135compact.com 35mm half format cameras Kodak Ektar H35 N
The Kodak Ektar H35N is made by Reto Production Ltd. Since 2018 Kodak is a licensor company. So
Reto has licensed the Kodak name and sells the product as a
licensee. Reto stands for "Reinvent Together" and makes other photo products like the Reto 3D film camera and the Reto ultra wide and slim.
The first H35 model was was released in 2022. The new H35 N model has
major improvements: a better lens with a coated glass element, a
built-in star filter, a cable release socket for a B shutter mode and a
tripod socket. They also improved film winding.
The Kodak Ektar H35 N is
designed to look like an old camera. It's a plastic half frame camera. Like
most half frame cameras, it's vertically orientated, so it's portrait
mode. It's not one of the smallest, as they obviously used the mould of
a cheap full frame camera and installed blinds for the smaller frame.
The camera's main features are:
35mm film half-frame camera, picture size 24 x 18 mm
22mm 2-element lens system, 1 coated glass, 1 plastic, shutter and aperture between the 2 lenses, 1/100 single speed, B with cable release
Apertures: F11, F8 with flash
Cable release socket, tripod socket, built-in flash, built-in star filter
Size 110 x 62 x 39 mm, Weight 110 gr
Some pictures of the camera:
The box. Camera, pouch and a strap. No manual, only a card with a QR code.
Front.
Viewer, flash and lens. Around the lens: flash switch (move the ring
around the lens) and star filter switch. Nice shiny old style metal
trim. If you look closely at the lens, you can see 2 aperture rings, a
bigger one in front and a slightly smaller one behind. The smaller one
is swung aside when the camera is set to flash. The flash is badly
orientated, it's landscape wherea the camera takes pictures in portrait
mode.
Back
view. Finder and flash ready lamp. Film advance near the bottom.
Seen from above. Tiny film counter. Shutter release. Cable relese socket for B shutter mode.
Seen
from below. Rewind handle. Tripod socket (necessary for B mode). Rewind
release. On the edge: battery compartment. Takes one AAA battery.
Camera
back open. The second lens element helps to avoid vignetting. You can
see that they installed blinds to reduce the frame. So they wasted 18mm
of the camera width, nearly 20%.
The Kodak Ektar H35 N is a very light camera, easy to handle. It
takes
sharp pictures. Spacing is not tight, so you get 72 photos from a
roll. It's mainly for outdoor photos. There is a flash, so
interior photos are possible, but as the flash is weak and badly
orientated it's only for short distances. Night photos are possible as
well, as
there is a B mode via a cable release. In case that you forgot the
cable release, a small toothpick will do as well.The cable release also
lets you
do multple exposures. If you take the battery out, you have a second
aperture by setting the camera to flash mode in case of.
It has only one speed and
only basically one aperture, no automatic exposure, no automatic film advance, it's
focus free (no autofocus, not even a rangefinder) and has a 2-element lens that
produces results that are fine. As for other Lomo cameras, I don't
think about exposure, I try and hope for the best. Modern colour film helps. If you choose the right film, ISO
400 in general and ISO 200 on very sunny days, you can shoot outside
photos that look nice. The rest will be "Lomo" style. So this is an easy camera and
it's much fun to play around with it.
