When I was little I thought 110 cameras were really cool, so small. They were like a spy camera. Then I started to work in a photo lab and realised the negatives were so small that all the movies were fake, small neg = crap photo. The 110 film cartridge was introduced in 1972 by Kodak. It stopped being produced in 2009…and amazingly was reintroduced by Lomography in 2012. So when I saw one in a junk bin for $1, I thought ok I will buy a pack of 3 films and try only 3 cameras. This is the first.

This camera was released in 1975 and as it suggests it was made to be kept in your pocket. So that is was I did, I walked around with it in my pocket for a day. It is so small that I sometimes forgot it was there. It was very simple to use, basically point and shoot. There is a distance selector on the top, but I left it on the further distance choice.

This example had fungus or dirt in the viewfinder and I suspected there was the same on the lens, but the lens was so small I I found it difficult to check.

I put in the required 4LR44 battery, then the cartridge, and got to shooting. The battery powered the light meter. If there was not enough light a red light could be seen in the viewfinder and the shutter would not fire. There was a green light if all was ok. There were two flash options, the old cube type or you could add something to the hotshoe. I did neither as I only used the camera outside.

The film was wound on by a push slider on the bottom, two pushes for one shot advance.

So did it work?

Yes, quite well considering. I do think there is some haze on the lens, but it is difficult to tell due to the natural quality of the 110 film. I enjoyed using the camera and carrying it around, but I will not be using it again.

Keep or Sell: Neither, I might throw it away, but for now I will just add it to the box of cameras I don’t want to keep.

As an aside, I really didn’t like the Nikon AW130 I bought, so I am giving that to my sister and I found a junk bin Ricoh GXR. The flash catch is broken, which is a common issue – nothing a bit of tape won’t fix, but apart from that, it seems fine. The camera shots on here were taken by it. When I saw it I was reminded of the GR1v I tried recently. Of course, it is not waterproof, but I only go diving once a year so that is not an issue.