January 3RD 2021

 Rollei A110

The Subminiature Professional

A high class act is what I would call this camera and any other Rollei for that matter. Featuring an all back matte metal body with bare silver metal shown once opened, makes this a very stylish camera. The buttons and controls are all a deep orange or green, complementing the color choice of black and silver. The front proudly states A110 and Rollei, along with the Tessar moniker and lens stats. An all around classy and expertly crafted look.

To open the camera, all you need to do is put your hand on each side of the body while facing it toward you, and pull. Once apart the camera is immediately ready to take a picture, exposing the taking lens, viewfinder, and additional controls. The act of closing and opening the A110 winds the shutter. You must open and close it until you see the frame counter stop, through the window on the back, and it is ready to take a picture. You can open and close the camera as many times as you wish and it will not advance to the next frame until you actively take a picture, unlike the Minolta 16 line of cameras.

Once open and facing away from you, you can see the viewfinder with a small orange rectangle to the left side. Push this to the left and the battery compartment above it pops open. The Rollei A110 is an auto exposure, scale focusing 110 film camera with a somewhat unusual battery requirement. The native battery used is a PX-27, unusual and not very commonly found. The battery is said to be 5.6 Volts, but 6 Volts should be just fine. Once a battery is inserted all you need to do is insert the battery compartment until it clicks and you are good to go.

Looking through the viewfinder you have a couple of useful indicators. Right away you see frame lines very clearly laid out, with a distance scale above. This is controlled by the orange slider on the front of the Rollei 110, under the lens. A green square slides across and highlights 1 Meter / 3.5 Feet, a person’s upper body [portraits - 1.3 Meters / 4 Feet], 2 Meters / 6 Feet, 2 people’s full body in the frame [group shots - 3.5 Meters / 11.5 Feet], and then a mountain range (infinity). There is also a green light that is reflected from an indicator on the top of the camera’s body that flashes when you are in low light. To check the exposure this way, push the round green button on the top of the A110 body.

Taking a picture is simple enough once everything is focused. When ready to take a picture, there is a large orange square on top of the body that you depress but be sure that your finger or anything else is covering the metering window. This window is on the front of the camera, a transparent circle directly to the right of the A110 printing. The aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/16 and a shutter speed of 4 seconds to 1/400th of a second.

The underside of the camera is bare, besides a very useful tripod socket and the button to open the back. You push down on the orange painted side farthest away from the tripod socket, the A110 opens just a bit further and the film door is able to open. Just close like normal and begin winding to start a fresh roll of film. Lastly, there is a port for a flash attachment on the small side perpendicular to the tripod socket. This is a proprietary fixture was intended for flashcubes, no PC port or shoe was available.

THE SPECS AND FEATURES

Shutter Speeds - 1/400th of a second to 4 seconds

Aperture - f/2.8 to f/16

Meter Type - CDS meter

Shutter - electronically programmed shutter

ASA - measures tabbed 110 carts, 64-100 ASA / 320-500 ASA

Lens - 23mm Tessar f/2.8, 4 elements 3 components, infinity/11.5 feet to 3.5 feet

Flash Option - flashcube proprietary attachment

Batteries - PX-27 (5.6 volts), 6 volt replacement is fine, or three LR44 batteries and one LR54 battery

Film Type - 110 film cartridge

Other Notable Features - double exposure and blank exposure prevention

The Experience

Most 110 cameras give off a certain look once you develop the pictures. I would say around 90 percent of 110 cameras are not of the greatest quality and tend to leave you with blurry unimpressive pictures. There are a few higher quality cameras though, and one of the top has always been the Rollei A110. My particular Rollei A110 is Singapore made, and came to me a bit jammed and in a few pieces. Luckily working the cover open and closed seemed to free the winding to not grind anymore. Bent the lens cover to fit back on and I had a wonderfully working A110. I did not have a PX-27 battery on hand, so I ended up using trying a 4LR44 but it was too big. I tried three LR44 batteries and one LR54 battery to make the 6 Volts. The batteries worked perfectly.

This camera is kind of special. Rollei did not dabble in the 110 market for very long. The A110 was incredibly expensive in the 1970s and was not a cheap camera to make. Eventually, the production moved from Germany to Singapore to reduce costs. Further cost reduction led to the introduction of the Rollei E110, a lower spec and cheaper made A110, and then later the incredibly cheap Rollei Pocketline 110 cameras. Rollei was not in the best shape around the mid 1960s, and was trying their hand at other formats to little success. The A110 seemed to be one of the last great cameras from Rollei before production moved out of Germany and the company changed philosophies. I find it odd how the sales numbers are skewed in multiple sources. Some say it sold poorly while others say it was a great success. I imagine the initial sales were promising but dwindled when the market for cheap 110 cameras was flooded, hence the E110 and later cheap alternatives.

I adore my A110 and will be carrying it with me on many future outings. The ability to focus and a competent auto exposure system makes the Rollei A110 a perfect pocket 110 camera. Great for casual photos and quality ones when you need them. The Rollei A110 lives up to the famous Rollei quality and should be on any 110 fans list.