arhphotographic

In its April 1999 issue Popular photography published its review of the Nikon Pronea S. You can find it here. Interestingly in its opening comments it said the following;

“You may not know it from looking at this svelte, streamlined little camera, but it represents rather a daring leap of faith on the part of Nikon, its maker. The Pronea S is yet another attempt at bridging the chasm between .. the casual snap shooter and the photo enthusiast..”

I think this comment helps to put some context around this camera. In trying to please most people you run the risk of pleasing no one, as you have to make some compromises. In an effort to keep things simple the Pronea S has missed some important features that the enthusiast would have liked included in this camera.

The manual pop-up flash gives the Pronea S a sophisticated, futuristic look. You can cycle through normal, red eye reduction, red eye reduction with slow sync, slow sync and no flash modes.

The Pronea S comes with the legendary TTL phase detection auto focus system with AF assist or you can go solo with manual focus. As the camera has the Nikon F mount you don’t have to stick with the IX lenses made especially for the camera. My Pronea S was quite happy with my 28-85mm AF. However there are some limitations with some lenses. Also don’t expect to use an IX lens on any other Nikon, the lens protrudes too much into the body so as to affect the mirror.

The camera was gifted with both the 30-60mm and 60-180mm IX zoom lenses. These lenses and the camera are so light and portable, due in large part to the silver plastic construction of the camera. I was able to carry camera and lens with spare lens in my coat pocket on a leisurely walk around the park without feeling as though my arm was going to drop off. Nice☺️

The camera takes the now defunct APS film format. Placing the cartridge in the camera is simples😁

The camera features a useful, to me as a spectacles wearer, diopter adjustment to see more clearly through the viewfinder. The LCD shows shutter speed, aperture, date /time, exposure compensation, frame counter etc.. What’s behind the silver door???

The controls for date/time setting, self timer, flash , exposure compensation and film imprinting. Messages like “Thank You” can be printed on your images. How good is that???

In addition to the usual Auto, P, S and A shooting modes you get portrait, landscape, close-up and night scene modes. However no manual mode and no ability to change film speed ☹️

The C, H, P dial give you the option to output your prints in three different formats. Classic 2:3 ratio, H wide vision 9:16 ratio, or Panorama 1:3 ratio. Moving the switch changes your view in the viewfinder accordingly.

I loaded the camera with some Kodak Advantix 400 ISO film which had expired in 09/2008 😮 Normally I would follow the principle of dropping the ISO one stop for every 10 years. But how could I as there was no direct way of changing the film speed.🤔 What I did have was the ability to use exposure compensation that would effectively give more light to the film. So I added +1.5 exposure compensation.

The first image I took. Not surprisingly, as I don’t know how the film was stored, we have a colour shift in the film. I could have gone to +2 exposure compensation as well. (Note to self for the future🤓)

I used the two IX lenses primarily during my testing the camera out. They are a little soft but nothing a little sharpening can’t help out with.

Wierd coloured Fritillaria

The Tulips above and below were Red and Yellow??

Nearly there with a purple Tulip

I wonder what a little flash would do?

But then… Wooaaa

I used flash for the image above and the two that follow. What is going on??

I used the same process mentioned here to process the film.

In principle the camera did what I asked of it. Most importantly I was having fun with a camera and ‘unknown’ film. Perhaps this is how we should look at the Pronea S ??? I could have entered the unpredictable world of toy plastic cameras with fixed lenses. However I prefer the ability to change my perspective with lenses and exert a little creativity with camera controls.

So will I be using this camera again? Given that I have a working camera and lenses why not!

However that may change, as I have a acquired another model of camera that has the ability to change the film ISO which could make things more interesting🤪 More about that another time though.