FILM  CAMERAS

 

I only use P&S 35mm film cameras with fix focal lens. 

The picture quality of APS cameras is insufficient; the concept is turned and I always considered it as a take-in. The medium size cameras are bigger and heavier, and I'm satisfied with an excellent 35mm film camera.

The zoom lenses are not necessary. On P&S cameras, their quality is often insufficient.

 

 Criteria for choice

  • The quality of the lens to enlarge pictures up to 30x45cm
  • The possibility to connect or install an electric shutter release plug.
  • no automatic shut off
  • the delay to release the shutter ( less than 0,4s)
  • the focal distance of the lens, in preference wide angle, ranging from 28 to 35mm.
 

 Some more criteria:

the focus setting,
interesting when this setting is reducing the shutter release delay.
the choice of diaphragm or of shutter speed
which let shot with assurance to a sufficient speed.
the possibility to mount a filter
seldom seen on P&S cameras. The most interesting filter is the polarizing screen which vanishes the fog and intensify the color saturation. With this filter, the exposure must be modified.
The speed shutter
is not  usually a critical criteria as 1/250s is sufficient. Only really cheap cameras have shutter speeds not exceeding 1/125 or 1/80.
The quality criteria of the lens excludes almost all zoom lenses of P&S cameras. .

 

Some examples

The awards go to the Konica Hexar and to the Olympus Epic.

The Leica Minilux conforms to the three first criteria. Alas, it needs between 0.6 to 0.8 seconds to shot, at least twice as much as the konica hexar: 0.3s. This lead to more missed pictures, fuzzy to badly framed. Furthermore, it has an important vignetting in some conditions of photography.

The Pentax PC 550 with a good lens 28mm has a shutter mechanically released, for which an electric release cannot be installed.