Nikon Lite Touch Zoom 120 ED AF Review with Ilford XP2 Super
The Nikon 120 ED AF, it packs a punch for its compact size.
How much does the Nikon Lite Touch weigh?
I decided to do my own weight test for the camera. It’s label says ‘Lite.Touch’ so there was only one way to show this from an empirical point of view!
Popping it my scales it came in a featherweight 250g. The camera was weighed with it's film inside as well as its battery (Duracell CR123) as well.
The images you can see in the video are from a recent visit to the coast and were taken with Ilford XP2 Super. It’s a 400 ISO BW film which requires C41 processing.
Overall quite light, something that you can really chuck into your handbag or your man bag, whatever it is, or even to your pocket. And it should be pretty good to go.
How compact is the Nikon Lite Touch?
Getting my tape measure out to measure its width, a little bit unusual but important to give a greater idea of scale from a perspective point of view.
The Nikon Lite Touch comes in at about 11 centimetres wide. If you look at the pen in comparison as well as the 35 millimetre roll, you can see that it is a pretty compact piece kit. From above again, pretty narrow.
It is not as narrow as other compact film cameras, but is still up there. Overall, very easy for you to be able to pop this into your man bag, your hand bag, pop it into your pocket, and you'd be good to go.
What are some pros of the Nikon Lite Touch?
First of all, it's lightweight and very easy to take with you when on the go or in a rush. It's really easy to load like any other film camera or compact camera. The advantage of a compact film camera is that loading film is an absolute breeze with its automatic loading mechanism.
It's got an automatic zoom function, which works from the back of the camera. And you can go ahead and press the zoom in and the zoom back. If you are interested in using that, I probably would refrain from using it as much as possible. But if that's your sort of thing then you can go ahead and use it. You've also got a number of different functions.
On the top of the camera, you've got the flash priority mode, which automatically pops up every time the camera is opened. It might just be my camera but it won’t sit if manually pushed down. However, it can be switched off manually by pressing the flash button.
There are inbuilt options of swtiching to portrait mode or having a landscape mode. Another cool feature is being able to change the date and the time that you're taking the photos. Once manually set, they will get manually printed onto the film itself when you get them developed.
The Panorama function at the back of the camera is another creative feature. Simply slide the button and it will start taking your images in panorama mode. I'll discuss this feature further down the blog.
The camera has been labelled ‘Lite Touch’ and the shutter release button is very, very light touch from the top. When very lightly depressed it will take the shot, which in some ways is great and other ways not. Certainly it is a promise to its word. What else is there to say, besides the fact that it is a beautiful champagne gold colour?
This camera is great for something casual. It is very easy and cheap to pick up online. You can go onto somewhere like eBay and probably pick up one of these for about £40-50 mark. Maybe a bit more than that. A ‘newer’ less used model is probably going to cost a little bit more for its premium.
Highly recommend it. Really great little, nifty little camera, pop it in your camera bag, put it in your pocket, whatever, and you're good to go.
What are some cons of the Nikon Lite Touch?
It is made out of plastic and it's not like the old Nikon cameras, which you could just literally pick up and throw against a wall and nothing would happen to them. The plastic body, if dropped will most likely crack or worse break it. It’s not worth your time and money getting it fixed so look after it carefully!
When opening the camera up to shoot, it takes about two seconds for it to become ready to shoot. Two seconds is a lifetime, especially if you're trying to capture the moment in particular. So bear that in mind, if you are going to be out somewhere, having fun, having a good time with someone or having a good time with some family, friends, whatever it might be. You want to make sure that your camera is actually ready to shoot rather than being in a closed mode. And it gives you that a bit more flexibility when you're shooting as well.
The Panorama mode is a little bit misleading because whilst it might do that in the camera, all it's doing is cropping the top and the bottom of your frame completely off. Ultimately losing negative space, which could have more information in. Why would you do that? I don't know, unless you're really, really lazy, then definitely use the panorama mode because it will help you to just make sure those images are in that beautiful wide angle look. However, I would prefer to just get a little bit more information and then if I wanted to, I can crop it later in post. And that way I've utilised a full body of the frame itself when taking the shot.
Who is the Nikon Lite Touch for?
Anyone who just wants to shoot some film, wants to have fun with it, doesn't want to have to think about ISO's. If you like keeping it simple, want to enjoy the medium of film, bring back the old times, trying to get an experience of what it was like to shoot with film in the past. It's a great camera to take to a party, social event, somewhere where people are gathering.
Certainly capable of taking beautiful candid pictures with this camera particularly when shot with ISO400 film. It's very reliable, very durable. As long as of course you don't throw it about. You're gonna keep this camera for quite a while to come. Cheap to get. You will have a tonne of fun with this compact camera. Strongly recommend it, go out there, shoot compact, and you won't look back.
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