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Plastic Fantastic

frank

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I used to buy any camera that was available for cheap, but I've become much more discriminating over the years. I've got lots of great classic cameras, so now it takes something for a camera to turn my head. I found one today in a thrift shop. It's a Nikon AF600: AF, AE, with fixed 28f3.5 lens. The battery is dead so I don't actually know if it works, but at $2, I thought I'd take a gamble.

I like the 28mm viewpoint. When using a 35mm SLR, I often go out with a 28/50 combo. I've had a few Yashica T4's but don't really like the 35mm focal length. I am anxious to try out this new Nikon and compare it to my Olympus XA4, also with a 28f3.5 lens.

https://6500k.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/nikon-af-600-lite-touch/
 
I have been on the look out for decent plastic cameras lately with the latest being a Nikon AF400 28-70mm zoom I was given. I am halfway through a test roll of Fuji 400 color film, but a web search says that lens may not be all that great. A problem is some of these plastic cameras use batteries that cost more than the camera and it is not always obvious what it may take without looking it up. My current go to plastic AF/AE camera is a $5 Minolta AF-Tele that is good enough to make me want to find a better copy.
 
Here are two of mine, both Polaroids.



The Super Shooter has indeed lived up to its name: I've made a surprisingly large number of beautiful photos with it and Fuji FP-3000B.



The EE 100 Special needs its bellows repaired, hopefully this weekend. I bought it for $5 at a swap meet earlier this month. As with many other pack film Polaroids, the 75 selection shoots wide open (f/9.2) and the 3000 selection is stopped down quite a bit (f/58). This means daylight shooting is no problem but interiors or dim light will result in a multi-second exposure unless a flashcube is used. However, this camera has an additional "3000 ER" setting which keeps the aperture wide open for 3000 speed film. With that setting I could make photos in dim interior lighting at hand-holdable shutter speeds.
 
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Plastic cameras are a study in their own right! There are plastic bodies with excellent, multi-element glass lenses, ones with interesting 3-element lenses, poor but unusually rendering simple plastic lenses. Focus free, fixed aperture, auto exposure, variable speed, the list goes on. The best guide is to empty your mind of expectations and hearsay and try them out for yourself. There's a trend against zooms, so they are cheap, but some zoom compacts have very good lenses. The downside is the AF speed is generally slow.

Too many makes to single one out, but cheap Olympus cameras always seem to make interesting pictures, even the cheapest plastic lens Shoot and Go draws nicely and will be quick to use.
 
plastic is fantastic but only steel is real.
 
...and you can only roam with chrome.
 


I used same source for these camera. Thrift stores. As long as it is with glass lens and have two AF positions, it will give OK pictures.





I went through these cameras and donated back to thrift shop. I don't know any photographer I know to use plastic fantastic cameras.
I followed their choice:



To be able to get... this



 
Yes, I've donated a bunch of this type of camera that didn't make the cut, back to our hospital auxiliary store.

Here are some cameras that did make the cut. (The Pentax also has a 28mm lens and a yuuuge viewfinder.

 
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'Seconded on the great source for historic cameras.
I still remember 'everyone should have a retina'.
 
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