There is a camera out of my recent timeline had skipped my mind. It’s not because it’s a bad camera, it’s just not that great either. It has cons where it has pros … The camera in question is the Nikon AF600.
I bought this camera in the hope that it would satisfy my desire for a 28mm compact camera, it didn’t, and I moved on quickly to the Ricoh GR1. I think the issues for me started with it being very slightly faulty. An eBay purchase, I could see in the listing photos that the little door to the lens wasn’t sitting right. It looked as if it wasn’t closed properly. I figured this would be something I could fix, so undeterred I bid and won it for £16. The one-lady-owner lived locally and dropped it into the reception at my office. I didn’t have to pay shipping, but also didn’t get a chance to question her about the door. She had said in no uncertain terms that should I put a battery in it and find fault she would take it back. As these cameras don’t pop up on eBay that often, and that it had only cost £16 and that I’m not a mindlessly petty person… I let her off this small fault.
The lens door it turned out, was a right off. It was warped and it didn’t matter how many times I took it apart, straightened it and put it together again it would open and close consistently. So I took it off, just leaving the little lever that moves the leaves of the door in place. I was a little disheartened by this, it’s not that I need things to be in perfect condition to enjoy them, but I do allow silly things to tait my experience of something sometimes …
I put the obligatory roll of XP2 into it and the very next day was treated to some particularly dreary weather. The walk to work yielded some quite nice opportunities, I do like the 28mm fov so felt quickly comfortable with the camera in that respect. The viewfinder isn’t perfect though, it’s pretty small, and not easy to find when putting the camera to the eye. Even slightly off centre and the finder quickly blacks out. It does feel fairly responsive in use though, and the lens moves to focus after the full press so focusing and refocusing doesn’t make any noise until the shot is actually taken. It seemed to focus correctly most of the time, if not as perfectly as the Yashica T5 does. Features wise it’s pretty sparse, various fairly standard flash modes – slow sync, red eye, auto, on and off. Infinity focus lock, self timer and a double shot self timer… thats pretty much your lot!
One other feature is the panorama mode, I havent used it, I dont really see the point, I can crop in post if I want to.
Taken on the way to work the first day I shot with it.
Also taken that morning – The comment I got on flickr was pretty accurate to my feeling – “man that looks crisp Hamish”
Some vignetting visible here.
The pictures it takes are pretty good, in fact for what I paid they are remarkable! Nice are sharp right across the frame with a little vignetting. Not quite the ‘pop’ of the Yashica T5 though, some Images seem to have a sort of flatness to them.
I do like the detail in the paint work in this shot.
There is something about this image that looks a little grey and flat, you can’t argue with the detail though.
Exposure is pretty good, even with the flash… I really like this photo, don’t know why …
The camera is really quite small, certainly small enough to go into most pockets. But this positive is cancelled out by a just as large negative. It feels a bit cheap, the plastic feels crappy, and it creaks if you squeeze it. I had issues with the lens and my finger too, although not the surprise issue of the lens extending into my finger I get with the Yashica. With this camera it’s thats your middle finger just doesn’t feel like it has a home on the camera.
Overall, a nice 28mm lens in a fairly forgettable cheap feeling camera. It’s almost like the quality of the lens was an accident, Nikon made a cheap camera, made a lens that was fit for purpose and price, but just so happened to be very good. If 28mm is your thing, you have a small budget and don’t mind a patient wait trying to find one, this camera is for you. And to be honest, being reasonable, for £16 it is a gem!
For me, due to it having very little resale value because of the broken lens door I decided to keep it. It actually makes quite a lot of sense as a glove box camera. A lens good enough to feel happy shooting with should a situation where I have nothing else arise. Unfortunately for the Nikon, I carry a camera all the time, even when we just go out in the car, because of this the fuji superior 400 loaded in it will probably go out of date before it gets used up.
You can see some of the rest of the single film I put through the camera here. Should I ever finish another film with this camera they will also be added to that flickr set.
I should also credit this chap, it was these photos that made me want to buy one of these cameras.
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Nikon AF600 on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 09/06/2013
Daire on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 30/07/2013
Some shots:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=af600&w=31589949@N00&s=int
That said, I've gotten through 3 of them so far so yeah, the build quality isn't the best. First one died because it got sand into it somehow. Second one stopped focusing correctly for no reason that I could see, third one is still going strong...
Urban Hafner on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 20/09/2013
I'm just not sure I like 28mm. I will have to shoot a few rolls to see if that works for me. And I hope the meter is better than the one in the Konica Big Mini.
Hamish on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 20/09/2013
Comment posted: 20/09/2013
Comment posted: 20/09/2013
Comment posted: 20/09/2013
Urban Hafner on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 21/11/2013
Andrew Paul on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 29/01/2014
Comment posted: 29/01/2014
Comment posted: 29/01/2014
Nikon AF-600 — Lite Touch | 6500K on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 07/02/2014
Janet Cooper on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 30/06/2014
Comment posted: 30/06/2014
Comment posted: 30/06/2014
MikeC on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 15/09/2014
Unfortunately they don't make such cameras nowadays except for those Coolpix A and Ricoh GR which are just too expensive for most people.
Comment posted: 15/09/2014
blinx on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 29/12/2014
It took another generation of cameras - and a few multiples in price - before film compacts like the GR and Contax could be considered robust enough to carry everywhere.
Adrian on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 29/01/2015
Comment posted: 29/01/2015
Benn Murhaaya on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 10/03/2015
Even though, I love it's form factor (damn this thing is small!) and I could live with the pinhole size viewfinder, I had to let it go. The dealbreaker for me was sluggish focus. Maybe it was just my piece, with dust in the sensor but it took forever to focus even in not so dark conditions. The af assist light would lit up and go off and people would think that the picture was already taken so I have quite a few pictures of people turning away. It could not even compare to the reaction time of Mju II which is probably one of the quickies P&Ss I used. The mju has active focus while AF600 has passive if I remeber correctly but shooting through glass or mirror it had about the same success rate as mju in focusing on what I wanted. Some mirror shots are tack sharp, some are focused on the mirror itself.
The metering worked so so. It had a tendency to underexpose. Golden hour, blue hour are kinda the tipping point to the sensitivity in my experience. When flash was used, it sometimes created stripes in the illumination.
What also bugged me and bugs me to this day on other cameras, is the panorama switch. I accidentaly switched it once. It at least have a yellow indicator to warn you. Which is nice touch if you watch for it. I've never understood the craze for panorama by chopping the part of the picture. Had these switches been replaced by flash off/auto switches, the user experience off all these compacts would went through the roof.
It build up a great deal of anticipation by it's size and infinity focus but failed to live up to my expectations (maybe they were too high for it).
Comment posted: 10/03/2015
Comment posted: 10/03/2015
Christos Theofilogiannakos on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 14/10/2015
Comment posted: 14/10/2015
Comment posted: 14/10/2015
Edward on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 23/10/2018
The Land of the Cameras of the Dead - mike eckman dot com on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 31/10/2018
Huss on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 21/07/2019
Still shooting the first roll. Wow it is tiny. And yes even brand new this thing is super cheap and creaky feeling. I'm actually surprised that Nikon would make something that feel this chintzy. VF is fine as the camera is small. I had to re-read the manual to make sure it was meant to briefly flicker the flash light to confirm focus.
Slowest film wind on ever! Anyway, looking forward to see how the pics look.
Stanley Munn on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 09/02/2020
Sacha Cloutier on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 30/07/2020
Karl on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 24/01/2021
Devon C Adams on Nikon ‘Lite Touch’ AF600 Review – A Forgotten Fling
Comment posted: 13/06/2021
Comment posted: 13/06/2021
Comment posted: 13/06/2021
Comment posted: 13/06/2021