Lomography has released a new 110 camera, the Lomomatic 110

armadsen · Mar 6, 2024

Lomography has released a new 110 camera called the Lomomatic 110. It's got a glass lens with zone focusing, two apertures (2.8 and 5.6) with aperture priority auto exposure, and support for three ISOs: 100, 200, and 400 (a first for a 110 camera, I believe). It comes in a metal version as well as a plastic version. They've also got a detachable flash for it.

I'm happy to see new, serious-ish 110 camera for sale. Lomography has some other 110 cameras, but they're just plastic, fixed shutter/aperture things.

I ordered the metal one and am interested to try it out.

Lomomatic 110 Camera & Flash Metal

Your passport to adventure; hit the road with the sharpest, most creative pocket-sized camera on Earth. With a sophisticated metal body featuring a powerful glass lens, automatic exposure & advanced creative features plus a detachable flash, your 110 journey starts now!

shop.lomography.com

Bronson Dugnutt · Mar 6, 2024

Hey now, that's slick as hell. A very attractive price point too.

The fact that it allows for multiple exposures *might* mean that it will accept film with non-110 perforations but that wouldn't really be in Lomo's interests given they're essentially the sole purveyor of 110 film.

Eager to hear you impressions before the inevitable deluge of internet reviewers whinging about the frame size. Muh sharpness

xkaes · Mar 6, 2024

Nice to see they are offering a less expensive version as well.

mshchem · Mar 6, 2024

IIRC this has a 23mm lens, not a bad portrait focal length for 110, close at f 2.8, might have a little bit of background blur, very little. I think as more iterations come it could be a big hit. Pretty cool!

benderscameracorner · Mar 7, 2024

Bronson Dugnutt said:
The fact that it allows for multiple exposures *might* mean that it will accept film with non-110 perforations but that wouldn't really be in Lomo's interests given they're essentially the sole purveyor of 110 film.

Have heard conflicting info regarding this. Literally just finished watching Gordon Laing's review and he mentioned occasionally having to "pump" the frame advance mechanism multiple times on his (presumably pre-production) example before the registration pin would find the frame perforation and successfully advance the film.

foc · Mar 7, 2024

benderscameracorner said:
he mentioned occasionally having to "pump" the frame advance mechanism multiple times on his

I remember the same thing happening back in the late 1970s with certain camera models. Some cameras would advance with two pushes of the advance slider while others would take a few pushes.

I often wondered was the the film slack in the takeup section of the 110 cartridge or was it the camera advance gearing slipping.

Timmyjoe · Mar 7, 2024

Wow, that is interesting, and I'm interested. I had one of their Diana Baby 110 cameras and it was kind of garbage. Image quality just wasn't there. Can't wait to see shots from this new one with a glass lens. Please post samples once you get your camera.

Best,
-Tim

xkaes · Mar 7, 2024

Bronson Dugnutt said:
The fact that it allows for multiple exposures *might* mean that it will accept film with non-110 perforations but that wouldn't really be in Lomo's interests given they're essentially the sole purveyor of 110 film.

This will be interesting to see. LOMO has several cameras with multi-exposure capability with a multi-exposure switch. All it does is cock the shutter without advancing the film. Perhaps they are using a similar mechanism with LOMOMATIC.

As to quality, a lot had to do with the lens, of course, and I assume they are putting a decent lens on this model. And allowing it to be stopped down and focused will help a lot. The other "110 problem" is people not holding the camera steady enough. THAT is not the camera's fault.

xya · Mar 7, 2024

armadsen said:
Lomography has released a new 110 camera called the Lomomatic 110....

Thank you. That's good news, so we will have 110 film for some more years. As it's a new camera, the price is fine.

Personally, I would prefer an old top model 110 camera, there are even some real rangefinders, that would be cheaper. At that price you could sometimes get a Pentax Auto SLR with 3 lenses. But as said, the camera features are fine, as is the price.

armadsen · Mar 7, 2024

xya said:
Thank you. That's good news, so we will have 110 film for some more years. As it's a new camera, the price is fine.

Personally, I would prefer an old top model 110 camera, there are even some real rangefinders, that would be cheaper. At that price you could sometimes get a Pentax Auto SLR with 3 lenses. But as said, the camera features are fine, as is the price.

I have a collection of several Pentax Auto 110s, including the full set of lenses and most of the accessories they made. I shoot with the Auto 110 Super (which I got new old stock a few years ago) regularly. I doubt this new Lomography camera will replace it, but I'm just glad somebody's keeping the format alive, and want to support them in that endeavor.

But also, I've had two Auto 110s break, so I know they're not immortal, and I will generally go for a new camera over a used camera when possible (rare these days, of course).

xkaes · Mar 7, 2024

The LOMOMATIC has a "B" shutter setting -- which only goes to 30 seconds -- so I'd like to know how they do that. Unfortunately there is no tripod adapter or cable release. The flash is really tiny, so I assume it's very weak -- so I'd like details on that, and how it's attached. A normal hot shoe would be nice, but knowing LOMOGRAPHY?????????????

Donald Qualls · Mar 7, 2024

Bronson Dugnutt said:
Muh sharpness

Even if the lens is only a triplet, it'd be equivalent to the ones in the telescoping Minolta16 (fixed focus ~6 feet) and Kiev Vega, Vega II, 30, and 303 (that latter two, at least, focusing 18" to infinity). With a 13x18 frame, the Kievs, at least, are capable of some pretty good results. Feed them microfilm stock, and you can get negatives that will make 8x10 prints without issue. The Lomomatic isn't going to get microfilm any time soon (minimum ISO 100 and auto-exposure), but TMX, Delta 100, or Acros II ought to give fine enough grain to get some decent prints. Scanning with film scanners or flatbeds is a bigger problem due to fixed pixel pitch, but we've got a couple users here to who get very good DSLR scans from 110 shot in a quality camera.

grain elevator · Mar 7, 2024

This could be real competition for the expected Pentax half-frame. Pretty, more-than-lomogrphic iq but small frame fro a lot of film flair...

Chan Tran · Mar 7, 2024

So they sell 110 film and so I need to find a K battery for my Kodak Instamatic 50. Similar to the one they sell. It has an f/2.8 lens.

xkaes · Mar 7, 2024

Donald Qualls said:
The Lomomatic isn't going to get microfilm any time soon (minimum ISO 100 and auto-exposure),

Here's a shot of the CdS cell on the LOMOMATIC. Since it has aperture-mode, automatic exposure -- not sure what the shutter speed range is -- if someone were to attach a small piece of ND4X (two f-stops) gelatin filter in front of the cell, one could use microfilm, APX 25, Pan F, etc. at ISO 25 (or whatever).

xkaes · Mar 7, 2024

Chan Tran said:
So they sell 110 film and so I need to find a K battery for my Kodak Instamatic 50. Similar to the one they sell. It has an f/2.8 lens.

If you need a K Battery, you are in luck. The original consisted of three 625 form factor cells in series in a plastic case to yield a voltage of 4.5. You can wire the battery compartment to an external 4.5 volt source or -- if you are lucky to come across a dead Mallory K cell -- you can carefully split the battery case and replace the 3 cells with 625 alkaline batteries. The K cell case is tight enough that the cells will correctly form an electrical contact in series.

An easier approach is to buy a 3D printed K-size case from BERGYTONE PRODUCTS. There's a link on the main page at the SUBCLUB:

www.subclub.org

xya · Mar 8, 2024

Chan Tran said:
So they sell 110 film and so I need to find a K battery for my Kodak Instamatic 50. Similar to the one they sell. It has an f/2.8 lens.

If you have an old battery, you can easily make ome yourself. See one of my websites https://www.subcompactcam.com/110_replace_kodak_k_7r31_battery.htm

Chan Tran · Mar 8, 2024

xya said:
If you have an old battery, you can easily make ome yourself. See one of my websites https://www.subcompactcam.com/110_replace_kodak_k_7r31_battery.htm

Thanks,
I do have an old battery. I am ordering the 625 battery now. I do use the 625 on other cameras.

ChrisLA · Mar 10, 2024

According to the specs on https://shop.lomography.com/us/lomomatic-110-film-camera-flash-metal, it has a top shutter speed of 1/250, so ISO 100 film would be two stops overexposed in daylight, and ISO 200 three stops overexposed, about the same as a toy 100 camera; and it would be no good for shooting Lomochrome Metropolis or Color 92 at 400. Very disappointing.

Bronson Dugnutt · Mar 10, 2024

CN film typically has lots of latitude and designing for overexposure is a much better option than vica versa. Underexposure is probably the #1 scourge when it comes to most people's 'wut happened to my photos?' inquiries. Rating Metropolis @ 400 is... optimistic IMO.

For the slightly more thoughtful photographer, there's some fungibility for exposure compensation in the ISO setting. If you're a real stickler for exposure then an ND filter might be in order when using faster films.

Perhaps more interesting is that any baked-in overexposure could be leveraged to expose slower films (CMS 20II, HR-21, ImageLink) IFF the camera will accept reloaded 110 or retail microfilm stocks become available in 110.

Chiyoda Minolta 16, 1/25s f/4
Fuji HR-21 @ 12, D-23 1+3 16'
D850 digization, El-Nikkor 40mm on bellows

xya · Mar 10, 2024

Really impressing photo for a Minolta 16. Congrats...

Cholentpot · Mar 12, 2024

I'm always tickled on how interested users on this website are for these small formats. It's a funny thing 'ho ho look at my massive 8x10 and huge banquet camera' and the same folks geek out over a tiny format.

I'd like to see the results real world from one of these. My fleet of 110 cameras are slowly breaking down. Door latch on Auto 110, film advance getting wobbly on the Auto 110 Super, Rollei A110 has advance issues. Might be time for a newly manufactured camera. If it can take perfed 16mm that would be seal the deal.

jbrubaker · Mar 12, 2024

The new Lomo 110 camera requires the 110 film sprocket holes to activate the shutter, so reloading 16mm film is pretty much ruled out. Other than that the camera appears to be nicely made and capable. I just received mine yesterday and will be shooting a roll of Orca BW very soon. --- jb.

Cholentpot · Mar 12, 2024

jbrubaker said:
The new Lomo 110 camera requires the 110 film sprocket holes to activate the shutter, so reloading 16mm film is pretty much ruled out. Other than that the camera appears to be nicely made and capable. I just received mine yesterday and will be shooting a roll of Orca BW very soon. --- jb.

In both the Pentax and Rollie I've been using a piece of tape of the feeler and have used perfed film in them. Can you check if the feeler is accessible to be taped down in the lomo?

xkaes · Mar 12, 2024

110 cameras use perforations in different ways, and many can be used with perforated or unperforated 16mm film -- but either the camera, the film, the cassette, or a combination of these must be adjusted/modified in some way first. I have not seen the LOMO 110, so I can't say anything about the possibility of using any 16mm film -- but I would not rule it out automatically.

Lomography has released a new 110 camera, the Lomomatic 110

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