Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Nikon 28Ti

Nikon · Fixed lens · 24×36mm on 35mm film, with a masked panorama crop selectable on the body · 1994

Also known as: Nikon 28Ti Quartz Date · Nikon 28 Ti · ニコン28Ti

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
28Ti Quartz Date (black titanium) 35mm compact 1994 — No figure published
  1. Four published weights, and they are not four measurements of the same thing. English Wikipedia gives 330 g with battery, Mike Eckman 338 g, and Casual Photophile 310 g without battery. A CR123A weighs roughly 17 g, which reconciles Casual Photophile's 310 with Wikipedia's 330 to within three grams but leaves Eckman's 338 unexplained. The figure carried in `weight_g` here is Wikipedia's 330, which is a with-battery weight — read it against another camera's body-only figure and the 28Ti will look 20 g heavier than it is.
  2. Nobody has documented who built the analogue gauge cluster. Mike Eckman writes only that he "would not be surprised to learn that Seiko made this display for Nikon" — a guess, offered as one — and the attribution has since been repeated more firmly than he stated it. Nikon has published nothing on the point, and this entry records the question as open rather than naming a supplier.
  3. No production figure has ever been published for the 28Ti, for the 35Ti, or for the two together. Nikon's corporate history does not count them, and no serial-derived estimate exists because no serial table exists. Every number quoted for the rarity of these cameras in the used market is therefore an impression rather than a count.
  4. The 28Ti sets its film speed from the DX code alone. There is no ISO override and no shutter priority, so a photographer wanting to push film has only the ±2 EV compensation needle — a limitation both the 35mmc and Casual Photophile reviews raise independently.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Four watch-style needles under a glass window on the top plate: focus distance at the left, aperture at the right, frame number above, exposure compensation below
  • Black titanium shell over a polycarbonate chassis, with an aluminium lens barrel and helicoid
  • A 28mm f/2.8 Nikkor that retracts behind a barrel door; f/2.8 to f/22 selectable by the photographer
  • Quartz Date imprinting is standard, so a 28Ti with no date module is not a known configuration

28Ti Quartz Date (black titanium):

  • Black titanium shell — the 35Ti is champagne, and no other finish of the 28Ti is documented anywhere consulted here
  • Flash mode on a sliding switch rather than the 35Ti's momentary pushbuttons, with one mode more than the 35Ti offers
  • The lens ring reads 28mm f/2.8, and the distance needle on the top plate is scaled for it

Serial-range notes

(none published)
Nikon has published no serial table for the Ti compacts, and no independent table exists. A 28Ti cannot presently be dated from its number, which is a real gap: it is the only evidence that could settle whether the camera was still being built in 1999.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, with a masked panorama crop selectable on the body
Finder
aspheric direct-vision optical finder with LED illumination and an LCD data strip · 0.35× magnification · no rangefinder image
Shutter
Between-the-lens leaf shutter, sited with the aperture control inside the lens; camera-wiki describes it as a seven-blade shutter giving an almost circular aperture. No source consulted states the timing mechanism in words · 2s – 1/500 under program or aperture priority, with a separate long-time mode running to about 10 minutes
Film advance
motorised loading, advance and rewind; no manual option
Back
hinged, with an integral quartz data module
Meter
Silicon photodiode, non-TTL, switchable between six-segment matrix and 75/25 centre-weighted. Working range EV 2 to EV 17 at ISO 100. Film speed is read from the DX code across ISO 25–5000 in 1/3 steps and cannot be overridden; exposure compensation of ±2 EV in 1/2 steps is the only way to move the meter, which is why the compensation needle is on the top plate.
Weight
330 g
Dimensions
117 × 67 × 37 (English Wikipedia) mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$1,220 list in March 1995, with street prices between $950 and $1,000 — Mike Eckman, citing Popular Photography of that month. No Japanese list price for the 28Ti was found in any source consulted here. (today $2,510)

Coverage is given as 92% by Mike Eckman and 82% by Casual Photophile, both alongside the same 0.35× magnification. Neither says where the number came from, and the ten-point gap is recorded in `disputed` rather than split.

Where sources disagree

Autofocus resolution
  • 833 steps (English Wikipedia, Nikon Ti cameras)
  • 541 steps (Mike Eckman's specification table; repeated by the Cameras By Max feature)

Better supported: Unresolved

Both figures sit beside the same 0.4 m minimum focus and the same active-infrared system, and neither source states an origin. Wikipedia's table covers the 35Ti and the 28Ti together, so the two cameras could differ with each number right about one of them — that reading is this entry's own speculation, offered by no source, and it is recorded so a reader does not mistake it for a lead. Nikon has published no figure at all.

End of production
  • 1998 — camera-wiki.org: "In 1998, however, due to poor sales, Nikon decided to discontinue both cameras." The sentence carries no citation, and it is the origin of the 1994–1998 span repeated on dealer pages
  • Still catalogued as a current model in November 1999 (Mike Eckman, citing a Popular Photography roundup of that month)

Better supported: Eckman

Worth tracing, because the 1994–1998 span looks better attested than it is: every dealer page and summary that prints it appears to be downstream of one uncited camera-wiki sentence, and English Wikipedia — which does have a specification table for these cameras — gives no end year and no discontinuation reason at all. Against that, a dated magazine roundup listing the camera as current in November 1999 is a specific piece of evidence, and nothing consulted here answers it. `years.last` is therefore left unset: an end date resting on an unsourced sentence that a dated source contradicts is not a date.

Viewfinder coverage
  • 92% (Mike Eckman)
  • 82% (Casual Photophile)

Better supported: Unresolved

Both give 0.35× magnification with the coverage figure, so this is not a difference of finder. One of the two numbers is a transposition, and no third source consulted breaks the tie.

What reviewers say

History

The 28Ti arrived in 1994, a year behind the 35Ti, and it is not a 35Ti with a wider lens. The optics are a different design — seven elements in five groups against the 35Ti’s six in four — the shell is black titanium rather than champagne, the flash modes moved from momentary pushbuttons to a sliding switch and gained one more, and the panorama masking works better. What carried over is everything that makes the camera look like an instrument: the polycarbonate chassis under the titanium, the aluminium lens barrel, and the four needles under glass on the top plate.

Those needles are the reason the camera is remembered. Distance sits at the left, aperture at the right, frame number above and exposure compensation below, and they hold their positions with the camera switched off, which means the settings can be read without waking anything. Reviewers split on whether this is delightful or fussy — Casual Photophile calls the display needlessly complicated and hard to decipher — but nobody disputes that it is unique in the segment. Who actually built the gauge movement has never been documented. Mike Eckman guessed at Seiko in one sentence, hedged as a guess, and the guess has been repeated since with the hedge removed.

The camera gives the photographer aperture from f/2.8 to f/22, exposure compensation of ±2 EV in half stops, and nothing else. There is no shutter priority. Film speed comes from the DX code across ISO 25 to 5000 and cannot be overridden, so a roll cannot be pushed except by leaning on the compensation needle. The shutter runs 2 seconds to 1/500 with a separate long-time mode reaching about ten minutes, and the meter reads EV 2 to EV 17 at ISO 100 in either six-segment matrix or 75/25 centre-weighted.

Two numbers about this camera cannot both be true. English Wikipedia says its autofocus resolves distance in 833 steps; Mike Eckman’s specification table says 541. Both figures appear beside the same 0.4 m close focus and the same active-infrared system, and neither source says where the number came from. Wikipedia’s table covers the 35Ti and 28Ti jointly, which raises the possibility that the two bodies differ and each number is right about one of them — but that is this page’s speculation and nothing more. No source suggests it, and Nikon has published no figure of its own to test it against. The finder coverage is in the same state: 92 per cent from Eckman, 82 per cent from Casual Photophile, both alongside 0.35× magnification.

The rest of what a buyer would want is simply missing. Nikon published no production figure for the 28Ti and no serial table, which means no independent count can be built either. The end of production is unsettled, and the unsettling is instructive: the 1994–1998 span is on dealer pages everywhere, and following it back leads to a single uncited sentence on camera-wiki — that Nikon discontinued both cameras in 1998 due to poor sales. English Wikipedia, which does keep a specification table for the pair, gives no end year at all. Against one unsourced sentence, Eckman points to a Popular Photography roundup of November 1999 that still listed both Ti cameras as current models. And there is one small compensation for all that absence — the identification question this segment usually turns on does not arise here. The retail name was 28Ti Quartz Date, the Japanese manual adds Panorama to it, and no black-versus-anything, date-versus-no-date or market-specific 28Ti has been documented at all. There is one version, and it is the one in the box.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Nikon 28Ti
Nikon 28Ti — Austin Calhoon, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nikon 28Ti
Nikon 28Ti, the lens — Austin Calhoon, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nikon 28Ti? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,600 across 25 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,300–$2,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $1,600.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$1,600$1,300–$2,00025
2026-09-06$1,600$1,300–$2,00025

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Fujifilm Klasse W · Nikon L35AF

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.