12 Pocket cameras, 12 films in 12 months: One of the photography projects I set myself for 2022 was to take one photo a day with a different pocket camera for each month of the year loaded with a different film each time. I’m defining “pocket camera” as simply that, a camera that will fit in your pocket regardless of type. With 3 ratings, Excellent for a camera that would fit easily into any small pocket. “Good” for slightly larger cameras that probably won't fit in a small trouser pocket but would fit into a shirt or jacket pocket. Finally “Fair” for cameras that would need a coat pocket & can barely be defined as pocket cameras but were marketed that way when they were released.
For September I shot my second 110 camera for this series, a Canon 110ED. This is regarded as one of the best 110 cameras ever made. When it came out in 1975 it had the fastest all glass F2.0 lens, a tripod socket, cable release and it was a true rangefinder. It wasn’t cheap, selling for $125.00 to $150.00 that's around $550.00 today! The thing is though as I already know from shooting the Pentax Auto 110 SLR there is only so much you can do with 110 film and you are never going to get 35mm film image quality out of it! Both the Pentax Auto 110 and the Canon 110 ED are wonderful cameras with some great engineering but they can’t overcome the limitations of 110 film. Knowing this I decided to shoot a really oddball 110 film, Lomography’s X-Pro Peacock 110 slide film. This X-Pro film is reportedly Agfachrome RSX II 200. The images are nothing to write home about but now I can say I’ve used the camera and the film! I have one more roll of Peacock that I’ll probably cross-process C41 after shooting, I don’t feel the need to buy any more Peacock after that!
