Nikon Lite Touch with Ilford XP2 Super

Nikon Lite Touch Zoom 120 ED AF Review with Ilford XP2 Super

The Nikon 120 ED AF, it packs a punch for its compact size.

How much does the Nikon Lite Touch weigh?

I decided to do my own weight test for the camera. It’s label says ‘Lite.Touch’ so there was only one way to show this from an empirical point of view!

Popping it my scales it came in a featherweight 250g. The camera was weighed with it's film inside as well as its battery (Duracell CR123) as well.

The images you can see in the video are from a recent visit to the coast and were taken with Ilford XP2 Super. It’s a 400 ISO BW film which requires C41 processing.

Overall quite light, something that you can really chuck into your handbag or your man bag, whatever it is, or even to your pocket. And it should be pretty good to go.

How compact is the Nikon Lite Touch?

Getting my tape measure out to measure its width, a little bit unusual but important to give a greater idea of scale from a perspective point of view.

The Nikon Lite Touch comes in at about 11 centimetres wide. If you look at the pen in comparison as well as the 35 millimetre roll, you can see that it is a pretty compact piece kit. From above again, pretty narrow.

It is not as narrow as other compact film cameras, but is still up there. Overall, very easy for you to be able to pop this into your man bag, your hand bag, pop it into your pocket, and you'd be good to go.

What are some pros of the Nikon Lite Touch?

First of all, it's lightweight and very easy to take with you when on the go or in a rush. It's really easy to load like any other film camera or compact camera. The advantage of a compact film camera is that loading film is an absolute breeze with its automatic loading mechanism.

It's got an automatic zoom function, which works from the back of the camera. And you can go ahead and press the zoom in and the zoom back. If you are interested in using that, I probably would refrain from using it as much as possible. But if that's your sort of thing then you can go ahead and use it. You've also got a number of different functions.

On the top of the camera, you've got the flash priority mode, which automatically pops up every time the camera is opened. It might just be my camera but it won’t sit if manually pushed down. However, it can be switched off manually by pressing the flash button.

There are inbuilt options of swtiching to portrait mode or having a landscape mode. Another cool feature is being able to change the date and the time that you're taking the photos. Once manually set, they will get manually printed onto the film itself when you get them developed.

The Panorama function at the back of the camera is another creative feature. Simply slide the button and it will start taking your images in panorama mode. I'll discuss this feature further down the blog.

The camera has been labelled ‘Lite Touch’ and the shutter release button is very, very light touch from the top. When very lightly depressed it will take the shot, which in some ways is great and other ways not. Certainly it is a promise to its word. What else is there to say, besides the fact that it is a beautiful champagne gold colour?

This camera is great for something casual. It is very easy and cheap to pick up online. You can go onto somewhere like eBay and probably pick up one of these for about £40-50 mark. Maybe a bit more than that. A ‘newer’ less used model is probably going to cost a little bit more for its premium.

Highly recommend it. Really great little, nifty little camera, pop it in your camera bag, put it in your pocket, whatever, and you're good to go.

What are some cons of the Nikon Lite Touch?

It is made out of plastic and it's not like the old Nikon cameras, which you could just literally pick up and throw against a wall and nothing would happen to them. The plastic body, if dropped will most likely crack or worse break it. It’s not worth your time and money getting it fixed so look after it carefully!

When opening the camera up to shoot, it takes about two seconds for it to become ready to shoot. Two seconds is a lifetime, especially if you're trying to capture the moment in particular. So bear that in mind, if you are going to be out somewhere, having fun, having a good time with someone or having a good time with some family, friends, whatever it might be. You want to make sure that your camera is actually ready to shoot rather than being in a closed mode. And it gives you that a bit more flexibility when you're shooting as well.

The Panorama mode is a little bit misleading because whilst it might do that in the camera, all it's doing is cropping the top and the bottom of your frame completely off. Ultimately losing negative space, which could have more information in. Why would you do that? I don't know, unless you're really, really lazy, then definitely use the panorama mode because it will help you to just make sure those images are in that beautiful wide angle look. However, I would prefer to just get a little bit more information and then if I wanted to, I can crop it later in post. And that way I've utilised a full body of the frame itself when taking the shot.

Who is the Nikon Lite Touch for?

Anyone who just wants to shoot some film, wants to have fun with it, doesn't want to have to think about ISO's. If you like keeping it simple, want to enjoy the medium of film, bring back the old times, trying to get an experience of what it was like to shoot with film in the past. It's a great camera to take to a party, social event, somewhere where people are gathering.

Certainly capable of taking beautiful candid pictures with this camera particularly when shot with ISO400 film. It's very reliable, very durable. As long as of course you don't throw it about. You're gonna keep this camera for quite a while to come. Cheap to get. You will have a tonne of fun with this compact camera. Strongly recommend it, go out there, shoot compact, and you won't look back.

Go ahead and like as well as punch the subscribe button on my YouTube Channel. Get in touch. Write down any comments that you have about the video, something that you want to see that I haven't covered, or you're interested in, you're not sure about the film, or you're not sure about the particular camera. Or whether to shoot 35 mil, or medium format, or large format, or whatever it might be. It might be a digital camera question. Punch it in. Let me know. I will try and produce a video on it.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, go out there, enjoy the summer and enjoy shooting with your camera, whatever camera you've got!

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Fuji GSWiii Simplified with Fuji Pro 400H

I will be using my Fuji GSW690iii 6x9 medium format camera in this video. 

This camera is also known Texas Leica. It is big camera, you will see as I walk along this beautiful riverside on this overcast this afternoon. 

On occasions there is a break in the cloud as the blue sky seeps through. I wonder if this would have an affect on the Fuji Pro400H. 

This colour film stock which has sadly been discontinued will give l about eight shots on a 6x9 frame.

The first few shots were take of these lovely swans down, and then I swung around, and took another shot looking in the opposite direction.  

I ran out of shot pretty quickly so I rolled up another roll of Fuji Pro 400H into this camera, looking forward to seeing what else I would capture next. 

Fuji medium format film comes with a little sticker, so you just lift this part up, and then just swing it around the other side you’ll be able to quickly seal your film once exposed. I think they use a little bit less glue than the other film-producing companies and works a treat without you have to lick it seal the film. 

With the film safe keeping for later, I loaded up  the second roll. You’ll see the direction in which film needs to be rolled on the Fuji GSW690iii. Release the pins on either side and then load up your film. Carefully drag the film across until the arrow and close the film back. Always take your rubbish home with you wherever you are.

I hope you have enjoyed watching the video and seeing the images you can create even in less than perfect situations. 

The more you shoot, the better you'll get over time. I encourage you to get yourself a film camera if you don't already have one. 

If you're still on the ropes about getting one of these Fuji GSW3s, I strongly recommend it. The negative size, it's absolutely enormous. And you'll get a lot, a lot of fun out of it as well.

Nikon FA with Ilford HP5+ Photo Walk

Nikon FA was my first ever 35mm film camera. I had been on the fence for quite sometime so when an opportunity presented itself I jumped on board.

It had been quite some time due to our rolling lockdowns since I had an opportunity to get out and shoot with Lucas. We were both chomping at the bit for some time so at our first opportunity we headed out to East London for some film fun!

We started off outside the ExCel Centre with the aim of heading eastward before turning back here. The walk took us through parts decaying through to the ultra modern (and of course, deserted). Nikon FA was my first ever 35mm film camera. I had been on the fence for quite some time so when an opportunity presented itself I jumped on board.

It had been quite some time due to our rolling lockdowns since I had an opportunity to get out and shoot with Lucas. We were both chomping at the bit for some time so at our first opportunity we headed out to East London for some film fun!

We started off outside the ExCel Centre with the aim of heading eastward before turning back here. The walk took us through parts decaying through to the ultra modern (and of course, deserted).The weather was extremely cold, you could feel the windchill working its way through if I stood around or decided to take a break for too long. The overcast weather also helped the film choice. Ilford HP5+ has a wide latitude so you could easily shoot it at any range from 200-800 ISO without much problem. A good idea is to figure out how much grain you want in your image before you get going.

The first few images of an abandoned building which was bought by Newham Council back in 2015. It sits on prime land, opposite the huge ExCel International Exhibition Centre directly across the River Thames. To its east lies London City Airport and to the West the Financial Capital of the World, Canary Wharf. Unsurprisingly, no decision has been made with regards to those abandoned buildings. Although, how long are they going to ponder on it?

The sky is clear, the sun is out as we continue our walk along the River Thames. Just behind the conference centre is plonked a ‘mobile mini’ which makes no sense either. Anyway, a good snap! As we were coming out of lockdown I could help but think why flights were still going out of London City Airport?

A little further along and more abandoned buildings, brand new ones this time. Empty offices with residential complex above. We arrived just at the right time, the light and shadows with the buildings seemingly converging at the end. One of my favourite shots was the reflection of Canary Wharf behind us in the distance, the clouds and the sun at its full brightness.

We took a break for a bit and started to plot out the rest of the walk. A few clouds rolled in and I remember looking up the flight schedule so Lucas could grab a shot on his Canon 35mm. Luck would have it that as we had walked further along we saw a plane taxiing in the distance (not on the rosta!) and he was able to grab a few shots!

We reached the end of the line to find a water pumping station. We hadn’t been walking along the Thames afterall! It was the end of the Gallions Point Marina. The sun was getting lower at this point and we decided to hustle a bit to a spot Lucas had found on the River Thames. The decaying boat would make a perfect subject for a long exposure shot. Which Lucas had prepared very well for with his 10 stop Lee Filter! We worked our way around to North Woolwich through the Royal Victoria Garden, in much more of a hurry due to light starting to go.

We found our way out to a bridge directly underneath the flight path of City Airport after walking along a dead-end footpath. Perfect opportunity to capture the East London Skyline but this time with Lucas’s ND filter. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right thread to hook it up so decided to take a risk and take the shot with the ND Filter handheld. The first shot needed better focus as you can see in the video, however, the second attempt was far better. I really like that shot, definitely will need to find some time to have a play with these filters in the future!

Scurrying our way past the Tate & Lyle factory as pedestrians stopped and asked us for directions to the nearest tube station. We made our final stop at the Thames Barrier which has been in operation for over 40 years now. Little is known about how crucial this system is in preventing wide scale flooding in London. The question remains whether it can withstand the future rising challenges the Thames will pose.

The light was almost lost now as I burned off my final few shots checking how well the HP5+ can handle these conditions. A tripod would probably have been useful at this point but otherwise a very fruitful and productive day out shooting film!

Massive thanks to IG @analog_square who is always a dream to work with on any shoot for all the little videos along the way.

Support my work here and get your hands on my prints: https://www.patreon.com/ahsanabbas

Zeiss Ikon Nettar vs Yashica Mat 124G with Ilford Delta 400

These cameras both use the 6x6 picture format on Medium Format film. The Zeiss Ikon Nettar being the older more rustic version in comparison with the Yashica Mat 124G.

You can have a look at some of my previous videos on the Zeiss Ikon Nettar here.

It was time to test out both cameras under the same conditions using the same film (Ilford Delta 400) and settings throughout. This way I could see how they would perform and what differences potentially could pop up.

Taking a leaf from the Thoreau and his wandering walks in the wild I decided to take a walk of my own in the urban jungle. The walk started on a bright sunny but cold and windy Spring day. I saw these newly painted houses and thought that would be a good place to start.

Surprisingly switching between both cameras was quite seamless. Having the Yashica Mat 124G around my neck and the Zeiss Ikon Nettar tucked away in my jacket pocket. I found taking the folding camera out easy to quick take out of my pocket and snap the shot in frame.

Each time I tried to align it as closely to where the lens from the Yashica was pointing and snap it from that perspective. You can see from the first shot the tones have come out darker in the Yashica on the car and trees. This was to become a consistent theme throughout all the images.

I carried on along and found a side entrance to some apartments which I wandered down to see if there was a route to the other side through. After a short walk through some pastel pink coloured buildings (which I was very much tempted to snap but then thought I don’t have Portra 800 loaded!) I came to a dead-end. I turned back and looked up to see this staircase winding down the side of the building with just the right amount of light on it. While I did my best to shorten the interchange time between cameras, the light had changed slightly after snapping first on the Yashica Mat 124G. The tones have come out a bit darker on the Zeiss Ikon Nettar probably due to the reduction of light on the frame. On a side note, I did find framing and shooting the shot upwards a little tricky and fiddly.

I double-backed on myself and got back to the street where I started from and carried on, turning left and find this row of Victorian Houses. I do like a chequered entrance and with a bike in frame it was a winning combination. The images are almost identical here in tonality, although I slightly prefer the framing on the Zeiss Ikon Nettar.

Coming to the end of the road, I had a decision to make, whether to carryon walking straight or turn left. The decision was made by the graffiti on the wall on the left hand side. Be Happy! The clouds were starting to draw over and the light was intermittent and variable. The framing on the Yashica 124G has come out better probably because of the viewfinder which allows for a more intuitive framing experience. The Zeiss Ikon Nettar has a little square viewfinder which is not entirely accurate in giving you a realistic view of what the image will turn out to be.

The low-ish walled bridge was just about reachable to place my camera on top and capture a few snaps of the railway lines. Initially, I had thought about taking the images of the train tracks but then saw these trains coming along and decided to shoot those in frame. Next time, I’ll stick with the railway lines!

London ‘Mews’ streets are just the best to shoot. More recently, I have seen a trend in these little side streets being blocked off to the public which is quite sad. Capturing the vanishing point of this street on the square 6x6 format was a bit tricky. It would be interesting to see how a 6x9 format would fare here.

The architecture was starting to change as I crossed the main road. Moving away from terraced Victorian homes to more detached villa style homes. Notable persons of historical interest even resided in these homes from almost over a century ago.

As you can see from the image comparison, both cameras came out with near identical shots. The only real difference between the two being with the Zeiss Ikon Nettar shots coming out lighter and less constrasty on the blacks.