Minolta 110 SLR
35mm cameras (and indeed most 16mm cameras) used a sprung plate behind the film to ensure that the film is completely flat. Kodak's easy-load 110 film cassettes (in common with Kodak's ealier 126 film cassettes) lack this feature. This problem meant that no matter how well engineered the camera was, image quality would always be compromised. Despite this, in the 1970's there was a remarkable variety of really quite sophisticated cameras made for Kodak's 110 film cassettes, all of which were really quite ridiculously over engineered for the modest capabilities of the format.
Among these cameras there were 3 SLRs (The Minolta 110 SLR, the Pentax Auto 110 and the Minolta 110 SLR MkII). The Minolta 110 SLR pictured here was the first of these cameras, and also the first 110 camera with a zoom lens (25-50mm or 50-100mm 35mm equivilent). This is a truely barmy camera, and I think that is why I like it. It is far to big, and it's heavy despite being made of rather cheap feeling plastic. There's no doubt that this is utterly unmistakable as a product of anything other than the 1970s! But despite this there is a certain charm to the design.
110 film is still readily available (as are the 110 SLR's batteries) but there is a problem with using most of the sophisticated 110 cameras. When Kodak drew up the specification for the 110 format they specified two film speeds, low and high, with the high speed film being automatically detected by the camera by means of a notch cut into the cassette. The first problem is that Kodak never actually specified the film speeds of the two types of film, though most manufacturers in the 70's used 80/100ASA for the low setting and and 400ASA for the high setting. The problem is that the 110 film you can buy today is either 200 or 400ASA and the 400ASA no longer has the notch. This is because all recently manufactured 110 cameras (and indeed 95% of 110 cameras ever made) are simple plastic boxes with no form of metering at all.
Of all the sophisticated 110 cameras made the Minolta 110 SLR (both MkI and MkII versions) are the most practical to use today because they have a full range of exposure compensation setting (-2 to +2 stops). When you use a modern 110 film the camera wil assume it is 80/100 ASA film, but you can set you camera to -1 or -2 stops (for 200 and 400ASA film respectively) and you shold get accurate exposures.
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Condition: B/1 Additional items: Box, manual, case, lens hood and lens cap Purchase date: 2003 Purchased from: eBay |
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