The slightly quirky and rather pretty Nikon 28Ti. I honestly think that Nikon had no business in making this camera…
But it did. At the time of the inception of this camera there was a bit of an arms race going on in the last days of the compact film camera market. Contax was making the T3, Minolta the TC-1 and Ricoh the GR1v, so Nikon felt they had the need to get in on the action in the high end compact market. But they basically came into the game too late and with a camera that was not as good as the rest. The Contax could boast a Zeiss lens, the Minolta had the legendary Rokkor, so this came as a runner up. But make no mistake, this is a very capable camera and has a great lens. But where this camera trumps the rest is the design.
Wow, that is on the top of the camera? Awesome!
Yes, this is the top plate of the camera, and isn’t it pretty? That gorgeous analog dial really sets this camera apart. Whoever came up with this was inspired and managed to put this camera into the history books as something that people wouldn’t forget in a hurry.
This is a really pretty camera, and it has a great lens, strong titanium body and sturdy build. If you are serious in any way about compact cameras, then you simply should have one of these in your collection.
Cheers
Japancamerahunter
Wow! Now we know from whence Epson go the idea for the analog gauges on the R-D1 :-)
I boguht its sister the 35Ti about eight years ago used. While as much as I loved the top plate, I personally found the camera to be sluggish in performance. when compared to other premium compacts. The AF motor was also a bit louder that I felt it should be for its size.
And while the glass was top notch, I never felt I bonded with the camera well enough for it to stay in the stable more than a year. It was also a big camera as so far as compacts are concerned and having a transport case that it fit well was hard to come by.
It is a nice looking, well built camera, but it just never got me all excited as it does as a shooter as it does for a collector. The TC-1 or any of its Contax contenders is a better unit for shooting with.
I am in absolute agreement with you on the shooting side of things. I personally prefer the Ricoh GR1s or the Contax T2 to shoot with. But I like the 35Ti and the 28Ti for their looks.
Actually, where this and the 35Ti trounce the competion is by having absolutely superb matrix metering.. unsurpassed IMHO for a P&S.
It’s auto-focus performace on the other hand, wins no speed awards.
Will Nikon still service these?
Not any longer, sorry.
I just received one of these yesterday. I love it so far. The ergonomics could be much better because it’s very boxy and the buttons are small and mushy. It meets my needs for a compact fully automated camera well enough. Auto focus is plenty fast for me (after hearing all the negative comments I figured it was going to bed noticeably slow… I guess the Contaxes and Ricohs out there must by amazingly fast.)
One thing I’m not sure about is for the first few shots I’d auto focus and then fully depress the shutter and it just gave me a continuous grinding sound without releasing the shutter or advancing the film. I’m not sure what was going on there but it seems to by fine now.
I’ve fallen in love with my Coolpix A so it’s nice to have a close film equivalent.
Yes, Nikon has that impression of being late to everything, but I believe they are fairly early in this case.
Contax T2 – 1990
Konica Hexar – 1992
Nikon 35Ti – 1993
Nikon 28Ti – 1994
Leica Minilux – 1995
Minolta TC-1 – 1996
Ricoh GR1 – 1996
Ricoh GR1s – 1998
Ricoh GR1v – 2001
Contax T3 – 2001
Fujifilm Klasse – 2001
Leica CM – 2004
Fujifilm Klasse W – 2006
Fujifilm Klasse S – 2007
Guess we all make the mistake of jumping into conclusion without adequate researches sometimes.