Nikon One Touch L35AF2 35mm Camera Review

If you pick up a Nikon One Touch, don’t be surprised if it is a little grimy. That rubber texture picks up dirt like crazy.

If you want to pick up your own Nikon One Touch, you can find one used on eBay or Amazon. Using these affiliate links helps me keep this site online without annoying banner ads. I appreciate your support!

Update February 2022: I now have a video review of this camera, linked above!

35mm pocket cameras have been enjoying an unlikely renaissance over the past few years, with premium 90s and 80s-era film cameras like the Nikon 35ti commanding a huge markup on the second hand market. Shooting analogue is already an expensive habit, so I’ve been on the hunt for affordable alternatives to the wonderful-yet-insanely-priced 35Tis of the world.

Many pocket cameras are cheap rangefinders with fixed-focus lenses that are no better than a Fuji Quicksnap disposable camera. However, at long last I may have found my match. I recently took the Nikon One Touch L35AF2 on a trip overseas, and it has revealed itself to be a worthy companion. Best of all, the camera is plentiful and available for a reasonable price on eBay and elsewhere.

I’ve had to do research to figure out what the heck my camera was, as the camera body itself simply says ‘Nikon One Touch.’ Confusingly, there are other generation ‘One Touch’ Nikons out there that have different lens systems. This one, as far as I can tell without the original box, is the L35AF2. I’d recommend going by pictures when shopping for this camera, and making sure whatever you get looks like mine if you want the exact same thing. Most sellers are not going to know the correct model number, and it may be mislabeled.

Anyway, for our purposes, I’m going to call this camera the Nikon One Touch for the rest of this review.

Long story short, if you’re looking for a great travel and landscape camera, the Nikon One Touch does an excellent job. It’s light, relatively small, hardy, has an excellent lens and autofocus system, and it is easy to use even in low light conditions. However, the camera struggles with people, and the photographer has almost zero control over what the One Touch decides it is going to do.

The front cover open, and the flash popped up and in active position.

Lens

The lens is the star of the Nikon One Touch show. With a max aperture of f2.8 and a focal length of 35mm (not to be confused with the fact that the camera is using 35mm film), this thing is no slouch when it comes to sharpness and low-light ability. It’s not quite SLR lens level, but overall I was very pleased with the results I got with it.

The lens doesn’t have any zoom capabilities, and the 35mm focal length isn’t really optimized for portraits. However, I think it is a great focal length for travel and landscapes, as it doesn’t have the distortion of wider angles, but still allows you to see more than a longer 50mm solution. I also prefer the look of 35mm over 28mm, another common focal length for this kind of camera.

The lens has an autofocus system built into it, and this allows the camera to get far better results than cheaper fixed-focus systems. The autofocus is pretty solid for large subjects, and you can see what the camera is doing via a lever indicator in the viewfinder. It’s a good thing too, because there’s no way to do manual focus with this bad boy.

In fact, there’s just about zero controls on anything, which brings me to…

The shutter is just about the only control you have over this camera.

Features and Controls, or Lack Thereof

The name ‘One Touch’ is no joke. There are almost zero controls. It’s intended for somebody to point the camera at their subject, press the shutter button, and be done with it. The One Touch really is as simple to use as a basic vintage Polaroid camera. I was worried about this at first, as I’m a complete control freak (like most photographers out there), but it turns out the camera does a good job on its own.

The only controls on the camera are a lever to open the lens cover, the shutter, a timed-release button for self portraits, a lever to open the back, and the ability to press the flash back down when it pops up. That’s it. There’s no exposure compensation, no dials, no exposure modes, no way to set film ISO level, no indicators, nada.

And you know what? Once I learned to let go a bit, it really didn’t bother me. When I need to control all those things, I can use a Nikon F100. When I’m just out on a trip and I want some cool landscape shots, the One Touch is exactly as capable as I need it to be.

The view through the viewfinder.

Ergonomics

To turn on the Nikon One Touch, you slide a lever beneath the lens to open the front cover. I really like this built-in lens cover, as it is far less likely to get lost or fall off inside a bag than the traditional lens cap. Also, the lever stays in place, so you don’t have to worry about the camera accidentally turning itself on while being jostled in luggage.

When the Nikon One Touch detects that the environment is dark and needs some assistance with flash, it pops up automatically. Thankfully, you can press it back down and take a picture without it. It’s irritating that you have to do this every time you want to override the flash; I would’ve much preferred a way to simply turn it off. However, I was worried at first there was no way to override this at all, which thankfully isn’t the case.

Also helpful is that the camera is very conservative out popping out the flash, only popping up when it’s really needed. The fast 2.8 lens allows the camera to shoot in much darker environments without it than slower zooms and fixed-focus pocket cameras. In practice, the flash rarely bothered me.

The viewfinder works just fine, giving you an indication of roughly where the camera is focusing and not much else. Since the camera turns on almost instantly, you can pull the One Touch out and get your shot quickly.

Image Quality

Below are some examples of shots taken with the camera. Because of limitations of my site, these are compressed, smaller versions of the full quality scans. Shots were taken with Kodak Portra and Fuji 400 color negative film and scanned with the Nikon Coolscan V.

Landscape

This is about as close as you can get to your subject before the lens struggles to focus close enough.

The exposure sensor handles extreme dynamic range fairly well.

This lens does not have macro capability, so it’ll fail when trying to shoot close or small objects.

Another travel example.

I am very impressed by the Nikon One Touch’s exposure system. Even in challenging conditions, like shooting straight into sunlight or images with extreme contrast between dark and light areas, the results are spot on. The wide exposure latitude of film helps, but I often have to babysit my Nikon F100 way more than this camera. The meter is a simple center-weighted affair, and will be familiar to anyone who uses late twentieth-century auto-exposure systems.

Sharpness is mixed. When everything is in focus, it looks great, but the shallow depth of field and the basic AF system can be fooled. For landscapes, it does the job well, but the One Touch struggled with getting people and small subjects in focus.

Battery and Power

Thankfully, this camera is powered by simple, easy-to-find AA batteries. If you’re feeling environmentally conscious, rechargeable lithium AA batteries make for a great solution to power cameras like this.

However, be sure not to store alkaline batteries in the Nikon One Touch long-term. If you’re buying second hand, check the battery compartment and make sure a battery hasn’t exploded and filled it with acid. Alkaline batteries are little time bombs, and it’s never a good idea to leave them in any electronics you’re going to leave idle for over a year. So just use lithium batteries as needed! It’s great for both your electronics and the environment.

Either way, it’ll take a long time before you’ll be able to run down the battery on this thing. I can’t afford to shoot thirty rolls of film on this to test it out officially, but you don’t need to sweat it. There’s nothing in this camera that eats electricity at a high rate other than the flash.

There’s a little window that lets you see what film is loaded, but there’s no way to set a manual ISO. The camera automatically detects the DX coding on the lens cartridge.

Conclusion

The Nikon One Touch has become my favorite lightweight 35mm film travel companion. It’s just a little bigger in every dimension than a Canon G5X Mk II, so it’s easy to throw in my backpack and carry everywhere. You can fit the entire thing in a large coat pocket or purse, or hook it over a shoulder using the built-in strap.

The big difference between the Nikon One Touch L35AF2 and the more expensive Nikon pocket 35mm cameras out there mostly comes down to control. With the One Touch, you have to leave the camera to its own devices and hope that exposure and autofocus turns out how you want it. But, really, when it comes to travel and street film photography, that’s fine. You don’t want to babysit the camera in those situations. Besides, there are plenty of cheap SLR and rangefinder film solutions that will give you precise control over every aspect of taking a picture. Use those in the studio, then take the Nikon One Touch out with you for more casual experiences.

In the olden days of the 1990s, the more expensive 35ti also has a sharper, more advanced lens, but you would have to be a madman to shoot 35mm film these days and prioritize sharpness. While the One Touch is a huge step up over fixed-focus disposable and cheap pocket cameras, but the difference between the One Touch and 35ti is tiny. If pixel/grain peeping is your top concern, you’re far better off with any lightweight APS-C compact/mirrorless solution.

They always say the best camera is the one with you, so if you want a companion that’ll do the job and not break your back, the Nikon One Touch is an affordable solution that you’ll be happy to carry around.

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