With point and shoot camera prices in a constant hike and with the spotlight falling on a handful Contax, Yashica and Olympus models it can be hard finding lesser know cameras that are great performers with a significantly lower price tag.
A few months ago I was looking for a decent point and shoot with a fixed wide angle lens and a wide enough aperture to keep in my pocket at all times. I stumbled upon the Nikon AF600, found one on ebay and decided to give it a try. A couple of months later having shot 5 rolls through this little camera and after getting back the scans from the lab I was pleasantly surprised by its performance.
The camera was first introduced by Nikon in 1993. Tiny in size with a retractable 28mm f/3.5. It features a quick autofocus that has failed only in 2 shots out of the five rolls I’ve shot so far. The lens is really sharp and can focus really close down to a 0.35m thus giving you a nice flexibility and the ability to blur out backgrounds nicely in close up shots. At the time of its release, the AF600 was the world's smallest and lightest AF/AE camera.
The downside of such a form factor as expected is the extremely small viewfinder that will take you a bit of time getting used to and the careful positioning of your fingers to avoid obscuring the lens. You will need to develop some awareness to avoid finger shots.
On top of the camera there are three buttons plus the shutter release and a small lcd display. One on/off button, one to control the flash and one that allows you to either set the timer or set the focus to infinity to avoid close focusing when shooting through windows etc. It also features a panorama mode by blocking the top and bottom part of the frame and can be controlled by a switch at the back of the camera which I ended up taping after it was accidentally switched on and shot 3-4 images without realising.
Another thing worth mentioning is the ability to prefocus, reframe and then take the shot which is extremely handy. It uses one 3V CR123A battery and I consistently get 37 shots out of it. There are a few similar cameras out there that worth looking into, including the Samsung AF-Slim, Rollei Prego AF and the Voigtländer Vito C-AF. You can get a good review of the Samsung on Hashem’s youtube channel here.
All the shots taken are on Portra 400 and developed by Carmencita Film Lab in Valencia.