esp (01/18/83)
I am considering purchasing a Pentax 110 SLR, and would appreciate information both pro and con. Anyone have any information on 110 film going off the market in the future? I already have a Rollei 35mm SLR which takes very high quality photos but is excessively heavy and a burden to carry with equipment whenever I am going somewhere for sightseeing. How is the quality of small prints? Am I better off trading in the Rollei + equipment for a more compact version? Thanks, Elaine
jeff (03/19/83)
I have a 110 and the 18mm and 70mm lenses. The camera is well-made and cute, and packs a lot of versatility in a small package. However if all you're interested in is good pictures, without the interchangeable lenses, I'd recommend a Minox 35GT or Olympus XA, both of which are full 35mm. I have them both, and find the optics on the Minox better than those on the Olympus, although the coupled rangefinder on the Olympus is a nice feature. The Minox lets you use any flash, the Olympus requires use of the Olympus flash. I doubt 110 will go off the market during the lifetime of any 110 camera bought now, even though Kodak undoubtedly makes much more from Disk film. Print quality is good to 4 X 5, noticeably inferior to 35mm above that. I note the new finer-grained Kodacolor films are being made available in 35, some in Disk, but have seen nothing about 110. The Pentax 110 is a neat gadget, but for really good snaps get a small 35 or for serious creativity get a 35SLR (for photojournalism get a rangefinder camera, e.g., Leica or Minolta CLE) jeff
mark (04/02/83)
#R:tesla:-1200:zinfandel:10200004:000:426 zinfandel!mark Mar 26 10:37:00 1983 Re: For photojournalism get a rangefinder. I've heard this before, and wondered about it. Why rangefinder instead of SLR? I've thought that it might be that rangefinders are smaller and lighter than SLRs, but aren't SLRs small and light enough? Or is it that SLRs are (presumably) more delicate? Something else? Thanks. Mark Wittenberg ...!decvax!sytek!zehntel!mark ...!ucbvax!menlo70!zehntel!mark ...!teklabs!zehntel!mark
tw (04/03/83)
#R:tesla:-1200:hp-pcd:7800014:000:175 hp-pcd!tw Apr 2 22:30:00 1983 For one thing, rangefinders tend to be *much* quieter than SLR's. It is rather hard to remain unobtrusive while shooting if every shot goes KA-THUNK as your mirror flaps. Tw