So I’m just gonna come right out and say it. The Nikon FunTouch5 is not an inherently bad camera. It functions as it should, it’s compact, it’s not unreasonably offensive to the eyes. But beyond it’s name which manages to make me giggle every time, there’s really nothing notable here. So I’ll tell you a story.
Back on a Friday in October my girlfriend and I were headed to a Matt Maeson concert, a surprise for her birthday. I wanted to shoot some film, as did she, so we were both planning to bring a couple little point and shoots along. However, when the day came, everything kind of hit the fan. The camera I had originally bought on eBay arrived with a broken flash, prompting a refund. Its replacement was meant to be here on Monday, but surprise surprise, the post office lost it. No matter, we still had her Minolta, right? Nope, on the drive we discovered that somehow or another the bit the batter door attached to snapped in her bag, and no amount of duct tape would hold it functionally together. Pivot time.
I’d heard many times from a friend about a little camera shop in the city that he frequented with all kinds of old photo gear. Looking at the time, we had just enough wiggle room to stop by without impacting our plans for the evening, so we called ahead to make sure they had some point and shoots in stock and headed there. Knowing I had another camera in the mail somewhere or another, I didn’t want to break the bank, so I picked out the unassuming little piece of silver and grey plastic, along with a roll of Kodak Tri-X. The option for flash deactivation was a nice bonus. That night we had an incredible time in the city and the concert, and shot the whole roll. And the photos were….fine? Okay, the photos were bad. Out of 36 shots, maybe 10 were keepers, and even then they were nothing of note. The rest were mostly underexposed, some overexposed, and others just out of focus.
If you were looking to be impressed by some overlooked gem, you will not be. The little thing was made in China in the 90s, and man does it feel like it. Powering on requires sliding the little switch on the front, revealing the lens and prompting a green light on the back to power on. The lens is a very slow f4.5, with a slightly wider than average focal length of 29mm. Focus is fully automated, and shutter speed is fixed at 1/125. The only thing you have control of is the flash, with two buttons you hold down when firing, one that forces flash, one that prevents it. It takes DX coded, film, but only up to 400, making low light photography like we attempted with the concert pretty well out of the question. This thing does have the absolute strongest flash I have ever seen. Fire it off once and watch everyone around you get annoyed. It’s kind of funny.
However, I am not one to just call it quits after one roll. I knew I had taken the camera out of its element. Shooting a concert can be hard work for all but the best of gear, and this poor thing with its slow little lens and inability to shoot faster film was never meant for that kind of torment. Maybe the next roll would be better? Maybe if I just gave it a chance to do what it was meant to do it would shine. So, I loaded up another roll, color this time, and proceeded to shoot the next 36 exposures over the course of a couple months.
Obviously, the little camera performed much better when put to what might be considered its “correct use.” Still, I came away a little less than impressed. Any photo with motion was a lost cause due to the limiting 1/125 shutter speed. Color rendering seemed a bit off to me, not necessarily bad, just erring on the warm side. It is a Nikon after all. Exposure balance tended to struggle a bit, likely also due to the slow shutter. This often resulted in blown out highlights, especially in mid day scenes. Nor was I particularly impressed with the sharpness, seeing as the lens tended toward soft. There are keepers here and there, but overall I would call the results squarely on the low end of mediocre.
So what’s good? Well, it works, pretty reliably. Focus is fast, though useless for anything closer than around 6 feet. It auto winds, rewinds, fires, makes coffee, and did my taxes. Who gives a shit, it’s cheap. It takes photos on film. If you’re looking for a cheap film camera to take party photos, this will do just fine. Buy it, don’t buy it, I don’t care. Neither do you. The Nikon FunTouch5.
