Luxury 35mm P&S Worth It?

[Ooops]

I am thinking of buying a Minolta TC-1 to carry around with me but it's a rather expensive camera at $500+. I used to have a Contax T2 which that I loved and I would consider owning one again though the form factor of the TC-1 is more appealing.

Would it be worth it to buy one of these relatively expensive cameras? If they cannot be serviced anymore that would be a bummer.

 

[dennybeall]

35mm film camera - long discontinued although a nice camera in it's time. Probably get one for less than $200 on eBay. Price only that high since it's a bit of a collectors item. For a nice point and shoot there are many very nice digitals out there for less than $150 and no film to have to deal with.

 

[limr]

Go for it, but don't pay $500. They can be pricey but that seems too much.

Also have a plan for how to deal with the film. Do you still shoot film regularly or has it been a while?

 

[Ooops]

I have a Sony Rx100 MkII and it's a great camera but I get no enjoyment out of using it. It's a white good like a toaster oven. I want something fun something with a bit of magic to it as dumb as that may sound.

Limr- where do you suggest I look for one? I suppose I could watch for a deal on eBay but I don't mind paying a small premium to get something guaranteed to be in good working order. A cheaper alternative could be a Rollei 35 S or SE but they are older.

It's been a decade or so since I have shot film so I am not sure how to process the film and get prints. I am hoping to find a good lab in San Francisco or one that I can mail my film to.

 

[Derrel]

Nikon's 35ti might be a Minolta alternative. It has a 35mm lens instead of a 28mm, so you might or might not prefer that. Same basic thing though: luxury 1990's-era compact ultra-premium 35mm film camera with distinctive, "expensive tastes" badge appeal. I dunno...somewhere around her in a box, I have a clamshell Olympus I payed $6.99 for at Goodwill, but that was like **the** longest-running 35mm compact model ever and they made millions of them, and thus it has zero cachet...but the Minolta and Nikon have it in spades, since they were extremely limited production models.

Here's a 35ti overview Nikon 35Ti

 

[dxqcanada]

Ah, I remember when the 35Ti came out, really thought the dials were really cool.

Personally I would get a Minolta CL for $500+

 

[limr]

I was looking at the sold listings on ebay and there are some that sell for $500 and over, though most of them seem to go for between mid-$300 to mid-$400, so it's not a huge difference, but you could still pay less than $500. Seems rare enough that I think you'd have to go to ebay to find one anyway.

As for service, I found this thread on the Rangefinders Forum. At least as of 2014, it seems service is only available at a place in Japan, and you'd have to send it to someone who could then send it to the company because they don't take international shipments: REPAIRER > Minolta TC-1? - Rangefinderforum.com

I bet there are labs still in San Francisco, but if not, there are still mail-in labs. Dwayne's or The Darkroom or Blue Moon Camera. They can develop and scan. I'd suggest saving the cost of prints and just view the pictures on the computer. If you then want to print certain images, you can send them out. Adoramapix does a very nice job with prints.

The Rollei 35 is such a fun little camera! It's not a point and shoot, so there's more thought to it, but I love mine. Always have it in my purse

 

[gsgary]

Take a look at the Ricoh GR range there are a few different models with different focal lengths

 

[jcdeboever]

I wish I never sold my clean Yashica T4 Super, I miss it. That puppy took some sharp images. A really clean Pentax K1000 ($100 at most) with a 50mm f1.4 takes great pics as well. Light meter works great, just frame, focus and shoot. I'm not an expert by any means but those two work. Both fun. I still have a Rollei Prego 140 that surprised the heck out of me at the time for $5 Garage sale find.

 

[Ooops]

I ended up finding a Fujifilm DL Super Mini (Tiara) locally for cheap. People seem to like the fixed 28mm lens. If I like carrying this one around then I may splurge for the TC-1 or if I find that it's too boring maybe the Rollei 35 will be next.

 

[jcdeboever]

Cool! You got the "sardine tin" as they used to call it. Sharp lens and if I recall had a purple coating on the lens. I always liked the vignetting it produced.

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