Dutch Date - Part 4: The Minolta 460Tx and the Minolta-16 MG

Every so often, I'll get really frugal and ask a couple of cameras to share a roll of film.  Though there are problems here and there, they'll usually agree.  I call these "Dutch Dates" and usually try to pair cameras with something more than simply the film format in common.  Below is a look at just one such pairing...

As they devoured their Chinese fare, the lively discussion between the two often turned into heated exchanges, as both tried to best each other. 

Camera Models: Minolta Autopak 460Tx (1979) and Minolta-16 MG (1966)

Similarities: Both are Minolta made products that shoot a 16mm wide film stock, albeit using different cartridges.

Differences: The 460Tx uses perforated 110 film, has adjustable focus and aperture, but a seemingly constant shutter speed.  The 16 MG offers fixed focus, with an integrated sliding filter for closer focus.  Aperture and shutter on the 16 MG are both adjustable, albeit on a scale resembling a program exposure.

Film Shared: Lomography Orca 110BW, fresh dated. 

As the popularity of film photography increased, and the capabilities of photographic film improved, the decades from the 1930's onward increasingly sought ways to improve on the portability of cameras while still providing versatility and good image quality.  The miniaturization of cameras hit a certain stride in the later part of the 20th century, with many cameras easily fitting into pockets to have at the ready at any time.  



These two Minolta cameras represent two iterations of some of the "miniature" options available through the decades, and both represent more than just simple snapshooters, offering some degree of control of exposure, and ways to achieve a degree of focus on subjects of varied distance.  The formats themselves were competitors to some degree in the early 1970's, with 110 ultimately supplanting the Minolta-16 format.

I was certainly curious to see if either of these two cameras might offer a glimpse of what is possible from a smaller frame size, in spite of the limitations inherent in such small negatives.   I expected to see excessive amounts of unpleasant grain in my results as well as a wide depth of field that offered little photographically.  Intrigued as I was, I was also quite a bit cynical as to what I might get.  In order to use the same 110 film in both cameras, I would have to shoot the 110 camera first, put a "tape marker" onto the film surface temporarily, and then open the cartridge in the dark and transfer the film stock to a Minolta-16 cassette, with the already exposed portion securely on the "take-up" side.

The Minolta Pocket Autopak 460Tx is a late 1970's product created at the height of the 110 format boom.  It features a switchable normal/telephoto lens, adjustable focus down to 3 feet, and a pair of aperture settings that can be set as well.  The shutter works at a constant 1/200 second speed, and the camera has a built in flash, which when used, will vary the aperture based on the distance of the subject set on the focusing scale. 

By comparison, the Minolta-16 MG represents a camera created during the latter years of the production of the Minolta-16 lineup.  It offers a single focal length lens, fully adjustable aperture, and a pair of shutter speeds that allow it to be used in a wide array of lighting conditions, and films.  Exposure assistance is provided by a battery powered meter that provides a readout atop the camera body.  Focus is fixed, but a built in accessory filter can be used to optimize focus for closer subjects at portrait length. 

As the decades have passed, the legacy of the Minolta-16 format has likely acquired a bit more of a dedicated fan base that of 110 film, largely due to the sheer numbers of true toy cameras produced in 110 format over the years.  Thus, the prevailing sentiments towards these two specific cameras will tend to reflect the views of the bulk of cameras in their respective formats.  Still it is difficult at the onset to say one camera has an edge over the other, given that one has more versatility of exposure and the other has more versatility of focus.  Both of these cameras can be pretty readily acquired for comfortably under the $20 mark, and neither qualifies as rare.

Minolta Pocket Autopak 460Tx

The Minolta 460TX looks much like typical 110 cameras of its time, but upon further review, begins to show its surprising prowess. 

At first glance, the form factor of the Minolta 460Tx looks like the sheer majority of 110 cameras from the 1970's and 1980's, consisting of a long slender box camera form with a viewfinder at one end, and a flash on the other, with the actual "camera" sitting between the two.  As such, it is easily dismissed at first glance as yet another 110 camera typical of the genre.  This camera came to me as part of a multi-camera lot, so I paid about $5 for it, less than (the still quite reasonable) the cartridge of fresh 110 film from the Film Photography Store. 

On further examination however, one begins to notice that this camera offers a bit more than initially meets the eye.  Sure there is a switch to go from "bright" to "cloudy" to "flash" that results in different apertures while activating the flash, but the most promising aspect of the 460Tx lay in two other controls.  The first is a sliding orange tab to estimate focus distance, and ranging from about 3 feet to infinity.  The second is a black switch that allows you to swap between "Normal" and "Telephoto" settings.  Deploying this switch to telephoto completely pushes the normal lens out of the way and replaces it with a different lens set further from the film plane, with the viewfinder adjusting as well.  Sliding the focusing scale, one actually sees this lens unit move inward and outward.  It's an ingenious design, and one that makes for some fun.   

My main dislike about the 460Tx was its bulky length, largely a by-product of the built in flash.  Personally I'd have preferred a design where the flash was a separate attachment, but I'm sure the majority of consumers in 1979 liked having a single unit to carry for all their photo needs rather than fumbling for an attachment. A rangefinder (which some 110 cameras did have) would have been nice, but may have been unfeasible due to the dual focal lengths.  No big deal given how distance estimation gets easier with practice.   

Controls are all conveniently located, from the switch between "Normal" and "Telephoto" to the two sliders to control aperture and focus. The viewfinder however, while not terrible, leaves a bit to be desired. 

Despite my curiosity, it took a bit to embrace the 460Tx.  I loaded the film, and shot a few images, and the camera sat for a while before I shot off the rest of the first 12 shots of the roll of film.  Much of this was due to having few chances to shoot, particularly in the conditions the 460Tx is designed for, but part was due to the camera's girth making a bit of a bulky pocket companion, and thus being relegated to my bag with a handful of other shooters.  In a couple of grab chances, the protective lens cover didn't slide open with all the ease I'd hoped, and I lost a couple of shot chances as a result.  The switch from Normal to telephoto was easily done, and the viewfinder would offer a red light warning if the camera felt that light was inadequate, suggesting use of flash.  Said flash didn't seem to work, but that was fine with me, as I wanted to shoot with natural light, and there were a few shots under sun that I deliberately shot with the cloudy setting to see if I could muster any shots with limited depth of field. 

Being as I expected little from the 460Tx, I was quite surprised when I began to scan the negatives.  Grain was definitely more evident than with a comparable 35mm film, but it was actually quite pleasant.  More startling was that separation of field was excellent on this Minolta 110 camera.  Subjects in focus rendered with excellent sharpness, while shots of close objects had a surprisingly pleasant blur to the background.  Due to the film stock width, I had to develop the shots in a makeshift tank arrangement that didn't fully allow for better agitation, so some shots exhibit bromide drag, but the capabilities of the camera were still fully evident. 

Gallery:

Set on telephoto and the closest focusing distance, the 460TX quickly quashed my cynicism about 110 film and its image quality.  The focal point is incredibly sharp while the backdrop is surprisingly muted. Add in some wonderful silvery tonality from the film and I'm a sudden 110 convert! 

Are those the "thousand points of light" that George H.W. Bush once talked about? Nope.  Turns out it is a light leak, not from the camera, but from the Lomography film backing paper.  Shot at normal range, the depth of field is not nearly as shallow, yet this image does offer a good look at the the sharpness of the lens..  

As I took this photo, set on Telephoto, and focused on the near end, I recall the man at left walking into the frame, and wondering how indistinct he would be in the frame when the film was developed,  It turns out that the 460Tx did a wonderful job of muting the background for this image.

Faced with backlighting, the deeply recessed lens of the 460Tx had no issues with flare, and pulled together a nice image, even with the hiccups of the light leak.

Shot through a train window, this image leaves much to be desired, but is essentially the worst of the set.

As a distant landscape shooter, the 460Tx does OK, though the small film format does little to separate details in the distance. 

Shot under rainy skies, the 460Tx had some issues with underexposure, which were partially correctable in post processing.

Another close up shows the sharpness of the Rokkor lens, and the quite remarkable shallow depth of field present on the small negatives. 

Critical framing for closer subjects was a particular challenge with this camera.  See the head of the eagle peeking into the frame?  It was supposed to fully be in the frame, but I failed to compensate for parallax. 

A better framing result, albeit focused at about 5 feet.  

When light leaks from the Lomo film don't invade the frame, the 460Tx can take a very nice scene photo. 

An attempt to pan the bus here didn't quite work as hoped, thanks in part to the fairy peppy 1/200 shutter speed of the 460Tx.

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Minolta-16 MG

The compact form factor of the Minolta-16 MG is a very attractive attribute that may certainly give it points for both the collector and shooter.

Lacking a built-in flash unit, the Minolta-16 MG is noticeably more svelte that its successor in the marketplace, taking up roughly half the volume of the 460Tx.  As such, it seems far more of a "sub-mini" than a "consumer compact," thus making it a more attractive item for most film camera collectors.  And while it uses a 16mm film stock, just as the 460Tx does, its shutter and advance are not dependent upon a registration sprocket.  Image size from this model is a modest 10 x 14 mm compared to 13 x 17 mm (about 37% smaller) for the 460Tx. Though I already had a Minolta-16 type camera, I lacked the film cassette, which sent me looking about for one.  With prices of cassettes at about $15, it simply made sense to pay a few dollars more for an additional camera that included the cassette, which is how this model landed in my lap. 

This small size of the 16 MG was a major attraction to it, combined with the presence of a battery powered meter to enable accurate settings of aperture and shutter, the use of which was remarkably easy.  There was something to be said in having such a tiny pocketable camera that could shoot in a rather wide range of lighting conditions. And despite its small size, the viewfinder on the 16 MG is quite an improvement over that of many larger 35mm models in size and brightness.  Another neat accessory in the 16 MG is an integral filter for portrait distance shots, which most other models in the Minolta-16 lineup had as separate attachments.  This makes one less thing to lose! 

Setting exposure is a snap, and consists of rotating the dial until the the silver "fork" is lined up with the orange needle.  Figuring whether the shutter speed is 1/250 or 1/30 is a bit of an enigma.  The shutter release is understated and pretty nicely protected against accidental tripping. 

However, the use of a portrait add-on is something of a compromise from having a true focusing lens, and I worried that it might be tough to really get the look I wanted from a shot taken with the 16 MG.  Add to that the even smaller negative size, and my initial concerns of image quality from 110 stock were only magnified.  Finally, the meter and dial settings on the 16 MG were a breeze to use, but not a cinch to understand with regards to shutter speed.  While apertures were marked along this dial in ascending opening size as the light reading from the meter increased, the corresponding shutter speed was only marked on either end of this scale.  At intermediate apertures like f/5.6 or f/8, it wasn't apparent if the camera was using the faster or slower shutter speed.  

These concerns aside, usage of the 16 MG could not have been easier, at least in brighter light.  Snapping a shot was a simple matter of reading the meter, aligning the dial and then composing and firing on the well placed shutter release.  Using the portrait filter was a simple matter of sliding it out in front of the lens and retracting it afterwards.  A transparent red line indicator will show up in the viewfinder to denote the usage of the close-up filter, though its color seems to suggest inadequate lighting conditions at first glance. 

Viewfinder on the 16 MG is admittedly the nicer of the two, with much less of a "tunnel effect" when looking though it. 

As the negatives from this roll hung to dry, it quickly became apparent why it is something of a fool's errand to use 110 film stock in a Minolta-16 (or other 16mm miniature camera) and that pertains to the pre-printing of masks on the film to assist printing equipment.  I'd completely forgotten about this aspect of the film when I envisioned this experiment, so it was a rude surprise to see negatives, otherwise perfectly exposed, obliterated by the overlaid mask.  It seems that about only 1 in every 6 or 7 shots was completely free of interference by the mask, while other pairs lined up with most of their image areas intact. I only hoped for the best from what was salvageable.

Gallery:

This scan shows the issues with using 110 stock in a 16mm submini camera.  Preprinted frames on the 110 stock obscure, obliterate, or compromise the majority of exposures taken. 

For the lucky exposures that did remain free of framing overlays, I can't say I was impressed at the resulting images.  Even with the developing issues with the film, the 110 images look smooth, but these shots from the 16 MG look jagged and muddy. 

A better result than the one above, even with the obscured portion of the image, and making good use of the close up filter, but still a bit disappointing. 

As my luck would have it, the only shot on the roll with a piercing light leak on the frame happens in one of the few frames not impaired by the 110 film imprinting.  These facets aside, I still can't say I'm especially impressed by the film results. 

Another wider scene shot has its details garbled by the small format, resulting in an overall muddy effect.

Another close up shot.  The background details don't nicely blur in scenes like these but just look harsh and distracting to me. 

Thoughts:

My oversight of the impracticality of 110 film as a medium for 16mm cameras aside, this experiment served to show the distinction between good usage and good results.  The 460Tx, while not a chore to use by any means, was certainly not giving the enjoyable compact camera experience provided by the Minolta-16 MG. 

Yet, it delivered results that were not only far better than those from its smaller predecessor, but far better than I ever expected to see from a 110 camera at all!  As a postscript, I have also since shot and scanned a roll of film through the much beefier Minolta Mk. 2 Zoom 110 SLR, and I still find the images from the 460Tx to be nicer, when used within its operating range. 

Having seen what each camera is capable of, I'm certain of which of these two cameras I'll pick up next: the 460Tx.  With its ability to swap between normal and telephoto modes, and set focus with precision, it simply manages to do a lot with the capabilities it has, while the 16 MG simply seems to act as a passable image recorder whose images are on the marginal side.  I'm certain to get around to the 16 MG again, but will use respooled microfilm on its next pass, to improve grain and to avoid the issues from the 110 film mask.  Perhaps better results will be had on its next pass. 

I highly doubt that the Minolta 460Tx was designed for more than keepsake snap shots, yet it somehow manages to produce images with a surprisingly artistic feel when shot within the proper lighting conditions.  Had the 110 frames been cropped out, and I'd have seen the images from the camera online, I'd have easily presumed they were from a decent 35mm camera.  Having seen these results, I can say this camera, with all of its clunky grace, has made me revisit my one time distaste for the 110 format.