I carried this alongside a Leica M3 for two months and reached for it more than once. Truly pocketable, genuinely fun, surprisingly capable.
First, I want to thank the great people at RETO for sending me a copy of the Ektar H35 to put through its paces. It is a beautiful little camera and I am so glad they decided to bring it to life.
The Ektar H35 is a lightweight plastic half frame camera with a 28mm plastic fixed-focus lens at f/8 and 1/100. There is even a flash for night shots and indoor action. While these specifications may seem like limitations, they actually help you embrace creativity by forcing you to operate within a stricter set of confines. Besides the battery-powered flash, this is a purely mechanical camera.
This camera is pocketable with a capital P. Small, weighs nothing. I stuffed it in my pocket on more than a few occasions and completely forgot it was there. The lens is plastic — this is decidedly a toy camera, spiritually closer to a Holga than an Olympus Pen F. But in the right hands, seriously artistic.
I recently got a Leica M3 and carried these two together in my bag for two months. There were numerous situations where I reached for the H35 instead of the Leica. That says everything.
