What happened to the 110mm cameras that were big in the 70’s - 80’s?
Did the 35mm cameras get cheaper and provide better pictures, or did the 110mm cameras just become unpopular?
They still exist, although their popularity has wanned. Mostly they’re marketed to the elementary school set - you’ll see them with X-men logos or Barbie. My own theory is that since the point and shoot 35 mm (auto focus, auto forward, auto breathing) came down in price, why would you spend 20 for a 110 when you could get much better photos with a 30 35 mm?
I, personally, being the purist, still play with my “manual shift” as it were 35 mm…
I bought an underwater one, used, for $5.00 Can get film at Longs. They are NOT very sharp picture wise, so that’s proabbly why they aren’t in style.
Heck, I still own and use a 126 cartridge camera that I bought before the 110 mm made its appearance! Sure is a pain finding film for it though, and the developer places don’t like to work with it either.
I myself own an oddity. It’s a 110 camera made by Minolta. It has adjustable focus, two aperture settings, built-in flash and a telephoto lens. It takes better pictures than your average point & shoot 35mm. I’ve even had enlargements made that look quite good.
I think your first guess is right, Madd. This camera came out just before they started making the cheap 35mms, and was AFAIK the only 110 Minolta (or any other name brand) ever made.
I used to have one of those Minolta 110’s.
It was an SLR and had a zoom lens built into it plus focus and aperture setting, mind you the lowest setting for the aperture was f2.8 which meant it not that versatile as it needed a lot of light, especially on zoom.
We don’t get that much light in the gloomy UK.
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Is the 126 the one with a cartridge similar to the 110 but taller top-to-bottom? And makes square pictures?
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I still have the little 110 camera I got for my 9th birthday. Haven’t tried it lately, but it was fab-oo back in the day. I know they still make film for them.
Did anyone ever have one of those little Disc cameras?
Yeah, that’s the one.
Ah, the Minolta 110! I think I got that for my 8th birthday. It was a true SLR with interchangable lens and external flash - I had zoom, wide-angle and telephoto lenses. I was devastated when it broke down after 2 or 3 years of use - first day of a school trip, of all times. I replaced it with one of those Disc cameras. I hated it, but I don’t remember why - just overall flimsiness of the camera as well as the lack of manual focus, I suppose. Didn’t get another camera for the next 5 or 10 years.
These days the APS format is trying to fill the niche for foolproof compact cameras. It’s superior to 110 in many ways, but 110 cameras were much simpler and equally foolproof, if not more.
I loved my 110 camera. I took it with me skiing so I could take some vista shots from the top of mountains. It was so much less bulky than any other commercial camera.
A little round disk kept all your pictures nice & fuzzy too, in a disk camera.
There is still 110 film around, though it’s dying out. If you really want to know the deal, check out the 110 section of The Sub Club, a web-site dedicated to subminiature photography. It’s a fantastic resource. Also, if you’re in the market for 110 stuff, you can check out eBay’s subminiature section under Electronics and Photo. I’ve seen full 110 SLR outfits being sold there for fifty dollars.