Shortly after I last mused about what I thought would be the perfect new compact film camera for 2025, I discovered that there was a camera in the works that seemed to tick every box I hoped for: the Analogue AF1. But with little more than a gorgeous website promising the moon at a modest price, I held off, preferring to wait for more details before getting too sentimental about what could be the long-awaited savior of compact film photography.
There were a few videos released about the AF1 shortly after, no doubt drunk off the alluring promises made on the website and optimistically regurgitating them without a second thought. But then William Sheepskin came to the rescue with his very sober take on the AF1 and how realistic he thinks it is. As I watched his video, I fell back down to earth and realized that while Analogue seems to be promising the moon in their spec sheet, the moon is much farther away than we realize.
I have been a fan huge of William Sheepskin ever since discovered his videos on YouTube around five years ago, following his journey of stunning analogue photography around Cape Town, gear reviews and a significant health challenge he has seemingly overcome. His opinions always come from a place of experience, practicality, and knowledge, and his extremely diplomatic skepticism over the new Analogue AF1 is refreshing in a world of content creators trying to capitalize off keywords and search trends by jumping at the chance to hitch a ride on Analogue’s promises in exchange for views.
William cites the Reflex SLR and the Film Never Die Nana as products that either never came out or were extremely underwhelming at launch compared to the promises they made in their fundraising efforts. “There is a precedent in this community for people to oversell and underdeliver and for people to be happy because there's something to show for it,” William says, but the campaign for the AF1 has “alarm bells ringing in my head.”
William begins outlining some of the concerning issues with the campaign, the most glaring of which is that none of the imagery on the extremely slick-looking website comes from the camera itself, since the camera does not yet exist. We all know that the most important aspect of any camera is its lens, and while this new AF1 promises a double Gauss lens with six elements of high-quality glass in four groups and diamond-cut edges on the lens barrier, just like the Contax T3, the most important feature we need to know about before we shell out money in a pre-order is what the images will look like. As of right now, we have no idea. The remainder of William's video outlines several other glaring issues with the feasibility and likelihood of this camera ever even coming out.
So before we fall for this sexy camera, which promises outstanding optics, LiDAR autofocus, flash, a bright viewfinder, automatic winder, and a two-year warranty, let’s stop to think if this is even realistic in today’s film camera market that is seemingly still on life support.
“It’s not fair to people who may not know better and be all starry-eyed about something that literally does not exist,” William says, explaining his motivation for releasing his skeptical video, but he concedes that “I’ll eat my words and give an apology if it does actually come out.”
And while I (and, presumably, Will) would gladly throw our money on the table if the camera arrives in five months exactly as promised, for now, that heavy dose of skepticism has me skipping the "Pre-launch offer." Will the camera come out as described? It very well might. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a few months to find out. But, of course, we’re all rooting for this dream to become a reality—one that nearly every lover of film photography would celebrate.
