Tony Kemplen on the …
A tiny yet sophisticated camera that takes the 110 film format
Unlike some of the film formats introduced in the second half of the last century, 110 cartridges are still made today, fuelled largely by the needs of Lomography crowd. First launched 52 years ago, in terms of longevity 110 beats its rivals by a comfortable margin. Those that fell by the wayside include 126, which lasted 44 years, Disc film, 17 years, and APS, a mere 15 years. The chief drawback of the 110 format is the small size of the negatives: the film is 16mm wide with each frame measuring 13x17mm, roughly a quarter of the size of a full-frame 35mm negative. This of course means that the cameras themselves can be pretty tiny.
There are variations in size, but with the exception of Minolta’s chunky 110 Zoom SLR, they would all fit comfortably in your pocket. In fact, Kodak named the format Pocket Instamatic. The principle is simply a scaled-down version of the 126 or Instamatic cartridge, in which the film is housed in a rigid moulding, and travels from the feed chamber to a take up spool as the film is advanced. A backing paper with frame numbers printed on it is viewed through a window in the back of the cameras, in much the same way that the ‘red window’ used to function on roll film cameras. The beauty of these Instamatic systems is their simplicity for the user. There is no need to thread the film at the start, or rewind it at the end, you just pop the cartridge in and then pop it out again.
Most 110 cameras were ultra-simple, but there were plenty of examples of more sophisticated models. Perhaps the best known was the Pentax Auto 110 SLR, still a firm favourite today, as large numbers were made and they are readily available at affordable prices on eBay and the like.
The Voigtlander Vitoret EL hits the
