This is my second camera from the Reto camera brand. I recently bought the 3D camera and would have bought the UWS, but I already had the Vivitar version. Their name comes from the words REinvent TOgether. I decided to buy it as a birthday present for myself after reading this review from Canny Cameras. That post has a ton of practical information, plus some great sample photos. I was blown away by the sharpness of the half-frame shots. Plus the 22mm lens seemed like a great choice for a half-frame.
The camera has a flash, a bulb mode, tripod mount, and a built in star filter…oooh fancy. The bulb mode is activated if you attach a cable release to the shutter button. The shutter speed is fixed at 1/100th and the aperture is f11 or f8 if you use the flash. If you take the battery out, the camera uses the f8 aperture, but of course will not fire the flash. The N in the name means ‘new’, this is the second version of this camera and I specifically looked for this one due to its improved lens. This post by Molly Kate on 35mmc details all the improvements and is a very thorough review.
I loaded my example with a roll of This is How I Roll 500T which is rerolled Kodak Vision. Here are some shots from that roll, left as diptychs. I used it around Wakefield and Oxford, you get a lot of shots for you bucks.
I was impressed with the sharpness of the partly glass lens, there are two elements and one is glass. You can see the camera struggled in less than optimum lighting conditions. I also did not try the star filter this time.
The next film I tried was one of my favourites, Ilford XP2. This time I went to Runcorn, Liverpool and Leeds…triple the fun. I remembered to use the star filter but not the bulb setting. For this set I have split the shots into individuals, but left the diptychs for a few of them. WordPress seemed to have an issue with the number of images I wanted to put in the gallery so I had to split it.
Here are the diptychs.
And here are the individual images if you want to have a closer look.
As mentioned in the posts I linked to, the middle of the image is the sharpest. There is a definite drop off in sharpness towards the edges.
BUT, I don’t care, I love this camera. I love its size, its styling…I even love the half-frame of it. I feel quite happy loading this and just carrying it around in my bag. I am much more inclined to think about diptychs when using it. In terms of cameras I have bought, I feel this one was a bargain and don’t regret it at all. To be fair, I am impressed with all the Reto cameras and would happily by another if it came out. They are reasonably priced too, unlike another company I could mention.
Buy it, you won’t regret it 😉
Great review and brilliant photos love the B&W particularly 👏👏👏
Thank you. I was pleased with those. Some of the scans aren’t perfect, I should have paid for individual ones…or done it again myself. As a diptych, one might be brighter than the other, and they get ‘balanced’.
Fab review! You could always rescan the negs (says she, who has 4 lots of negs waiting to be scanned) 😂
I could, but until I need to print them, etc, I won’t 😉
Thank you for a useful selection of b&w photos, ones that truly reveal the quality and character of this camera’s lens. The brick pavers, the Victorianesque skylight, the bridge railings … you just sold me a camera!
You won’t regret it. It is a fun little thing.
Enjoy your posts very much — especially what scenes/objects catch your eye for photos. I have an original H35 (plastic lens and not as many features) and it was fun to use, but the results were sorta typical plastic P&S ‘meh.’ But when I saw the new H35N announced, I ordered one — but have yet to get it out and shoot a roll with it — your results definitely are nagging at me to take advantage of the enhanced features and image quality. Thank you!!!
Oh you should. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts as I haven’t tried the first one.
I didn’t even know that the “New” H35 existed, until a review came up in my YouTube feed. Similarly, I have an “original” H35 — but for me (and the YT reviewer), the tripod mount plus the Bulb setting with cable release were the selling point: on my first roll about half my exposures were of attempted “night photography” (since it’s half-frame — thus economical — I did 2-3 attempts at exposures per set-up). 🙂
I think night-time combined with the star filter, definitely needs the tripod mount. Without the N, I wasn’t tempted to buy it at all. But as you can see, I am glad I waited now.