Nikon Pronea S
This 1998 Nikon APS model may look and feel rather cheap but it offers the user surpringly good control and accepts AF-mount lenses
‘The Nikon Pronea S wouldn’t even make a particularly effective paperweight, given its lightweight plastic construction’
As I work my way through my collection of old ‘analogue’ cameras, I’m fairly confident that those that use 35mm film, and probably the 120 rollfilm models, will be usable for at least another couple of decades. The same can’t be said for the Advanced Photo System (APS) cameras that I’ve acquired.
This short-lived format, introduced in 1996, and discontinued in 2011, is heading inexorably towards extinction. Unlike some obsolete formats, there really is no workable way to reload an APS cartridge with its 24mm film bearing the requisite two perforations per frame.
Until I spotted it on a shelf in a local charity shop, I wasn’t aware of the Nikon Pronea S camera. I assumed it was a standard 35mm, albeit a very compact one. Then I noticed the APS logo and things began to fall into place.
Generally, APS cameras were simple point-and-shoot affairs because the format was, after all, firmly aimed at the non-technical user. Most models were entirely automatic, although with varying degrees of sophistication in their ability to handle a range of exposure scenarios.
There were a few high- end versions with Nikon, Canon and Minolta all producing APS SLRs. Nikon entered the market in 1997 with the Pronea 6i, a well-built consumer model with specifications pretty much the same as the company’s 35mm SLRs of the time. A year later came the Pronea S, which looks and feels rather cheap, and even has a plastic lens mount. Nonetheless, it offered a good degree of user control and was able to accept all the Nikon AF-mount lenses.
The suggested retail price back in 1999 was around £300, so it was embarrassing to pay £5 for it. Then again, as a camera it is of little use now and, in my opinion anyway, of no ornamental value. It wouldn’t even make a particularly effective paperweight, given its lightweight plastic construction.
The 30- 60mm IX- Nikkor lens that came as standard is perfectly usable, but it occurred to me that I could mount the 28-200mm Nikkor that I use on my D90 DSLR. I’ve done this on a full-frame 35mm film camera, but of course there is considerable vignetting. As the lens is designed to cover a smaller sensor, the smaller negative size of APS film pretty well overcomes this problem, and gives a very usable zoom lens equivalent to 35260mm on a full-frame camera.
The autofocus works perfectly and came in handy at a local bird park, where the distant moving subjects would have been a challenge with manual focus. I found the shutter release is very sensitive, and it was easy to shoot more frames than intended. For all its limitations, I’ll miss being able to use this camera from time to time.