I really need to get round to fixing the sluggish shutter on mine now. Something really fine grain like CMS 20 or Technical Pan would probably work really well with a negative this small.

I love my Nikomat EL. It is rock solid and of all my Nikon’s it’s the one I pick up the most. I’ve had it for few years and haven’t needed to change the battery.

Nikons are such great cameras with so many lenses, they have truly earned their place in photographic history again and again.

I bought mine used in 1980 for £110 and that is a typical price today! Mine is still mint and working perfectly, including the meter being in calibration. Build quality is second to none. I put a few rolls through it each year and usually get 36/36 good negs. The secret to keeping it looking nice is to have it in its Ever-Ready case whenever it is in use. It has an endearing "pinging" noise to the shutter which is different from any other cameras I have heard. I think that they put the chunky Lithium battery in the base of the mirror box so that the dimensions of the body would be unchanged from the other Nikkormat bodies (FTn, FT2, etc.) and therefore the EL can fit in the same E-R cases. Possibly it is the best 35mm camera bargain out there if its keeps working, especially with all those Nikon lenses to choose from. They say that they are non-repairable if they break electrically as the circuitry is mainly hard-wired and therefore it's like a rat's nest inside.

Lucky you - my first 'real' camera was a Zorki 4... !!!

The build-quality of the Nikkormat EL is better than the Nikon EL2, fex the aperture coupling ring is metal, not plastic.

Good on you for having a crack at the film slitter first. I went straight to the double X for my 16mm Kiev30.

Great review of a all-time great. I bought mine from a guy who used it as his second camera with his F2. I shot weddings for years with it and it was my second camera to my FE with a motor drive. I could take pictures down to about a quarter of a second with no tripod because it was so heavy. Eventually sold it because the metering no longer worked on automatic setting, and the Nikon tech said that it had old eyes because eventually CDS cells either become in accurate or just die. Great camera, though my copy was in much better shape than yours. Now I have a black Nikon Zfc for nostalgia to replace my Nikon FE and this camera as well. The knobs and dials are in the same location basically. Long live film. Regards Gerry.

The heart vignette 😂

I have three.

It is a great film camera with most of the F4 features and from my experience very reliable and well made not sure what makes it ugly...it is not on the hipster list and as a result it is very cheap Having AA batteries is usually great idea...the problem is that quiet a few were left with batteries in them for years with a fairly disastrous results. Look for a example with a clean battery compartment and you will enjoy a great camera.

In what way is it ugly? I have used it in many weddings and felt it's the has best ergonomics among many SLRs. Handling feels extremely intuitive.

Inspirational!

Great video keep up the great work

Nice video, Pyrocat HD is the way to go, not expensive to make at home, The one you buy from the internet goes bad and at times arrives bad already.

Can I ask what that adapter thing is that you've got in the remote shutter cable socket? Great video, btw!

You may find it ugly, but for me the form following function design made it a thing of beauty and used it for 15-years until the first sensibly priced DSLRs arrived. I still have it and it works like new (the sound of the film drive is so satisfying) even though the body shows its age.

KMZ was and is closely connected with the military. It's one of the primary optics manufacturers in Russia. But that's not the reason for Zenits' sturdiness. All soviet SLRs and RFs were like that. Kievs, FEDs, Zorkis. The later Zenits made after the fall were still bricks, even though they're made out of plastic.

You're soooo right: the ugliest Nikon is the F401, and then the F90 with its greasy hatchback in addition to the fact that the F90 is too thick in the grip. The F801 is the only one I like of those of the 1980s and later: 'she' is perfectly made under the plastic surface; first I hesitated to purchase it because of all around plastic, but since about 2017, I have been wondered why. The F801 (I owned four of them and will keep one F801s still up to the inevitable that I die) does worth more than any cult Nikon of the downsizing era with FM/FM2/FE/FE2/FA: an integrated motor drive, the 1/8000 sec is a stunning option for pics with 'freezing water' or aperture wide open when outsight light is very bright: Take a portrait with aperture 1.4 in extremly bright daylight: here you are with 1/8000 s! And because I hate AF and use the 801in MF mode, I've not any problem with this fine camera. The normal batteries enjoy a very long life in this F801 body. And - last not least but most important - the results of the exposures are pretty perfect. This is the evaluation of a pro used to working with Nikon F, F2, mat, mat EL, EL2, FM/FM2, FE/FE2, FA, F4 - and moreover Nikon digicams;-)) And now the today's price: 25 euros in Germany, 50 with optics (AF28-85). In 1983, the pure body without lens cost DM 1398,-- Got it? It's a worthy bargain. @philosimot

I was happily using two of these professionally for a couple of years in the early 90's . Damn fine. Very reliable.

"Spy" cameras were originally made as cheaper cameras for everyday people when the world economy crashed in the 1930's. The film was less expensive, as were the prints. That they were small made them popular with private investigators, police, and government spies. The CIA bought hundreds of Kodak 110 film cameras in the 1980's. I have a similar thought process when choosing a camera for travel. My phone is great, but it's not as satisfying as using my Canon G10. Lately I've gravitated toward using my Minox 35GL, because it's light and pocketable and has a crisp lens. My next trip (not overseas) will see me using either a Minolta GT, or a Yashica Atoron. I love having options. As to the light meter. The most common reason for a Selenium meter to stop working is corrosion on the contacts. Cleaning them with a mild acid (3% vinegar) will usually fix that. It won't always work because selenium cells do degrade over time from light exposure. It is possible to convert a selenium meter to using a photoresistor, but it's not a direct swap (and there's no need for a supercapacitor or a stepper motor). Best bet though is to buy a modern cold-shoe light meter. If you can get yourself a Stecky 16, and the optional lenses for it, you'll have a very versatile full-feature (except for a light meter) film camera that fits into your pocket that takes very good photos.

For some reason I started collecting these 801/801s bodies and have 6 or 7, one is new in box. They were cheap and are heavy and well built. They work wonderfully for anyone starting to shoot film, or just grabbing one for walk around shooting and not worrying about loosing or wrecking it!

The top plate is actually not plastic, but a magnesium alloy.

1/8000 is really useful for a film camera I think. If you'd loaded something like Portra 800 (or faster) for darker scenes and didn't finish the roll, you're not necessarily limited to shooting in low light or tiny apertures in daylight. It keeps your options open.

I love my F801. Found it in a bargain bin in a camera shop for £1. Threw some new batteries in it and it worked perfectly!

I have 2 of these bodies, an N8008 and an F-801s. Very comfortable to use with good metering and adequate lens compatibility. Definitely nice to have an option that runs on AA batteries.

I bought a Zenit 12xp like a week ago and my model was manufactured in 1989. On my Model the knob for ISO is labeled with ISO (the range is from 25 to 400) and not the ASA as yours. How is this possible? I thought they would be the same. Great video btw :D

Why a dx lens with no aperture ring? If I am not mistaken f801 can't function properly with af-s lenses and beyond. Godd camera though, easy to use.

The autofocus is in my experience perfectly accurate, it's not the fastest in the world but still way faster than me manually focusing. I use mine for social occasions in fully automatic mode because it lets me concentrate on my friends instead of on the camera. And I can just hand it to someone else and let them shoot it without them needing a lecture on how to use it and without worries of it being dropped or damaged.

I have an 8008s (US equivalent model), and a F100 (its successor), among newer Nikon bodies. The ergonomics of the 8008s just feels right. The batteries last for a long, long time. The F100 maybe "better" but eats batteries like there is no tomorrow. Remember that the 801/8008/8008s was the F4's little brother. I couldn't afford an F4 back in the day, but the 8008s fitted the bill. Mine still works just fine in 2024!

If you want to 3d print more film cassette use resin over FDM. Much better results form the cheaper resin printers than what you will get with a FDM.

Why not add felt to your existing holder? Contact adhesive is probably what would work the best here. That plus adding salt to the internals of a camera seems, horrendous.

Honestly surprised the Tea Wizard still has all his fingers at the end.

I had to resin 3D print my viscawide 16 cartridges. FDM printers don’t work well for something this small. The cost of a small resin 3d printer is around $160 and the resin is around $20 per 1000g. You will have to paint or coat the inside with felt. It’s so thin they are not light proof without it.

I wanted to get one of these to go along with my viscawide 16. I have a lot of ektachrome 100 and Fuji micro film HR-21. I was told the lens was very sharp. Using something like Ektachrome or similar high resolve film or even the Kodak vision film will give you some nice results. Not only good resolution but nice grain. As far as the pyrocat and Fuji micro film goes I wouldn’t recommend. I had poor results. 510 pyro on the other hand seem ok. Pyrocat needed 45min to an hour to develop and I am not that patient.

For a NEW camera the price is very reasonable. Used cameras are slowly dying and their prices keep going up. Some high end used point and shoots with similar specs sell for much more. Contax T2, Nikon 35ti etc.

I'm interested primarily because it's new. The thought of my 30-50 year old cameras eventually needing a CLA service always looms in the back of my mind so if this 35AF is good enough for my needs, I'll feel better about it's longevity. Considering my cameras K1000, X-700, and XA2 show no signs of stopping - I might just be fishing for a reason to buy a new expensive toy.

Sounds very interesting, and I completely missed the news. But, unfortunately, the $600-800 price tag is a dealbreaker for me. For that much money I'd expect a fully functioning, full-size SLR with interchangeable lenses. At the same time it wouldn't need autofocus. Now this thing definitely does, looking at what people who know the original say. But $800 makes it a gimmick and you'd be able to get a really good kit with several lenses on the used market instead.

I like it! Sometimes you buy something, and you just enjoy the journey of learning how it works. And, those tactile switches, got to love them

Cine film also has sprocket holes which are in frame. Vision 3 certainly meets your dynamic range requirements, it's huge but you might not want the entire can. Why not just buy 110 cartridges and strip the film out of them in a dark bag and load that? There's also the questionably named fakmatic which slits down film into 16mm strips so you can use anything that's commonly available if you don't mind some wastage. Is the metal cannister from a slightly weird website in the UK that also has loads of minox stuff by any chance? I should clean up my 16 and get it working, will give your twitch stream a look.

50 years ago I learnt photo with a zenit EM until the shutter died. Good souvenirs and good pictures.

I have a few Leica M cameras, film and digital, Hasselblads, Nikons, Pentax 67, Field cameras, etc, and I also have a Zenit 11, even more basic than yours. I love it. It is so simplified and focused on photography. If you don't have the necessary knowledge about the basics of photography or the operation of the camera, like it was once the norm, forget it, you won't be able to use one of these for making photographs. These are just tanks, an dthe lens is quite good too.

this is a 50/50 fight with slight edge to AJ

I have the Vito Cl also and i love it so much, my light meter still works but I dont trust it. I also have the Vito B, both cameras produces very nice images. I just zone focus the camera and I have never missed a shot. I hope you keep it, if nothing else it looks good on a shelf.

There are filters for the voigtlander cameras, lens hoods too. What's more, you can either upgrade to the Vito CLR with built in rangefinder or get a shoe accessory rangefinder for it. The voigtlander ones are spectacular but you could probably get a CLR for around the same price as one anyway. Then you can carry on being a 50s dad on a beach 😉

Most... well, a lot of us, fall into the same situation. Cameras seem to accumulate and I enjoy seeing them, using them, getting pictures back from each one of them. I try to only have film in two at a time. Finish those rolls and then decide on the next pair. I don't always stick to the plan.

Really interesting watch! I'm just getting into film photography and I really liked how my photos from my Ilfocolor Rapid turned out. Cool to see the behind-the-scenes of how it works/how it's assembled. I was wondering if you had any recommendations for a cheap camera like this one but one that is reusable? Thanks again for the video!!