I love and hate point & shoot film camera.

Point & shoot

Point & shoot film camera, as the name suggests, is just a film camera that allows you to just point and shoot, without bothering much about exposure setting.

As of now, the demand for film cameras is very high. Because many point & shoot film cameras are at least 10 years of age. Their functionality and ‘survival rate’ are declining yearly.

Hence, it is difficult to find a mint and working point & shoot film camera for a reasonable price. Thus leading to the spike of price for camaras such as Contax T2, T3, Olympus mju ii, Ricoh GRV1, Yashica T5 and many more. However, people are still willing to pay even $1000 for an electronic point & shoot clearly knowing it can’t be repaired and would just die off one day.

My father gave me 3 of his electronic film cameras and they are all dead. I can’t fix them.

Love

I actually bought a point & shoot for the convenience of people around me who don’t know how to control a film camera. Because I like to shoot and be shot. Whatever, I am very stubborn and only want to use film camera.

Contax series

Thus, point & shoot camera such as Contax TVS became my saver. Sometimes when I am lazy and just want to press shutter without thinking too much, I just bring my Contax TVS out. Personally, I feel that Contax TVS is sufficient for basic uses. I wrote a review about it.

If you have more money to spare, get a Contax T2 or T3. Or maybe Ricoh GR1V, Minolta TC-1, Konica Hexar, etc. All these are highly sought after so they are not cheap!

Another good thing about point & shoot is the size. It is usually smaller and lighter.

Olympus mju ii

For the size and weight, I want to praise Olympus mju ii which is the king of compact camera. When I tried it, I just feel it is too convenient to use. It hung around my neck like a necklace without giving me an ache.

Olympus mju ii is suitable for just anyone. All you have to do is to slide open the lens cover and just press shutter. Like an film version smart phone.

The size is smaller than your hand, meaning you can really, really bring it wherever you go. The auto-focus of mju ii is so much more reliable than Contax TVS. Furthermore, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8, it’s good for low-light condition. Overall super sharp lens!

Unfortunately, I feel that mju ii is quite fragile in a sense that I don’t think they are as durable as the Contax series.

Olympus XA series

Another compact size film camera is Olympus XA series. They are small but reliable, as I heard. The price is still quite affordable so grab one while you can!

Hate

Sometimes, I don’t like the lack control on a point & shoot. Well, as I said, it’s good when I feel lazy.

But when it comes to the street, you want a fast shutter speed. When you are shooting portrait, you want a creamy bokeh by using very large aperture (f/2.8).

Another frustration is the focusing. For manual control, you get to choose the distance you want to be in focus. However, for point & shoot’s auto focus, the camera decides for you. If you have an unreliable Contax TVS, good luck!

(Well, some point & shoot comes with manual focusing, like all the Contax series).

They will die

Most point & shoot film cameras come as electronic component. That’s why they are smart in a way that they can decide the best setting and focus for you.

But all electronic component will die. Hence, a Hasselblad 500EL/M is so much cheaper than a mechanical Hasselblad such as 500C/M.

So, my Contax TVS will die on me anytime. That’s what I dislike.

Conclusion

There’s no best camera in the world. Because each camera is special to each individual user. Just like some people do hate Leica even though it is given the title of ‘the king of rangefinder’. In contrast, some people work well with a cheap point & shoot and f*king love it.

So, we just have to find ‘that’ camera just like how we are always trying to find the perfect other half. Hehe.

 

 

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