and winder are almost always on the right. The viewfinder is on the left in order to make the right side of the camera accessible to the right hand.
This begs the question, are left handed people also left eye dominant, and are right handed people generally right eye dominant, or is eye dominance not strongly correlated to hand dominance? I don't know the answer, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon.

 

[Disconnekt]

Hmmm .....
I wonder if the dominant eye thing is more related to practical opportunity, unlike handedness. Cameras are geared towards right handed people, since the shutter release and winder are almost always on the right. The viewfinder is on the left in order to make the right side of the camera accessible to the right hand.
This begs the question, are left handed people also left eye dominant, and are right handed people generally right eye dominant, or is eye dominance not strongly correlated to hand dominance? I don't know the answer, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon.

There's a video from Karen Majoka talking about eye dominance when shooting using her Leica camera (though pertains to slrs too):

 

[Sharktooth]

Thanks for the video link. She does mention a neat method to test for your dominant eye. It turns out I'm part of the majority, and am using my Leica with the right eye, although I think I still close my left eye most of the time, so I'm still doing it wrong. The good news is that I'm not a Leica snob, since I'm doing it wrong by choice. There's a bright side to everything.

 

[Nitroplait]

If that Rollei 35AF is anything like the original when changing film and if it inherits other idiosyncrasies from the original, it definitely has a completely different target buyer than the Pentax 17.
I dare say Pentax didn’t have any Photrio user in mind when designing the “17”, while MINT probably think of us as their primary customer base.

 

[albireo]

Hmmm .....
I wonder if the dominant eye thing is more related to practical opportunity, unlike handedness. Cameras are geared towards right handed people, since the shutter release and winder are almost always on the right. The viewfinder is on the left in order to make the right side of the camera accessible to the right hand.
This begs the question, are left handed people also left eye dominant, and are right handed people generally right eye dominant, or is eye dominance not strongly correlated to hand dominance? I don't know the answer, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon.

I am completely left eyed, left handed, left footed. The right side of my body, from a sensory point of view, only provides support to the left one, and is merely a 'brute force' tool. For the finesse and for pretty much everything of importance, I need to use the left bits.

35mm photography for me has been a struggle when it comes to ergonomics, with some critically acclaimed cameras being utterly useless for me (eg my Nikon FE was one of my worst purchases ever, with that advance lever poking constantly into my face when composing).

I've personally found peace when I transitioned years ago to medium format cameras and especially TLRs, where the face asymmetry constraints during composition disappear. I can compose with both my eyes open, or with my left eye only.

I'd recommend all left handed people/left eyed people to try a TLR or a WLF MF camera at some point in their life.

 

[Agulliver]

In my case, I started photography very young aged four or possibly just five....by copying my dad. To my young mind, he was putting his camera up to the left side of his face (as I viewed it) so I did the same. Whether my left eye was dominant before that, nobody can say. What I can say is that I view cameras, microscopes and telescopes with my left eye and that test shows my left eye to be dominant. I am naturally right handed but being trained as a musician has lead to my left hand being more useful than the average rightie. Some cameras work well for me, and a few are really difficult. Most are fine. I don't know if this Mint/Rollei would be difficult, it might be an idea to try one at some point if the opportunity arises.

I would agree with @Nitroplait that this is aimed at some of us here whereas the Pentax 17 is certainly not. The two cameras don't have much overlap in likely customer base. Hence both have a chance in the marketplace.

 

[loccdor]

When I first started photography I tried both eyes. My left eye has just slightly better vision and I found it easier to focus with it. I started late. By then, I had already gone through a period of bad vision in childhood, followed by glasses, contacts, then lasik.

I am strongly right handed.

 

[ant!]

There seems to be some news (at least I haven't seen it...): https://www.rollei.de/en/collection...2024-06-26_Rollei-35AF-Vorstellung-Vorverkauf

850 Euro
delivery mid October
35mm f2.8 lens, flash, AF and auto-exposure
from the photos: exposure compensation +/-2

 

[JParker]

FYI:

MiNT is Developing a Brand-New Premium Compact 35mm Film Camera

Initial prototyping has begun.

petapixel.com

As they have experience with designing instant film cameras from scratch, and producing them successfully, this project could be successful as well.

Important update:

Pre-Orders for Mint's $799 Rollei 35AF Film Camera Start September 10

It will cost $799 and start shipping mid-October.

petapixel.com

 

[cerber0s]

Kompakte Rollei 35 AF Analogkamera mit neuesten Technologien 📸

Rollei 35 AF Analogkamera ► Präziser Autofokus mit LiDAR ► Herausragende Bildqualität mit 35mm f/2.8 Objektiv ► Integrierter Blitz & mit OLED-Display ► Jetzt günstig bei Rollei kaufen 🛒

www.rollei.com

It looks promising.

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will receive the first batch. The rest of Europe will have to wait until January 2025.

 

[armadsen]

Kompakte Rollei 35 AF Analogkamera mit neuesten Technologien 📸

Rollei 35 AF Analogkamera ► Präziser Autofokus mit LiDAR ► Herausragende Bildqualität mit 35mm f/2.8 Objektiv ► Integrierter Blitz & mit OLED-Display ► Jetzt günstig bei Rollei kaufen 🛒

www.rollei.com

It looks promising.

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will receive the first batch. The rest of Europe will have to wait until January 2025.

Somebody needs to hire a new copy editor:

Or maybe I'm just ignorant, and "roller egg" is the new slang.

 

[koraks]

A breakfast of 35mm roller egg would leave me hungry until lunch, I'm afraid.

 

[Dustin McAmera]

You can force Google translate to go halfway to that; you have to leave a space and give it a capital E; then Roll Ei will translate as Roll egg. So I don't know how they got to roller egg; maybe speech recognition was involved?

 

[cerber0s]

Roller egg according to chat GPT:

”
A roller egg is typically a toy or device used for children, especially infants, to encourage crawling and movement. It’s often designed as an egg-shaped object that can roll in different directions, capturing the child's attention. The rolling motion stimulates the baby to chase after it, promoting physical development, hand-eye coordination, and motor skills.


In some cases, "roller egg" might refer to a type of rolling egg used in traditional festivals or games, where participants roll decorated eggs, but the toy version is the more common usage today.”

Toy or device used for adult children…

 

[Dustin McAmera]

promoting physical development, hand-eye coordination, and motor skills.

Simpler to give your infant a Leica surely (just until she/he's ready for a proper camera).