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Half-frame cameras have garnered a little bit of a cult following – sufficient for Pentax to make the Pentax 17 half-frame movie digital camera (which we love) and for Fujifilm to make the X half, which is extra of a digital ‘tribute’ to half-frame cameras than a devoted reproduction.
Film cameras have become a big thing amongst photographers attempting to recapture the texture and temper of analog media, and the digital camera designs that went with it. Take a look at our information to the best film cameras to see a protracted checklist of all the brand new movie cameras in the marketplace, and a few traditional oldies which can be undoubtedly value in search of out on the used market. If you happen to’re new to all this, we even have a information to camera film sizes and types.
You get twice as many shots on the roll as they’re roughly half the size – and the camera takes vertical rather than horizontal photos (of course, you can rotate the camera to swap from vertical to horizontal if you need to).
You do get twice as many exposures on a roll of movie, which appears like a price saving, however then you must discover a lab that can do half -frame prints, and printing will price extra as a result of there are extra prints.
However by a wierd accident, half-frame cameras are notably properly suited to social sharing as a result of they match the vertical orientation of cellular units in a manner that digital camera makers of outdated might by no means have anticipated.
Again, then, to the Kodak Ektar H35N. That is an improved model of the Ektar H35 we reviewed in 2024, changing that digital camera’s plastic lens with a glass one. We weren’t over-impressed with the Ektar H35 on the time, however since then we have been swept alongside by an enormous surge of curiosity in analog images, so possibly this improved level and shoot Kodak deserves a re-examination.
The place half-frame cameras have to date been a considerably costly hipster fad, the Kodak is about as low-cost because it’s potential for a digital camera to get. It’s additionally extraordinarily crude, and is basically no extra subtle then a disposable single-use movie digital camera.
The distinction is that you could open the again to load and unload movie, and you may swap out the one AAA battery for the flash. If you happen to don’t use the flash, you don’t want the battery.
And in case you’re questioning what sort of publicity system it has and the way the focusing works, it doesn’t actually have both. It depends on the massive latitude of analog unfavorable movies to seize pictures in daylight starting from vibrant solar to heavy overcast, and indoors you merely have to make use of the flash and follow close-range topics. The tough flash look is de facto trending proper now for its retro vibes, and this little Kodak does it brilliantly.
The main target is fastened. The lens has an aperture of f/11, so it has sufficient depth of area for distance of 1m and past, relying on how a lot sharpness you count on. This digital camera is all in regards to the look, not technical precision.
This will likely not sound just like the type of digital camera you would be even remotely thinking about, however maintain on. You do need to shoot in the correct of sunshine (daylight or with flash), and also you do need to belief your movie to take care of levels of overexposure and underexposure which might ship a digital sensor right into a tailspin. However you adapt surprisingly rapidly. It’s a easy digital camera designed to do a easy job, and it does it brilliantly. If you happen to might even ponder utilizing an Instax, that is cheaper and offers you a lot larger and higher prints with all the identical character and extra.
Backside line? I began out in movie images and I do know the constraints of analog movie and its explicit appeal. The Kodak H35N took me straight again to less complicated occasions and less complicated cameras. I assumed I’d hate it, however I cherished it.
Kodak Ektar H35N: price
- $64.99 / £67 (around AU$98)
- Factor in the cost of developing and printing – half-frame is more specialized and expensive
The Kodak Ektar H35N is a cheap camera! Its price is a million miles from the (expensive) sophistication of the Pentax 17 half-frame camera. The Kodak is also very basic. In fact, you can think of it as a bit like a disposable camera that you can re-use. It’s available in a variety of colors and styles, and at a typical price of $64.99 / £67 (around AU$100), it’s a cute, inexpensive buy.
It’s crude, but at this price you probably won’t care. Do factor in the cost of developing and printing, though. You’ll need to find a lab that will process film from half-frame cameras, and the cost of prints will double – after all, there are twice as many per roll of film!
Kodak Ektar H35N: specs
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Format: |
35mm half-frame |
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Lens: |
22mm f/11 (approx. 30mm effective) |
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ISO: |
ISO 200 or 400 film recommended |
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Focus: |
Fixed at approx. 1m-infinity |
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Flash: |
Built in |
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Exposure: |
Auto plus bulb |
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Battery: |
1x AAA (for flash) |
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Viewfinder: |
Optical, direct vision |
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Size: |
110mm x 62mm x 39mm, 110g |
Kodak Ektar H35N: design
- Plastic build but looks smart
- Simple controls (well, no controls really)
- No issues with film loading, shooting and rewinding
- Small but effective optical viewfinder
The Ektar H35N might be lightweight plastic, but the front panel has an attractive metallic finish that looks rather smart. Kodak has a knack for making cheap cameras look rather better than they are.
The lens is surrounded by a switch to activate the flash mode. This was extremely stiff on my review sample, so not exactly as convenient as it should be. To one side of the lens there’s another switch for the built in ‘star filter’. Is this useful? Possibly.
On the top, there’s not much to see at all. There’s a big shutter release, a cable release socket for bulb exposures – so you can actually do night shots if you don’t mind estimating how long you need to hold the shutter open for – and there’s also a frame counter to let you know how many shots you’ve taken.
Round the back it’s all semi-matte black plastic. There’s a somewhat stiff and vague switch at the side for opening the back to load and unload film, but you do not want to open the back accidentally, so it’s no bad thing if it is a little fiddly.
Once the film is loaded you use a thumbwheel at the bottom left to advance the film. In standard film camera style, you can’t take a shot until the film is wound on and the shutter is cocked – and once you’ve taken the shot, you have to wind on again to re-cock the shutter. It’s foolproof. And, plastic or not, the film advance and shutter release worked perfectly.
Even film loading is straightforward. I had to pull out just a little more of the film leader to engage properly with the take-up spool, and then I did my usual thing after the back was closed, which is to take up the tension on the rewind crank and check it’s turning as I advance to the first frame. It worked fine.
You know when the film is at the end because you can’t wind on any further, so you press a button in the base to disengage the film transport mechanism, and wind it all back into the film canister with the crank handle.
The Ektar H35N might be cheap, but mine worked fine, with no film jams, no accidental double exposures, and no dramas at all.
Kodak Ektar H35N: performance
- Good picture quality
- Surprisingly tolerant to changing light
- Nice vintage flash look
- Good colors and contrast (I used a good lab)
I started out in film photography before switching to digital right when digital cameras first came in – and there are a few things I’d forgotten about shooting with film.
First, there’s nothing quite like opening a pack of prints from the photo lab and looking through them. It doesn’t matter what kind of monitor you have on your desktop – I have a 27-inch 4K BenQ – or what sort of telephone or pill; a digital show is solely not the identical as holding a stack of prints in your hand and going by them one after the other. Perhaps you don’t care – that’s tremendous – however for me it was a reminder of simply how a lot worth easy bodily objects can have.
After all, you may get your digital digital camera or smartphone pictures printed too. However they don’t seem like this. Digitally-captured pictures are so technically superior that there’s nearly no comparability. In contrast, my pictures from the Ektar H35N had been softer, with crushed shadows and a faint ethereal glow attribute of analog coloration unfavorable movies. I evaluation photo-editing software program in addition to cameras, and I have never but discovered a movie simulation or plug-in that can provide fairly the identical look.
And right here’s the factor. Imperfect and murky as they often are, the images from this digital camera are identical to those within the photograph albums of your mum and pa, your aunts and uncles. The Kodak’s pictures have a type of reference to these outdated photographs.
Have you ever seen that we’ve all received photos separated by an incredible digital divide, when digital cameras took over from movie? Your digital photographs have a scientific ’now-ness’ that separates them from these older analog photographs. Does that make sense? The Kodak H35N, for all is cheapness, crudeness and its limitations, shoots in that older type, and suits proper in together with your analog household archives.
No, I’m not going to shoot with it day by day. My images is digital now. However that doesn’t cease me from appreciating simply what this low-cost little Kodak does, and what it brings again that maybe we would forgotten.
Must you purchase the Kodak Ektar H35N?
Purchase it if…
Don’t purchase it if…
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How I examined the Kodak Ektar H35N
- I examined it in several lighting situations, inside and outside
- I checked the flash illumination in low mild
- I assessed how properly it coped with topics close to the digital camera
- I additionally checked that the movie transport/rewind labored correctly
I took the Kodak H35N on a sequence of days out and household outings, in addition to testing it out in several lighting situations at residence. I used it on vibrant sunny days, overcast days, the gloom of late afternoon in October and even at nightfall with flash.
It’s not like a digital digital camera the place you possibly can test to see what’s labored immediately. As a substitute, you must belief within the inherent latitude of coloration unfavorable movie, and an enormous a part of this check was to seek out out simply what number of prints I’d lose, which makes a distinction once you’re paying for creating and printing.
I examined how simple it was to load and unload movies – a key level for novice analog customers – and the reliability of the movie advance/shutter launch mechanism. I additionally examined the in-built flash and even the ‘star filter’, selecting photographs with the solar within the body or displaying by bushes.
I selected typical ‘snapshot’ topics that households may shoot, but additionally the type of compositions made standard by Lomography and its legions of analog followers. May you actually use an affordable digital camera like this for this sort of anti-mainstream retro-graphy?
