The Rollei A110 was presented in late 1974 at the Photokina, a high end camera for Kodak 110 pocket film*(see below).
Production began in late 1975. Until 1978 it was built in Germany and
sold at a very high price of 350 DM, production was then moved to
Singapore and ended in 1981. It
was designed was by Heinz Waaske, who had already created the Edixa 16,
then the Rollei 35 and later the Voigtländer Vitoret 110, all very
small and
elegant.
*
110 film was introduced by Kodak in 1972. The film sits in a cartridge,
like Kodak's earlier 126 film, but is much smaller. A frame is 13mm ×
17mm, has one perforation per image to control film advance and 24
frames per cartridge (12 were also available). The film is protected by
a backing paper like 120 film. The frame number is visible through a
window at the back of the cartridge. The basic film is ordinary 16mm
film which was already on the market, so it could be processed in
existing machines. The small picture size made very small, pocketable
cameras possible.
Kodak introduced with its 110 film a line of
Kodak Pocket Instamatic cameras which were followed by
cameras from other manufacturers. Most cameras were cheap
point-and-shoot, but very sophisticated models were also made. Small
digital cameras made 110 film obsolete. Bit by bit manufacturers stopped making 110 format film (Fujifilm in 2009), but in 2012 (and 2019) Lomography made a large batch of 110 film, followed by other firms.
The A110 has a metal body and advanced, yet fully automatic features for an easy use. It was the smallest high end 110 camera. Its main features are:
23mm F2.8 Rollei Tessar lens, 4 elements, F2.8-F16, min. focus 1m Electronic shutter, 4s at f2.8 - 1/400 at F16 Size 84x44x30 (closed), Weight 185 gr. with battery 100 and 400
ISO, automatic coding, parallax indication
Camera closed and original leather case.
Camera closed all parts well protected.
Camera
front open. Big and bright viewfinder with bright framelines, only
parallax marks, and distance indicated.. The orange slider is the
focussing. Back view. The
window will show the film type and the frame number, when a cartrigde
is inserted. The orange tab next to the viewfinder releases the battery
carrier. Takes a PX 27 battery, can be replaced by a 4LR43, easily
available. As indicated on the window, this is a Singapore model.
Seen from the top. Big orange shutter release. Smaller orange exposure test button and indication lamp next to it.
Seen
from below. Tripod socket. The orange button to the left of the
cartridge symbol disengages the rachet system of the sleeve, the one to
the right lets you slide the sleeve a bit further and opens the film
compartment.
Camera film compartment open.
Battery carrier taken out..
This
camera is very easy to use, silde it open and it's ready.
It has no
manual settings, everything is perfectly automatic. You have only to
focus and frame, which is easy via the bright finder and an easy
focussing scale in the upper part of it. Half pressing the shutter
lights a green confimation lamp in the viewfinder, if it blinks, the
camera will use slow shutter speeds. There is only a flash cube flash
available, but the camera deals well with available light. After taking
a picture, you have to close the camera for film advance and shutter
cocking (push-pull advance, very handy). Putting a film is easy as well,
you drop the film into the compartment, advance to the first frame and that's it.
It's
a very good luxury point and shoot camera
with very good picture quality, superb high quality
finish in an incredibly small and light pocketable body. This camera
feels extremely solid and is the smallest of the bunch. Picture results
were very good under any circumstances. As it's well protected when
closed, it would not even need a pouch. Pocket camera at its best.
