| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2012 Location: Joensuu (Finland) Posts: 1,761 | | Review Date: October 15, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | robust, | | Cons: | double cocking | |
I got the box with camera, 3 lenses, powerpack and flash. Everything fits well and is nice to use.
Looking through the viewfinder can get tiring becuase of the small size. Yet, its better than not having one!
A fun camera to use, mostly outdoors
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,437 | | Review Date: May 8, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $17.50
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Small, robust build, good lens lineup, simple interface | | Cons: | 110 format graininess, very small to hold, only program mode | |
This is a lot of fun to use and the simple interface makes it a fairly quick-to-learn camera. The lenses perform pretty well, but aren't well suited for other cameras like the Q since they have no aperture. The camera has some very clever features. The shutter acts as the aperture and the mirror seal is light-tight. Because of how this camera was made and the shutter design, it could not be scaled up to 35mm without making the shutter mechanism eight times larger than it is now. The way that Pentax solved the 110 shutter issues was great.
One drawback to this camera is that its strictly program mode. That limits creative options significantly, unfortunately. Another drawback is the 110 format itself. The sample images below will how how grainy this camera's images are due to the format.
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: November, 2014 Posts: 56 | | Review Date: January 7, 2015 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | the smallest ever, simple | | Cons: | 110 film is hard to get | |
It is with me since I was born. I absolutely love it. It is my little gem. People ask about it when they see it and they can't believe what it is. The smallest SLR ever made. I'm aware that it's not a pro camera, but it wasn't suppose to be. It is capable of making good, interesting photos.
I understand and respect the fact that it has no controls. It was designed to be fully automatic so if you want to control the exposure just buy a different Pentax. My only complain is that 110 cartridge is hard to get and hard to develop.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076 | | Review Date: September 17, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small size fun ... | | Cons: | Cost of 110 film ... | |
Bonjour,
Just a quick entry as to my impressions of my Auto 110 with its 24mm f2.8 lens. Picked it up on a whim because I was quite curious about this camera.
I will defer to the excellent reviews that precede mine, since I have to obtain some 110 film and shoot with my copy.
Probably will try to develop at home with Cafenol (maybe) ... never tried 110 and not even sure I have spool that will work in the tank (?).
Oh well, it's a fun " lil' gadget " which I hope to put through its spaces soon enough.
Salut, J
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2011 Posts: 6 | | Review Date: December 5, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Size, system accessories, fun, excellent 110 results | | Cons: | Fragility of some plastic accessories | |
This little camera is just a hoot to shoot with. It does get the odd look from passers by, but it is very flexible and produces quite good photos with the small 110 film. With 110 film becoming more readily available again, the Auto 110 routinely travels with me along with my other gear on a daily basis. It does not have the flexibility to adjust to challenging lighting situations as does a normal 35mm SLR, but that is not its role. When I use the camera within its design parameters, I have always been pleased with the results. And did I mention that it is just plain fun to use?
| | | | | Giveaway winner! Registered: December, 2007 Location: beantown Posts: 944 | | Review Date: June 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small, cute, differing focal length lenses | | Cons: | limited controls, no backlight compensation | |
I remember when they first came out...the coolest thing around! Dubbed: "The World's Smallest SLR"... however, today we'll find almost certainly that the Pentax Auto 110 has spent much time in the sock drawer or junk closet for greater than 5 years. The dimming light of the 110 cartridge format has recently been rekindled. More often the hopes of putting Auto 110 back into use is usually met with the reality that it has suffered some degree of wear and tear. That was the reason for it to be in the sock drawer or junk closet in the first place.
My Auto 110 examples
From a few auctions as well as my wife's old Auto 110, 4 out of 5 had the following failure.
The malfunctioning of the anti-reverse spring. Located under a main gear in the bottom part of the camera.
What was wrong?
Above, you can see the wire like spring that had bent and was not contacting the large gear.
Re-bending of the spring will bring it back to contacting the gear and should work for a while.
Other common problems:- Water intrusion that will corrode the contact switches under the release button.
- The foam seals decaying and leaving little black crumbs all over the prism and screen and sometime jam the shutter/mirror.
- Internal mirror/shutter cocking lever bending out of position.
- Fouled contact switches
Pentax no longer carry Auto110 parts and the few repair shops are still out there who bought out the parts inventory will charge an arm and leg.
The review I have is...
Wonderful little camera. My memories for the Auto 110... are of its simplicity and fun. Recently shot film has brought back the same feelings.
The lenses are still excellent and the cameras automation is still on the nose. I remember it not working well with Kodachrome 64 and that is no longer an issue today. 200 speed film is often set to default as slow speed or in other words will cause camera to shoot it as 80 ASA rather than have the notch as 400 ASA and therefore will be over exposed. 100 speed film is handled well and 400 ASA film is not a problem even though the Auto 110 high speeds is calibrated to 320 ASA.
The negative things are...
lack of aperture and shutter control, dim viewfinder, proprietary flash connection, lack of exposure lock, lack of shutter release lock, tiny lens caps that are easily lost... did I mention that it was simple and fun?
Even with the dim viewfinder the focus was easy in most situations and the accuracy of composing good enough for me. There are six lenses offered and overall, mostly great. Being always automatically exposed shots they mostly come out looking wonderful and the usual backlit scenes were underexposed.
If you are hoping to have pro features then this is the wrong camera for you. "Drop in loading and take your pictures" is the whole point of the cartridge format camera.
As of this writing Lomography 110 film is being sold as well as others to come.
It's not my mom's Kodak Instamatic and that is a wonderful thing!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2009 Location: Waldorf, MD Posts: 1,861
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 7, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Size, affordability, ease, fun-factor, fast lenses, cuteness
| | Cons: | Lack of manual controls, film support, fragility
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| Pros | Size, affordability, ease, fun-factor, fast lenses, cuteness | | Cons | Lack of manual controls, film support, fragility | | Rating | 8 | | Price (U.S. Dollars) | 20 | | Years Owned | 2 |
I can recommend this camera: Yes
Value, Features, Performance & Size
The Pentax Auto 110 has one amazing attribute going for it: Size. The Auto 110 is the smallest interchangeable lens ever mass-produced by anyone. Even the other 110 SLRs weren't as tiny, and didn't feature interchangeable lenses.
The camera has a competent and accurate autoexposure system, smartly combining aperture and shutter into one mechanism with one set of blades. There is a simple and easy Go/No Go light in the viewfinder to let you know when you need more light or a flash. Flash metering is automatic. All the lenses for the system are easily interchangeable, and all are fairly fast at f/2.8.
Camera Review
The Camera
The Pentax Auto 110 system is one of the more interesting and amazing cameras in Pentax's history. Even counting Pentax point-and-shoot cameras, it's the only true Subminiature Pentax ever made, and the only 110 film Pentax ever. In true Pentaxian fashion, rather than simply make a glorified point and shoot, Pentax went over the top, and gave us a cute and capable 110 SLR system camera.
The Pentax Auto 110 itself is diminutive, shorter but thicker than most point and shoot cameras today. It features a two-stroke winding lever, interchangeable Pentax lenses, and a wide variety of accessories, including the rare but very useful Belt Clip, two flashes, and a winder.
The Auto 110 has a combination aperture/shutter making use of a single set of blades. To make the exposure, it opens the shutter to the preset aperture for the set amount of time. Its TTL-metered and suprisingly accurate. It takes care of shutter speeds and apertures in a Program automatic mode, 6 years before Pentax's first 35mm Program-AE SLR, the Super A (Super Program.)
The film chamber takes standard Kodak 110 "Pocket Instamatic" cartridges, producing images 11x17mm. The film speed is auto-sensed by the camera, though most modern film eschews trimming the tab to denote high-speed because so few 110 cameras used it, or indeed even had meters. It's necessary to trim fast film cartridges to tell the camera it's using ASA400. Leaving the tab on makes the camera expose at 100ISO.
The Good
As you may know, one amazing thing about the Auto 110 is its size. This is a full-fat, high-quality SLR system that fits into a handbag with room left over. The entire kit with 2 flashes, six lenses, 2 bodies and a winder fits into a bag too small to even carry a DSLR with kit lens by itself.
The real party piece of the Auto 110 is that it's a true system SLR. Interchangeable lenses, add-on flashes, and a winder attatchment make it a truly useful camera, even if it's no longer quite as small by that point.
Focusing is manual, and achieved via a suprisingly clear viewfinder with a split-ring aid. I've found it to be quite accurate.
The split-ring screen, eye-level finder, ease of use, and size make this camera a winner in my book. I have all six of the interchangeable lenses, and without going into too much detail about them, I find the range (18mm wide all the way to 70mm telephoto, including a zoom) to be very useful. The lenses mount quickly and are sharp, bright, and produce beautiful Bokeh, as any Multicoated Pentax lens should.
Though the Auto 110 was hideously expensive in era, it's possible now to get the entire kit and the kaboodle for under $500. Not bad for the entire system!
The Bad
As much as I am pretty much the eternal fanboy of The Auto 110, The camera has a few shortcomings that need to be addressed.
The first is that despite its really, REALLY tiny size, the Auto 110's form factor is too lumpy to fit flat in a pocket like a digital camera or a pocket instamatic would. This is only a minor issue, though, as there are plenty of other ways to take advantage of its size for easy transport.
The second is a little more serious. Despite my gentle treatment of most of my equipment, my auto 110s seem to die on me with alarming regularity. I've had two of them go on me...one of them just stopped firing its shutter, the other disintegrated. The old plastic was very brittle and it just literally fell apart. Auto 110s need to be treated with care, and banging them around in bags and pockets like their size makes me want to is an easy way to kill one.
The last one is the biggest issue, and the reason I don't carry an auto 110 with me everywhere, for everything. As amazing as it is to have program automatic in something that is so small as far back as 1978, the Auto 110's biggest problem for me is just that: Lack of manual settings.
Here you have a beautiful little SLR, and it seems there's no real way to use it like it IS an SLR. Sure, you focus it manually (unless you have the 18mm pan focus lens), but there is no shutter speed control. No EV compensation. No aperture control. No way to control the camera to get blurred action, freeze action, or increase or decrease DoF. The camera chooses what it chooses. Even more annoyingly, the camera won't even tell you WHAT it's choosing, except to tell you if the exposure will be longer than 1/30s.
This means that the camera's ability to do things regular SLRs can do is extremely limited. Even the simple addition of a Bulb mode would be hugely helpful in making it a true artist's camera. As it is, it's just for normal available light or flash photography. There's not even a way to get it to meter multiple strobes and do wireless flash reliably. Heck, the Auto 110 doesn't even have a self timer, though I'm glad it does have a cable release socket.
The lack of self-timer was addressed in the Auto 110 Super, as was the lack of EV compensation (It had a button that added 1.5EV for strongly backlit subjects,) but even that wasn't a lot. In the end, this SLR ends up being little more than a point and shoot.
Despite that fallback, I still have to reccomend it. The Auto 110, though just a "shapshot" camera, is a VERY GOOD snapshot camera, and it's small size and cuteness will have you starting conversations and having fun, despite its limitations.
| | | | | Moderator
Site Supporter Registered: June, 2008 Location: Florida Hill Country Posts: 17,377
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 10, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Smallest SLR ever made | | Cons: | 110 film has been 99% abandoned | |
| Pros | Smallest SLR ever made | | Cons | 110 film has been 99 abandoned | | Rating | 10 | | Price (U.S. Dollars) | n/a | | Years Owned | 30 |
I can recommend this camera: Yes
Value, Features, Performance & Size
Smallest slr system ever made
Camera Review
This is arguably the best 110 film system every made by any manufacturer. It is really too bad that film makers abandoned the 110. Film improved dramatically from the 1970s into the 90s but most people had forgotten about these gems. Most of the improved film ended up in "disposable" cameras which is what kept the format going until 4 years ago when the aps film replaced it in that roll. However, this films were quite good when used with these Pentax 110 cameras.
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