Day 60: Pentax Auto 110 @ 24mm

Since I rekindled my love of cameras, I’ve started collecting all the cameras I coveted, covet, or grew up using. There’s a whole stack of them, but this one is kind of special, because it was the first camera I really coveted, but wasn’t allowed to touch. My dad bought the Pentax Auto 110 to take to Africa with him, when he used to go on business, when we lived in Belgium. It took great pictures, and was the smallest SLR camera ever made/mass-produced. He got a selection of lenses with it, too, and the flash unit.

This really IS the smallest camera I’ve ever used. It’s almost as small as a modern digital Point’n'Shoot. Considering how sophisticated an SLR it is, that was designed and made in the 70’s/80’s, that’s pretty amazing.

And when I say ’small’ I mean ’small’! That is a REAL Canadian Nickel next to the 24mm f/2.8 lens. No props here, kids, I just raided my change jar. After the day’s main image, I’m putting a small pic of the actual camera, complete with flash, and 18mm f/2.8 lens. Click on it if you want to see it bigger.

So, when he offered to donate it to my small-but-growing collection of cameras, I took it! I was never allowed to touch this one, when I was a kid, and grew up on the Pentax K1000, and Olympus Trip 35. It’s very likely I’ll feature those at a later date. I love camera history, and my own personal history with cameras is always intriguing to me in the volume of cameras I’ve grown with.