A typical Bremisch January day is over, and depressing rain is hammering against my living room window. I’m lying on the couch staring at my camera collection, thinking about my new year’s resolution. I promised myself I would fight my GAS problem. I bet that many of you have the same problem: “Gear Acquisition Syndrome,” or in short, you simply have too many cameras to use them all.
First things first. I really like the look of this little camera. It’s a lovely little unit in a tasteful shade of champagne with gold accents. Do you remember when cool consumer goods came in champagne? Microwave ovens, amplifiers, tuners, er… that’s probably it.
The camera switches on when you open the clamshell which is useful. It protects the lens and is less fiddly than using a button and much more definite. A lot of its contemporaries from the early 2000s had clamshells like the classic Olympus Mju series, the Olympus AF Twins, one or two of the Pentax Espios and some Canon Sure Shots. I like cameras with clamshells, as I can be less precious about them and just drop them into a camera bag with other cameras or accessories or put one in a pocket without the cases they come with.
I started shooting film at the beginning of last year when I picked up a mint Canon Eos 620 that I intended to use with my EF lenses (which were tired of my aps-c digital camera). Shortly after I felt the need to add another film camera to my collection, as the Canon felt clunky and the autofocus was kind of frustrating. This unbearable necessity overlapped with my all-time desire of a camera that I could keep in my pocket at all time and bring with me everywhere, so I started my search for a compact camera with a fixed lens. There I watched a big fat world of possibilities unfold before my eyes.
I don’t understand why sometimes people complain about some missing features on a compact camera. It’s 2019 and digital is yet to give us a small full frame point and shoot the size of a wallet. Those 90s compacts are in today’s digital-world terms, full frame, fixed lens compact cameras; I don’t see any digital full frame compacts that would fit in my pocket. All I want from my compact is to be well built, quiet and have a sharp lens.
One December evening I happened to be browsing and, wandering over to 35mmc, noticed that Hamish was very generously giving away a stack of compacts. The only catch was that a review was requested in return. So as a lucky recipient, here is my review for your consideration. My initial request was for a compact with a fixed focal length lens, but sadly everyone else had the same idea and I was too late, so I received a zoom instead – the Nikon 310 Zoom. Here’s the low down:
