The Family: TOBIAS (Lomography Lomomatic 110)

Introducing: Tobias

hello! i figured, in the interest to getting to know each other, you and i should become better acquainted. to that end, i thought i'd make a series of posts showcasing all of my cameras. yes, i do give all my stuff human names. what's life without whimsy?

well, how about instead of whimsy, we get a bit wacky with it?

a photo of a wide 110 camera in beige and orange, closed.

a photo of a wide 110 camera in beige and orange, opened up.

look at this thing. it's ridiculous.

so yeah, back in the day, 110 film was a cheap way of getting the average joe into photography. instead of fiddling about with pulling out 35mm film, or spooling a roll of 120, you just took your 110 film cartridge, popped it in the camera and that was it. bang. good to go.

as digital became a thing and film photography became a thing for niche purists, 110 film sadly died a death in 2009. until 2012, that is. the mad geniuses at lomography revived the damn thing, and are now the only company producing 110 film in standard colour negative and black and white as well as their trippy weird films like lomochrome turquoise or purple.

in 2024, they launched the lomomatic 110. this is not your (grand)dad's 110 camera. as well as two apertures, marked Day and Night, and variable iso from 100 to 200 to 400, this camera boasts the usual lomography fun, with colourful flashes, bulb mode, and multiple exposure capabilities.

a photo of an old memorial in the shape of two mining wheels connected on a stand against a cloudy blue sky. the photo is double exposed with a shot of some berries on a bush.

a photo of a tall brutalist flat block on a clear sunny day double exposed with a photo of orange leaves on the ground. it looks like the leaves are falling from the sky.

a photo of a colourful mosaic featuring a bunch of birds and a fish.

a tree branch in the foreground is silhouetted against the sunset.

that is... a ridiculous number of features packed into such a tiny package. and yeah, sure, 110 film is physically a lot smaller than 35mm negatives, meaning you won't be able to blow up your photos to poster size or anything like that, for snaphots? come on, you can literally fit this in your back pocket to pull out whenever the urge to snapshot arises.

i love this little camera. it's powerful, it's tiny, you open it up in order to access the viewfinder and shutter, and to wind the film on you close it and open it again like cocking an adorable shotgun. the colourway isn't what i'd have picked (i'm a goth kid, give me all black), but i actually won this camera in an instagram giveaway, which blew my entire mind back in november. i never win anything!

a selfie. i'm looking into the camera holding my thumb up.

a group of people walk down a picturesque street.

a sole photographer walks by a brutalist concrete outdoor staircase.

a black painted boarded up door, covered in graffiti.

one thing i will say: i am awful when it comes to zone focusing. unlike most point and shoots, this camera lets you manually adjust the focus to four separate zones - 0.8metres, 1.5metres, 3metres, and infinity. i cannot count the number of times i've taken the shot and realised shortly after that i've left my camera focusing on the nearby instead of the vast horizon i intended. i'm also not great at judging distance either, so i tend to find that if you're taking landscape shots, sticking with infinity is a good way to go.

oh, and a quick note: the flash there? it's detachable. not going to need it? going to be shooting outdoors in bright sun? take it off. make your camera even smaller and more pocketable. you do you. it's easy to pop on and off, and easy to add the coloured gels too.

everything else though? this camera is a lot more powerful than your average point and shoot and i can't wait to play some more with it.