Small Format Size, Big Format Results: One Ten Camera Guide to 110 Cameras!

...or maybe 11 or more, depending on how you count.  

Could one of this band of misfits be coming to a pocket near you soon? 

It's that one day of the year when our collective cynicism abounds more than any other, particularly online, as websites and blogs get into the spirit of April Fools Day, unleashing a wide array of spoof or parody articles, done tongue-in-cheek, in the hopes of generating some chuckles, while ultimately managing to confound and bewilder the unsuspecting reader who has yet to check the date, or whose morning coffee has yet to really kick in.

I flirted with the idea of doing such a post in the spirit of April Fools Day (as I once did a bit of a fantasy piece one Halloween), either lavishing enormous praise upon a pretty terrible camera, or going through the effort to write a review that  might "trash" a very capable camera.  I could have tried spurring speculation about the re-release of a once beloved film like Kodachrome, but felt that would be a bit cliche.  I even thought of doing a sappy parody of an opinion post in which I go to great lengths to opine that every self-respecting person should carry a 3A box camera in the primary interest of making a statement to others.

But instead of doing a post that ultimately isn't to be believed, I thought I'd instead post about something that something that I myself find difficult to believe, specifically that one can use the terms "110 camera" and "shallow depth of field" in the same sentence.  Heresy you say?  Read on! 

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.