Camera Talk

[I just posted this over on the original NFF but someone mentioned cross-posting, so here it is here too.]

A couple of months ago I decided to use the last roll of 110 film I had. It was Kodak Ultra 400, a 24-exposure roll that expired in July 2007. I wanted to test my Minolta Autopak 450E, a pretty nifty little instrument that actually focusses, and has a close-up lens to boot! It also has an on-board flash. Mind you, that is the limit of its abilities since it chooses all the exposure for you except for a simple switch that toggles among Sunny, Cloudy and Flash icons.

Mine is susceptible to double exposures. I suspect that is a function of the camera's age and its delining ability to keep all the mechanical bits moving the way they were designed.

The correct use of the sliding close-up lens is not really clear from the camera itself and I found out I was not using it correctly for many of the shots I took. I was putting it in place when I thought I was leaving it aside. Oh well.

There is no longer anyone locally who will develop 110 C41 film so I sent it away to the Lomography "on-line lab" which was quite good, and they emailed me a link to decent-quality scans from which these pictures come. (The original Lomography scans are about 1500x1200 pixels. I look forward to receiving the negatives so I can scan more fully the frames since these look to be a little cropt.) I've done some work with each one (in Paint Shop Pro X5) including cloning out dust, burning edges, and building frames.




Parking por Felip1, en Flickr


Kit at work por Felip1, en Flickr

In this pair of shots I accidentally had the close-up lens slid into its "on" position:


The Minolta Autopak exposes well but user-failure really screwed it up por Felip1, en Flickr


Autopak does doubles por Felip1, en Flickr


The close-up lens slid in por Felip1, en Flickr

I remember back in the early '70s when 110 film was hot. It seemed like everyone had one of these cameras. I guess they were popular with non-photographers because you could slip the camera into a purse or pocket and always have it with you.

Of course, that negative was really small.

I think Lomography did a decent job with the scans. I might send them two of my rolls of 110.

I have 3 rolls in the freezer. and the Minolta 110 zoom needs some exercise. I was scanning them myself my taping them to the bed of the V700. I also do this with my 16mm spy cameras.

Lomo makes a 110 film carrier in their Digitaliza series. I have one but haven't had the opportunity to use it. Yet. But I use my 35mm and 120 Digitalizas regularly. They are sturdy and hold the film better than any other holder I have tried.