About twenty+ years ago, I set out to buy my one and only point-n-shoot camera. By study, I reduced the selection to the Contax T2 and this NIkon 35Ti. To break the tie, I bought both, tested the lenses and used them for their convenience. As for lenses, the Nikon was sharper in the image center at best aperture, but the T2 was more uniform over the whole image field and better in edges and corners at most stops. The settings and options on the Nikon are far more numerous, but the Contax is much more ergonomic (easy to use). As my eyes started to glaze over half way through the video, I was again reminded why I kept the T2 and resold the 35Ti . The Nikon has all of those controls and features, but they are generally not very convenient to set or use. At my current age, I wouldn't be able to read all of those watch dial readouts on the top plate. (Made for Nikon by Seiko.) The two buttons on the front panel which control flash are flush and nearly impossible to use. (Nikon changed this problem in later runs of the 35Ti and on the 28Ti). As a life-long Nikon user, I was pre-disposed to the 35Ti, but using it for a week killed any love. In hind sight, I should have bought a Konica Hexar AF anyway.
I have the 28Ti which is almost the same except for, obviously, the 28mm prime lens. It's personal preference there. Additionally the 28Ti is black and they replaced the annoying flash override buttons on the front of the 35Ti with persistent switches. Oh, and they made less 28s and they're a bit more expensive. Seriously amazing point and shoots though. The top dial is a conversation piece, and the ability to set manual focus with it is pretty amazing, especially for shooting through glass and for street photography. The matrix meter is better than anything ever put in any other camera of its class - the same 3D meter from the SLRs of the era. You can override it with spot meter in some archaic setting code menu, but why would you? You can't override the DX code of the film, but the +2/-2 compensation can be used to overcome this. One of the other sleeper hits for these cameras is the flash. Coupled with the matrix metering, it's just always the perfect output level and totally changed my opinion of using flash on a compact. It always looks natural and avoids that over-the-top fashion look. My big wish for this camera is a faster max shutter speed. The max is 1/500th, but only in Program mode. It's like 1/320th max in Aperture priority, which is so dumb because it prevents to much isolation of a subject in brighter light - but I suppose it prevents you from forgetting what this camera is designed for. If I need more creative freedom and am going out with the intention of creating art, I really should be using a different camera. This is my daily casual driver for just documenting day-in-day-out. It's a tiny bit noisy, but not a big deal. And sometimes focus can be a little slow to activate. Fun facts: the top dial was built by Seiko. This is the *only* Nikon compact to receive a Nikkor-branded lens. The Time mode goes to a max of 10 minutes (but has no way to use a shutter release). The quartz date function supports the current year. Rear curtain fill flash works in Aperture priority only (if you want to bring up the ambient levels in a dark scene to match the flashed subject).
It has dual frame counters as the centre top analogue dial gives exposure counter function. Analogue dials made by Seiko. Exposure metering is Nikon’s Matrix system. I have this and a Contax T3. Not sure which I prefer.
The Contax is a bit more ergonomic, and the lens is more consistent across the frame. And it takes filters. But I do like that Nikon offered the 28Ti as a wider version. And I do think the Nikon has more unique charm and quirkiness. Definitely better for manual/zone focusing. And the meter is incredible, which makes it such a breeze to use casually. I also think the Nikon Tis are probably a bit more electronically reliable, and cheaper to replace (so far).
The flash icon keeps blinking super fast when trying to shoot. But the camera won’t shoot on my 35ti. Do you know how to fix the flash to shoot properly. It won’t work auto flash or manual flash all of a sudden.
I always wandering when using the flash, what speed it set? What I see is wider open which means that many objects won’t be on focus. What would happen if I set manually f/8 ? Is it going to control the light in accordance wit the aperture? Why in auto mode it set so wide aperture?
It's automatically set to 100, so just use the exposure compensation to get your desired ASA - although you're limited to 2 stops over or 2 stops under 100.
Had that one before...way too sophisticated to do drunk party pics with that one. But the lightmeter is on point and the flexible program mode is a nice thing to have. Nikon could have ditched the panorama mode as it is kind of a joke.
Haven't had any problem just throwing it into P for drunk party pics. lol. I do actually prefer using it in A, though, because in that mode it actually does rear curtain fill to bring up the ambient to match the flash.
I have one that I bought just before the prices went through the roof. Would love to have the sister camera the 28Ti but those prices are really ridiculous
I have a 28Ti and it's absolutely hands-down my daily driver point and shoot. Replacing the flash buttons with a persistent switch was also a huge positive update.
@@goldenhourkodak Yes but if you are ok with max aperture of F3.5 then imo there are waaaay cheaper alternatives like my lovely nikon zoom310AF etc. (granted the optical quality won't be as good) If you're looking for a sick looking F2.8 point&shoot there aren't many options out there sadly..
@@ZachACameraGuy Yeah, not even just looks. When you get into the realm of point and shoots with this level of build quality, there are even fewer options with basically just this, Contax, and the Konika Hexar coming to mind (and the Hexar is almost a hybrid P&S/full camera). Not a lot of titanium and Seiko movements in the world of casual compacts.
