MiNT is Developing a Brand-New Premium Compact 35mm Film Camera

ic-racer · Sep 4, 2024

I'm not so keen on the new Pentax, but the more I see this, the more I want it!

I do have a Rollei 35 LED but never warmed up to it. It was somewhat of a pain to use.

ic-racer · Sep 4, 2024

cerber0s said:
Roller egg according to chat GPT:

”
A roller egg is typically a toy or device used for children, especially infants, to encourage crawling and movement. It’s often designed as an egg-shaped object that can roll in different directions, capturing the child's attention. The rolling motion stimulates the baby to chase after it, promoting physical development, hand-eye coordination, and motor skills.

In some cases, "roller egg" might refer to a type of rolling egg used in traditional festivals or games, where participants roll decorated eggs, but the toy version is the more common usage today.”

Toy or device used for adult children…

Seriously, show us yours that you had or that you kids have. What BS!

Where is the "Chat GP" filter when you need it.

brbo · Sep 5, 2024

Too big for my taste, even bigger than the original Rollei 35 (I'm waiting for a modern Contax T3 replica ), but the auto-focus noise is just..., erm, aquired taste?! Lets hope final version or next iterations fix that. Or maybe it's not so bad in real life.

On the other hand, just the fact that we are comparing these new film cameras to the best cameras ever produced when market was 100x bigger shows that Pentax 17 and Rollei 35AF are both pretty good...

JParker · Sep 5, 2024

I will have patience and wait for real detailed reviews of the final (non-prototype) camera done by really qualified sources I trust.

JParker · Sep 10, 2024

So, now slowly the first a bit more detailed previews / reviews are coming in:

Mint's target was to combine the original design with helpful, user friendly features that significantly increase your hit rate, having more keepers:
- precise AF instead of zone focus
- aperture priority in addition to full manual
- integrated flash.
So better "point-and-shoot" capabilities compared to the original Rollei 35.

Looks like that mission has been accomplished successfully. AF seems to work precisely, as well as the aperture priority mode and flash.
Lens quality seems also to be on the same level as the former Sonnar 2.8/40.

On the other side, it looks like there is still a bit need of further refinement in some build quality parameters. But we should have realistic expectations here:
Mint is a very very small company, and not comparable at all to other camera manufacturers like Pentax for example. I don't expect the same build quality from them.
I am still very impressed by the fact that they have indeed realized such a challenging project like this Rollei 35 AF.

miha · Sep 10, 2024

Speaking for myself only, a Rollei similar to the above but with a rangefinder mechanism instead of autofocus, or a brand-new Olympus AX, or even a refined version of the Zeiss Jena Werra camera, would definitley trigger my interest.

abruzzi · Sep 10, 2024

miha said:
Speaking for myself only, a Rollei similar to the above but with a rangefinder mechanism instead of autofocus, or a brand-new Olympus AX, or even a refined version of the Zeiss Jena Werra camera, would definitley trigger my interest.

I assume you mean the Olympus XA? I searched Olympus AX and its a microscope from the Olympus Life Science division.

Insights

Official blog of Evident Scientific

www.olympus-lifescience.com

miha · Sep 10, 2024

abruzzi said:
I assume you mean the Olympus XA? I searched Olympus AX and its a microscope from the Olympus Life Science division.

Insights

Official blog of Evident Scientific

www.olympus-lifescience.com

I wouldn’t mind the microscope, but I learned some tricks on the Zeiss Axioscope a decade ago.

loccdor · Sep 10, 2024

miha said:
Speaking for myself only, a Rollei similar to the above but with a rangefinder mechanism instead of autofocus, or a brand-new Olympus AX, or even a refined version of the Zeiss Jena Werra camera, would definitley trigger my interest.

Yeah - the autofocus is really only going to be useful when working near the minimum focus distance of 2.3 feet. It's a relatively slow, wide lens so not the kind of camera with lots of background blur or a need for very precise focusing. I'd prefer the XA2 or similar, that has a set-it-and-forget-it zone focus and tinier, more protected form factor.

JParker · Sep 11, 2024

JParker said:
So, now slowly the first a bit more detailed previews / reviews are coming in:

Mint's target was to combine the original design with helpful, user friendly features that significantly increase your hit rate, having more keepers:
- precise AF instead of zone focus
- aperture priority in addition to full manual
- integrated flash.
So better "point-and-shoot" capabilities compared to the original Rollei 35.

Looks like that mission has been accomplished successfully. AF seems to work precisely, as well as the aperture priority mode and flash.
Lens quality seems also to be on the same level as the former Sonnar 2.8/40.

Looks like my assessment above is confirmed by Kai Wong using the Mint Rollei 35 AF in street photography:

Angarian · Sep 11, 2024

Here is a very short view at the newly implemenetd production line of Mint for the Rollei 35 AF:

munz6869 · Sep 12, 2024

From Rollei's facebook page:

Wow that was quick

The first shipment of the Rollei 35 AF is already sold out and will be available on the 15th. October shipped with us.

If you haven't pre-ordered a camera yet, don't worry. You can pre-order right away and get the Rollei 35 AF with the next shipment on the 17th. Delivered in December.

Marc!

Film-Niko · Sep 12, 2024

If I remember right, the first preorder volume was set to 500 cameras.
And it was told that Mint is planning (or already has implemented) a production capacity of 1,000 Rollei 35 AF cameras a month.
That is a lot.

koraks · Sep 12, 2024

Film-Niko said:
1,000 Rollei 35 AF cameras a month.

That's 'only' 12k units per year. Wasn't Pentax' initial run something like 50k units? That would be 4+ years' worth of Rollei production.

Film-Niko · Sep 12, 2024

koraks said:
That's 'only' 12k units per year.

And nevertheless that would be a really big volume, because of two reasons:
1) For such a very small and 'young' manufacturer like Mint that is really a huge volume. So far they have made niche products - more of a "workshop production".
That is their first higher volume product now with the Rollei 35 AF.
2) Mint has copied very much of the original Rollei 35, including most of the user interface / usability. And that is a bit special (I have an original Rollei 35), and certainly not for everyone.
Ergonomically the Rollei 35 design has always had some disadvantages.

Therefore I think producing 12,000 cameras a year, for several years.......an ambitious plan, not easy to realize (but also not completely unrealistic, too). But I wish them all the best! There is a huge enthusiasm for film photography in that company!

koraks said:
Wasn't Pentax' initial run something like 50k units?

We simply don't know! Pentax has never told anything about specific production numbers.
This 50k units number was just a wild guess some weeks ago made by one forum member in one posting.
I have watched many of the Pentax 17 reviews so far. And the highest serial number I've seen was a bit above 10,000.

Angarian · Sep 12, 2024

Looks like the Rollei GmbH in Germany (the current owner of the Rollei brand name), which is also responsible for the distribution of the Mint Rollei 35 AF in Europe, is trying to do an active marketing with this camera.
They have just released the next video about the camera:

4season · Sep 12, 2024

Film-Niko said:
We simply don't know! Pentax has never told anything about specific production numbers.
This 50k units number was just a wild guess some weeks ago made by one forum member in one posting.
I have watched many of the Pentax 17 reviews so far. And the highest serial number I've seen was a bit above 10,000.

Mine has a 7-digit serial number starting with 902, but I deliberately avoided the first-shipment preorder crunch.

Film-Niko · Sep 12, 2024

4season said:
Mine has a 7-digit serial number starting with 902, but I deliberately avoided the first-shipment preorder crunch.

Thanks for this info! Very good to know.
The first number is a code number. The following six numbers represent the continuing serial number.
So with 02xxxx at your camera we can say that so far at least more than 20,000 units have been produced. Not bad......

JParker · Sep 15, 2024

Next short first impression of the prototype / pre-production model (including interview with Gary Ho, head of Mint):

Randy Stewart · Sep 15, 2024

The "Rollei 35AF was expected at $500; but it launches at $800. The verbaage from Mint suggested a high quality reincarnation of the Rollei 35S. What is being delivered is a fairly conventional point-n-shoot with a bit of user exposure override control of a fully auto-exposure system, but no metering readout to guide that override selection. Autofocus with no user overrride, driven by a so-called LIDAR focusing system, which is just a conventional infrared autofocus module operating with a different light frequency projection, subject to all the focus errors and subject mismanagement of an Oly Mju or a Contax T2. The viewfinder is so bad that even a dedicated Oly XA user would despair. What little has been said or seen of the lens suggest a less and average point-n-shoot quality level, particularly subject to light flare. That might be controlled with a lens shade, but no provision is made to mount a shade (or filter). All of this disappointment is garbed in the drag of a Rollei 35, where the similarity after superficial appearance ends like hitting a brick wall. Call it "Mint 35AF out of Mju". Mint claims they have bet the company on the sales success of this camera. If that is not the usual hyperbola of Mint statements, then all of those who have bet on long term support of their Mint cameras better kiss that one goodbye.

Agulliver · Sep 16, 2024

I'm not going to diss a camera I haven't seen, and which nobody I know has seen. It looks like a fairly serious attempt at a modern P&S camera which is what younger photographers tend to want. And if they can actually shift in the order of 12,000 units a year, that's great.

Just remember, if you'd said 24 months ago that two new relatively serious film cameras would enter the market in 2024 each with projected sales in the tens of thousands.....you'd have been laughed at.

Angarian · Sep 16, 2024

Randy Stewart said:
The "Rollei 35AF was expected at $500; but it launches at $800.

That expectation of only 500$ was by people with unrealistic wishes and no knowledge about camera production.
There has never been an official statement that the camera will be offered at 500$.

Randy Stewart said:
The verbaage from Mint suggested a high quality reincarnation of the Rollei 35S. What is being delivered is a fairly conventional point-n-shoot with a bit of user exposure override control of a fully auto-exposure system,

The Rollei 35 AF offers both full manual exposure, and auto exposure.

Randy Stewart said:
Autofocus with no user overrride, driven by a so-called LIDAR focusing system, which is just a conventional infrared autofocus module operating with a different light frequency projection, subject to all the focus errors and subject mismanagement of an Oly Mju or a Contax T2.

No, LIDAR is quite different to the former infrared systems. And you simply don't know at this moment how it compares to cameras like Olympus mju or Contax T2, because no one so far had the possibility to use the final production type (so far only prototypes were given to photographers for first impression reports).

Randy Stewart said:
The viewfinder is so bad that even a dedicated Oly XA user would despair.

Have you looked through it side by side with an XA? No, you have not.

Randy Stewart said:
What little has been said or seen of the lens suggest a less and average point-n-shoot quality level,

There have been lots of photos by Kaiman Wong, the Kamerastore crew and Robin which look very sharp, and are definitely not "less than average" quality.

Randy Stewart said:
Mint claims they have bet the company on the sales success of this camera. If that is not the usual hyperbola of Mint statements, then all of those who have bet on long term support of their Mint cameras better kiss that one goodbye.

I have never seen a statement by Gary Ho that is "hyperbola". Just the opposite: Mostly quite humble and grounded, realistic.
And such a project needs indeed millions of investment to be implemented. That is definitely a lot for such a small newcomer on the market. We should not forget that Mint started about 15 years ago as a small film camera and repair shop. They made an astonishing development since then.
I think we should just be patient and wait until the final production units are out. Then we have the real stuff, and then assessments can be made.

mshchem · Sep 16, 2024

Reminds me of an Argus C3. I hope this is successful.

cmacd123 · Sep 16, 2024

mshchem said:
Reminds me of an Argus C3. I hope this is successful.

now imagine what an Argus C3 would be like with Polycarbonate rather then cast metal body, and some sort of Autoexposure posible. THAT might appeal to the photrio crowd.

Richard Man · Sep 16, 2024

cmacd123 said:
now imagine what an Argus C3 would be like with Polycarbonate rather then cast metal body, and some sort of Autoexposure posible. THAT might appeal to the photrio crowd.

With some of the Photrioers, I think it will also have to cost less than $10 and come with a lifetime supply of film. Otherwise, it still would be shite.

MiNT is Developing a Brand-New Premium Compact 35mm Film Camera

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