2026-09-26 Nikon One*Touch Camera

When a company as famous as Nikon starts to make point-and-shoots, it had to be for a pretty good reason. Nikon had several lines of Single Lens Reflex cameras so waited to see if other manufacturers would have any success with point-and-shoots. When the demand seemed to be strong they introduced the Nikon One•Touch. 
    Nikon made three versions of the One•Touch, labeling two of them as L35AF and L35AF2 while the third (shown here) has no identification other than the “Nikon One•Touch” you can see below the flash on the front. There was a data back added to some of the cameras, and sometimes the cameras were labelled differently in different markets.
    Soon Nikon found they were selling 1.6 million Nikon One•Touch cameras annually. This was more cameras than all their SLR cameras combined. Of course the One•Touch sold for $210 and the SLR’s sold for various amounts—from $270 to $1500—so Nikon kept on making professional SLR’s, but the One•Touch certainly filled a market demand.
    Why?
    Because the One•Touch allowed anyone to open the lens cover, slap the camera up to their eye, compose and fire. The camera wouldn’t fire if it was too dark, instead popping up its flash and firing as soon as the ready light came on. BUT, if you needed speed you could press the flash down and take the shot immediately. With fast film—the camera sets its own ISO from the Dx code on the film cartridge—and it’s f/2.8 lens you could get a good shot with a reasonable shutter speed in some pretty dim conditions.
    Auto-focus was immediate and accurate from 48 cm (1.6 feet) to infinity. The built in motor drive would advance the film quickly for the next shot. It was a camera anyone could get an excellent image from.
    The 35 mm four element in three group modified Sonnar design was sharp as a tack. I have read the camera has a steel chassis. Of course that doesn’t mean armor plate, but was considered better than all plastic construction. The camera has a self timer with one setting (ten seconds) and a tripod mount on the bottom. There isn’t a cable release socket.

    The back has a flash ready light to the left of the viewfinder window, a film cartridge window next to the back release and to the right a blue striped barber pole that showed the film is advancing (and rewinding).

    There is a lens cover release slider just under the “35mm CdS cell 1:2.8” lettering. The camera won’t fire if the front lens cover is closed.

    

    The One•Touch is textured to give you a grip. It is a tad thicker than some rivals but otherwise a pretty standard size that would fit many sized hands.

    The flash has a range out to 9 m (29 feet,I think with ISO 400 film). The flash can work as a fill flash in full daylight.    Along the bottom of the viewfinder there are distance markings in pictograms that start at head and shoulders and go through couple (from waist up), two standing adults with a child in the middle and finally a mountain. You can preset the distance by slowly pressing on the shutter release but holding short of the last bit of travel before the shutter fires.

    For awhile, used Nikon One•Touch cameras were selling at almost their original price. Then demand seemed to move on to point-and-shoot digital cameras. I bought this camera for $5 because the camera store said no one wanted film cameras anymore.