Who shoots 16mm or 110 cameras?

MNM · Mar 6, 2019

I have a few 110 cameras including a Minolta SLR. I've been picking them up randomly when they show up at flea markets, Goodwill, etc. My first camera was 110 and I have some rather blurry photographs from the 1984 motocross races at Mount Morris, PA that I found recently. There's more somewhere at my father's house.

So far my best results have been with a Minolta 450E and the Lomo tiger. The 110 SLR was overexposing which I need to look into. The below was from my latest roll (cassette?). Used a Yankee developing tank which I find very fiddly and scanned on an Epson V550 sliding the negative in the 35mm holder on one side only. Not fun, but it works.

Wes/HikePics · Mar 6, 2019

Ces1um said:
Have you tried adapting your auto 110 lenses to a modern camera? There's a youtube video out there that shows them adapted to a micro 4/3 camera and the video rendering from one of the lenses is actually quite gorgeous.

I have talked to someone about doing this as I have an E-PM1. I might give this a try later on after I go through some film. The adapted photos I have seen are very unique.

ProgramPlus · Mar 6, 2019

MNM said:
So far my best results have been with a Minolta 450E and the Lomo tiger. The 110 SLR was overexposing which I need to look into. The below was from my latest roll (cassette?). Used a Yankee developing tank which I find very fiddly and scanned on an Epson V550 sliding the negative in the 35mm holder on one side only. Not fun, but it works.

Never thought of that. You just balance it on one side of the 35 mm holder? Does the other side sag? DO you have to somehow mask the other side to prevent the light from passing around the negative?

MNM · Mar 7, 2019

MNM said:
I have a few 110 cameras including a Minolta SLR. I've been picking them up randomly when they show up at flea markets, Goodwill, etc. My first camera was 110 and I have some rather blurry photographs from the 1984 motocross races at Mount Morris, PA that I found recently. There's more somewhere at my father's house.

So far my best results have been with a Minolta 450E and the Lomo tiger. The 110 SLR was overexposing which I need to look into. The below was from my latest roll (cassette?). Used a Yankee developing tank which I find very fiddly and scanned on an Epson V550 sliding the negative in the 35mm holder on one side only. Not fun, but it works.

ProgramPlus said:
Never thought of that. You just balance it on one side of the 35 mm holder? Does the other side sag? DO you have to somehow mask the other side to prevent the light from passing around the negative?

I'm just sliding the 110 negative a little bit along one side of the 35mm holder. It does sag and naturally it makes blowing dust off a no-go. I'm not masking, so the spillover is affecting the autoexposure feature in the Epson software. I have to select one frame at a time and manually adjust.

Bottom line is it works, but not very well. I plan to get more of the b&w when available again and just go completely analog for this format.

ic-racer · Mar 7, 2019

ProgramPlus said:
Nice collection. With regards to the Minolta 16. As I said above, my old model is missing the two externally mounted square lenses. Are those mandatory? In other words, if you don't have the one in front of the shutter will the picture be out of focus of are they optional, like UV filter, diopter, etc. I know the one in front of the viewfinder doesn't affect image quality but similarly, it that just clear glass/plastic or is a lens to make the viewfinder in focus?

Those are the 'focus' lenses. The '0' is for infinity and the other two are for close-up. With no extra lens the focus is around 8 feet.

ciniframe · Mar 7, 2019

If you already have some Minolta cartridges then a solution to the focusing problem is to get a FSU Kiev-30 which will take Minolta cartridges and it's 25mm f3.5 lens will focus from infinity to .5 meters (about 20 inches). The Kiev-30 also has a larger negative size, 13 X 17 mm if I remember correctly. With that size negative, if you are using single perf 16mm movie film you may get some slight incursion of the perf holes into the image area. The Kiev-30 is a nicer camera than the later 303 model, and the 30M model has no flash sync.

PS, just checked evil-bay and there is a model 30 for $25 shipped and it comes with a film cartridge.

ProgramPlus · Mar 7, 2019

thanks for the information regarding the Minolta 16 Ciniframe and IC-racer. That chart really helps. I can see that unless I get a set of lenses (lens 0), I'll have to open up the aperture to 11 or 16 to get adequate depth of field for shooting around town, etc.

I don't have any Minolta cartridges yet. I was actually wondering if I can fine a short piece of tube that would friction fit over the spindle in the film uptake chamber. I'd try taping a short piece of film to the tube, slide of over the spindle (in the changing bag obviously) and try shooting a few frames without a cartridge just to check the function of the camera.
I actually will be getting another soon. Picked on up as a "buy it now" on Ebay. Too cheap to pass up.

Paul Verizzo · Mar 7, 2019

I took the survey, checking in tonight. I also took a bit of liberty as I've not yet shot the Minolta 16 or rewound the spools, but I will. OTOH, it didn't ask about 16mm movies. I have family and commercial 16mm film going back to 1928, the format was only five years old. Also, Koda and Whatever Chromes into 1946. Man, I was such a cute toddler! (Wonder what happened.) All that led to the flea market buying of a B&H camera, learning about the famous G cartridges, getting old film, wanting to process it. I'm amazed at how many 16mm options there are now compared to just three years ago. Old stuff, new Kodak. Wow.

Some of those Vision 3 films just have to be what the doctor ordered for 16mm!

ProgramPlus · Mar 16, 2019

Question about Minolta 16 film - it is said that the early models used film that produces 10x14 negative. The later model produces 12x17 negatives. Are the film cassettes for these the same, the camera just produces a slightly larger image?

bsdunek · Mar 16, 2019

I use a couple of Minolta 110 Zooms (original version), one for color and the other for B&W. Waiting for Lomo to get some more ORCA film as I'm running low. Thought about slitting and reloading, but the cartridges don't really lend themselves to reloading, although some people do. The other problem is there doesn't seem to be any film supply with the right "sprocket" holes. I know I can watch the numbers on the back, but that seems like a pain. I do slit and load my Minox film, which is easy.

summicron1 · Mar 16, 2019

ProgramPlus said:
Question about Minolta 16 film - it is said that the early models used film that produces 10x14 negative. The later model produces 12x17 negatives. Are the film cassettes for these the same, the camera just produces a slightly larger image?

yes, the same. you just have to use single perf film with the larger format, and make sure you have the perfs on the correct side.

ProgramPlus · Mar 16, 2019

Thanks summicron. I took gamble on a roll of Minolta 16 film that was listed as 10x14 just to see if the cassette is useable to reload.

I just reloaded my first Lomography 110 film cartridge a few nights ago. Not too bad getting it apart. Took a little work but I think it came apart in useable condition. I had recently split a 10 year expired roll of Kodak Gold. I didn’t bother measuring I just cut off what I thought was a little more than 1/2 the 24 exposure roll and wound it lining up the end of the film strip with the approximately the 24 exposure mark on the backing paper. In the changing bag you can feel the notch cut in the backing paper. The film strip I cut was not quite long enough because when I put it together the #5 on the back paper was showing. So I figure I’ll get 18 exposures on this roll.

Anxious to try it out and then maybe move onto higher quality color and B&W films

I also recently got some of the Pentax 110 diopters and am really impressed with how it looks at least through the viewfinder. Anxious to try some closeup 110 pics

ProgramPlus · May 3, 2019

Here are a few images I took, home developed and recently scanned. Taken with Pentax Auto 110. Nothing earth shattering but I'm pretty pleased considering it's 110. The flower was taken with the close up filter (diopter). The B&W was Lomo Orca. I think the color was a long expired roll of Kodak Gold 200 that I cut down.
Sorry if these are not sized right for posting.

MNM · May 3, 2019

ProgramPlus said:
Here are a few images I took, home developed and recently scanned. Taken with Pentax Auto 110. Nothing earth shattering but I'm pretty pleased considering it's 110. The flower was taken with the close up filter (diopter). The B&W was Lomo Orca. I think the color was a long expired roll of Kodak Gold 200 that I cut down.
Sorry if these are not sized right for posting.
View attachment 222865

View attachment 222863 View attachment 222864 View attachment 222863 View attachment 222864

The results I got from Orca were similar. Also thinking that reloading with some other b&w film might be a better option.

I'd be satisfied with results similar to your reloaded Gold 200. Wonder how fresh Ektar or Portra would work?

ProgramPlus · May 3, 2019

The Orca photos I think if anything came out a little underexposed. Wondering if reloading with a 200 film would make much difference vs Orca which I believe is 100?

I think it's time to order some new, higher quality film and see what results I get. I think I'm going to make a log of my exposures. I recently acquired the 20-40 zoom and the 70mm telephoto and see what IQ those produce vs the 24, 18 and 50mm.

Cholentpot · May 9, 2019

I just got my first 110 worth using. An Instamatic 60. As soon as I sort the battery out I might start looking for some film. Any suggestions for a test roll? I'm perfectly fine with learning to roll my own at some point.

AgX · May 9, 2019

Instamatic 60... has not shown up here, only the german Kodaks.

Have a look at the various Agfa Minox-style type 110 cameras too, amongst them are very advanced models.

In general: the range of type 110 camera goes from film-plus-lens to SLR with several lenses.

Cholentpot · May 9, 2019

AgX said:
Instamatic 60... has not shown up here, only the german Kodaks.

Have a look at the various Agfa Minox-style type 110 cameras too, amongst them are very advanced models.

In general: the range of type 110 camera goes from film-plus-lens to SLR with several lenses.

I got the Insta60 running consistently. It seems like it's a high quality machine, it's even got a rangefinder. I'm going to start poking around here seeing if anyone has some empty 110 cassettes with backing paper. I'll load to tootin' things myself.

Huss · May 9, 2019

mjork said:
I have shot a couple of rolls of 110 Lomography Tiger film with a Rollei A110 and a Minolta underwater camera. I then developed them using 110 metal reels. After some initial learning curve figuring out how to load the reels, this is actually really easy to do.

I must admit I just crack open the 110 film cartridge and throw it away along with the backing paper. I don't trust that Lomography backing paper anyway.
The results were mostly good (see below), but I do have quite a few negatives with a couple of black spots in various places. On the positive, these are bright white spots with a red halo. This only happens when I use the camera outside in bright light. It looks to me as if these are tiny pinholes in the backing paper that let some light hit the negative. Has anybody else seen this?

I like the Rollei A110 so much I have two! And yes the lomo 110 film has perforated backing paper. All the cartridges I've shot has the spots with halos. The only way to avoid this is by taping up the film counter window. I kinda prefer going w the random spots.

Lomo Tiger:

And detail from above showing how sharp the lens is:

Lomo Orca:

MattKing · May 9, 2019

I have a whole bunch of quite amazing Kodachrome 110 slides that were shot by my father in either an Instamatic 60 or a model close to it.
I hope I can get the pocket carousel projectors I have to project them up and running again.

AgX · May 10, 2019

I have the respective projectors, but not yet considered actually exposing transparency film to make slides. Now I am contemplating on it.
However I am not sure I got pocket-mounts, but I got some respective 5x5 mounts to go with 35mm projectors.

Helge · Nov 27, 2019

I have a couple of MEC 16 sb. Probably the best 16mm still camera ever, no biggie. ;-).

Anyone know where to source film? Looking a bit around it’s mostly reversal film and “joke film” ala Lomo.
Is eBay really the only source?
I’m not really up to E6, and for such a small format I’d really like good, slow, non expired film.

Should anyone have a filter set (or just a yellow filter) for an 16 sb they’d be willing to part with for non-crazy money I’d be interested.

mgb74 · Nov 27, 2019

Helge said:
I have a couple of MEC 16 sb. Probably the best 16mm still camera ever, no biggie. ;-).

Anyone know where to source film? Looking a bit around it’s mostly reversal film and “joke film” ala Lomo.
Is eBay really the only source?
I’m not really up to E6, and for such a small format I’d really like good, slow, non expired film.

Should anyone have a filter set (or just a yellow filter) for an 16 sb they’d be willing to part with for non-crazy money I’d be interested.

The last 16mm film I bought (and it was a while ago) was single perf 16mm b/w negative film. I see B&H still carries it.

guangong · Nov 27, 2019

I use a slitter that cuts 35mm film into one strip for Minox and another for Minolta 16. For processing I use appropriate Nikor reels. I found plastic reels too fussy. Somehow, 110 never interested me. Other subminiature cameras in collector area so hard to find and expensive when available.
I almost always have a Minox or Minolta in my pocket.

Helge · Nov 27, 2019

mgb74 said:
The last 16mm film I bought (and it was a while ago) was single perf 16mm b/w negative film. I see B&H still carries it.

Sorry, forgot to specify that I’d strongly prefer film from EU as the import taxes takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Who shoots 16mm or 110 cameras?