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Adventures with the Auto 110

Tom Caldwell

New Member
Years ago when I was still a wee laddie, or simply "younger". I bought a Pentax Auto 110 "kit". In reality a great idea, an experience that I have not regretted, but it was not really that great a camera. Simply the smallest slr with interchangeable lenses and slr technology for focusing. The film was simply too small a format imho.

I had it all except the filters, and the three "extra" lenses - the 70mm f2.8, the 20-40mm f2.8 zoom and the 18mm "PF" fixed focus. The latter lens seems to have disappeared without trace, no one seems to have one for sale and even if they did they might not recognise it as different as the size/weight/etc statistics seem identical to the 18mm f2.8 focusing version - 2g heavier and no focus ring? However I have treated the Auto 110 as a museum piece and looked after it for nothing more than it's museum value.

Since I have been experimenting with the Pentax Q I thought it a reasonable idea to try out the Auto 110 lenses with one of the adapters now available. I have some testing to do yet, but have also picked up some more Pentax Auto 110 camera bodies for the sole object of acquiring some spare lenses. Along the way I have found a "70mm" and a "20-40 zoom" (as well as filters and hoods, I might be said to now have the "complete" set except for that mysterious elusive 18mm PF version.

The principal lenses 18/24/50 are made of plastic but seem to have "good glass" - they are all f2.8 and the aperture was built into the Auto 110 shutter mechanism on camera - therefore they have no aperture control when adapted. On the Q you have to play with the EV setting to get better results. The 70mm and the 20-40 zoom seem to have been ring-ins from the Pentax parts bin, they are larger and have metal construction (perhaps the 18mm PF lens also). It i a pity that these extra lenses do not have aperture control as the 70mm in particular is a very nicely built lens.

These lenses are all of failry simple construction. Some of mine need cleaning and I have already pulled a 50mm apart, cleaned the lens successfully and adjusted infinity focus.

I make a separate posting for my 20-40 zoom exercise.

Tom
 
Cleaning up a Pentax Auto 110 20-40mm f2.8 zoom

When I acquired the 20-40 zoom the lens front element was quite dirty, it looked like it had some fungus on it. There was no infinity focus when mounted on the Pentax Q and the lens was stiff to mount and rattled around a bit once mounted.

I thought I might have to pull out the front element to clean it properly and when I removed the beauty ring it "unscrewed" easily bringing with it some brown treacle-like gunk. It turns out in the end that the beauty ring was not screwed in but merely stuck in place with some sort of glue that had decomposed with heat and time and "vapours" (?) had spread over the outer surface of the object lens - the gunk I saw was just decomposed adhesive with dust, etc stuck to it. The lens in fact cleaned up easily and the surface now looks "as new". First step done.

The mount was slightly bent. I seemed that it might have jammed on camera at some stage and been forced off. I removed the mount by taking off the four inner screws. The inner surface was very tightly machined but could be twisted off. I found that there were two copper shims underneath - the infinity focus adjustment!

I easily enough pressed the slightly twisted mount flange ends back into place with some slight pressure in a vyce. Overdid it a bit as the lens was now to tight to mount. Some hours with a fine file and gentle twisting with pliers and the lens now mounts easily and does not flop about in the mount.

The lack of infinity focus is nothing to do with the adapter. The 70mm lens finds infinity fine when mounted. Therefore I removed the thin shim when replacing the mount to the lens. It will only re-attach to lens if placed between two (soft) blocks of wood and gingerly squeezed home in a vyce- I think that is known as a "tight" fit. Due care advised - it then "pops" into it's mount.

On testing the lens I find that at 40mm the lens now focuses a little beyond infinity, at 20mm it does not reach infinity. Furthermore the focus varies as you zoom. I could try and swap shims to see if I could get infinity focus at 20mm but then the focus at 40mm must become well-past infinity. As the lens seems sharp "enough" at middle distances and closer I have decided to leave well enough alone. The mount is tricky enough to pop in and out and I am not concerned enough to try and get perfection. The fact that the focus varies on zoom is also something that, whilst a nuisance, can be lived with, and impossible to correct.

I still have to re-orient the lens correctly on the mount, properly clean the rear element (again), re-affix the beauty ring and touch up my filing marks.

I will have a good repaired example of this rare(?) lens for occasional use and to fill out the collection.

I suspect that it is not going to become one of those "revered" collectible lenses.

I think that the lens was previously untouched since new. I might wonder how it's original owner got on without infinity focus, even a split screen viewfinder focus would not help here. Probably put it aside in disgust?

The lens now seems good enough to fulfil it's original modest performance objectives - use on a Pentax Q seems much happier than it's original configuration.

Tom
 
I don't consider myself a "Pentax Person"

I guess I am a "Pentax person" by default, although my true loyalty is with Ricoh, I have owned and continue to own Pentax cameras and lenses. My first "good camera" was a Ricoh XR-2s with PK mount and I had Pentax lenses. I bought late-teenage children Pentax slr camera so that they could share my lenses. I bought a "cheap" K100D to reuse my old Pentax lenses and two pancake lenses to show that wasn't a complete miser. In any case the K100D might be entry level but it was and is a great little camera. Now the siren call of the Pentax Q interests me whilst I wait for Ricoh to announce something new. Not that I have given up on my Ricoh gear, it remains highly useful, a posisble cut above anything that the Q can offer and the Ricoh gear is hardly filed away and forgotten.

Tom
 
PQ tip

Years ago it was commonly understood that the Ricoh R series, in fact the GRD as well, gave better looking images when the EV was permanently set to -0.3. Something to do with the camera metering I guess.

Now after wresting a little with the Pentax Q and adaptered on lenses I find that as much as -1.0 is necessary to combat consistant slight over-exposure of images - maybe -0.3 - -0.6 would work, too early to say what might be a "default" standard setting, but certainly something less han neutral is a good starting point.

Tom
 
Good luck with your new challenge, Tom.
Let us have a picture of your 'new' kit when you get a moment? :)
Andy
 
Wiener":vsdbqxdc said:
Good luck with your new challenge, Tom.
Let us have a picture of your 'new' kit when you get a moment? :)
Andy

Thanks Andy, not leaving Ricoh but a lens collection can be ported to another body with the right adapters.
Tom
 
Put the Enna 240mm f4.5 M42 on the Pentax Q today and photographed kids jumping off out local jetty from after. The lens became a 1344mm equivaent but it's quality was not up to it. The 1.5 crop factor on the GXR-M tends to hide it's fuzzy extremities but on the Q it was merely "interesting" but not worth sharing. The 90mm f4.5 Minola Super Rokkor in LM did much better obviously a seriously good lens at 504mm equivalent give the camera sensor a bit of a chance. The Meopta Openar 20mm f1.8 in C mount - now we are talking - a proper lens graded more to sensible working magnifications - light enough to be easily hand held. Only a slippery little f1.8 112mm equivalent. Nice balance.

Tom
 
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