I’m not 100% sure what prompted the arrival of this Nikon RF2, possibly checking out a couple of website dedicated to film photography and compact cameras which are now cheap. This Nikon obviously won on all counts, listed as working but untested on eBay, no badly corroded batteries to extract and it was autofocus for a change.
I’d previously dabbled with Nikon’s original autofocus (AF) 35mm compact, the L35AF about a decade ago, before a big clear out saw all the film kit depart. In typical fashion since then, the used market for these has soared and I could probably get three times the price I did for it then, but that’s what happens when something becomes popular on social media. That said, it is regarded as a classic, well built, a good specification and excellent results for the time. What I recall of it is that it was a bit big, but handled nicely, but what I’d forgotten until I started using the RF2 was how noisy motor drive on old compacts is!
As you can see from the photo, the RF2 is virtually devoid of any controls whatsoever. You open the shutter cover with a slide switch under the lens, there’s a focus memory button (which I didn’t use) and that’s your lot. Film speed is set by DX encoding and defaults to 100 ASA if its uncoded film, which as I’ve since found out doesn’t make it an ideal choice for the Harman Phoenix I ran through it, more later.
On the back, there’s even less to see, just the viewfinder and the self-timer LED to its right. Whilst on the top, shutter release, frame counter and the single/double shot self timer button. Film loading is simple enough as it uses the later spring loaded mechanism, so just drop your film in, put the leader in and close the back. Thankfully though, there’s no foam seals needed around the film door, so no sticky mess to remove and replace, it’s a double channel light trap and a matt finish.
The small flash is OK for fill in at short ranges, but nothing more and again, it’s auto only, absolutely no controls for this at all.
Once I finally got round to running a film through it, I decided to use the last of a pack of Harman Phoenix ISO 200 colour negative I’d bought, which I’d used previously and was less then convinced about, so decided to get it out the way. Only when I spoke to chap behind the counter where I took it to be developed did I discover why I’d been less then impressed with the results, and also why this camera wasn’t the ideal choice to test it again with. It seems that despite being ISO 200 film, you tend to get better results if you set the film speed to ISO 400. This increases the films sensitivity to light, shortening the exposure time and in the case of an auto exposure camera like the RF2, change the exposure duration according to the program the electronics use. When you come to develop the film, you develop as normal for the standard ISO 200, this I was told should improve saturation and reduce the grain with Phoenix.
Trouble is, compared to other colour negative films I’ve used recently, those that were in date at least, another trait with what is in fact Harman’s first foray in to colour film, they’re more noted for the classic Pan-F 50 ISO B&W and the hugely popular FP4 and HP5 100 and 200 ISO B&W stock, is a tendency to look in my eyes, “a little red”.
So in the shot above, yes there’s a lot of red/brown leaves around and it’s picked out the green of the grass behind, but there’s still an overall nudge towards the red spectrum. Grain wise, it’s apparent, but not too bad.
But on the wider shot below, it’s brought the grain out much more and again, we’ve a redness to the yellows of the sun on the dam wall.
Finally, the white of the road sign is OK, but tinged with red, along with the rather blown highlights behind.
As you might suspect, I’m not overly impressed with the film, I’ll probably stick to what I know in future, Kodak and especially Fuji, though there’s some other new colour stock around, but if I decide to try those, I’ll use a camera with more options in the controls.
The Nikon RF2 is OK, I now know it’s fully working and that I’ll probably not bother with an auto advance, auto everything compact again. The latter stunts creativity for a start, even if it’s only being able to change the film speed. But the auto advance on most cameras of this ilk and era, even the early motor drive 35mm SLRs to an extent, I can definitely do without, they’re noisy and clunky. The pair of later Canon AF 35mm SLRs I had were both much smoother and quieter when advancing the film, so a Nikon equivalent to try as a comparison might be in order (well, that’s my excuse).
The RF2 though is likely to return whence it came, eBay.